Hat tip Investigative Project on Terrorism and Act for America
The Canadian Government earmarked funds in 2007 to combat the phenomenon of "honor killings" within certain immigrant groups. It seems the effort has sparked opposition from some who see it as "racist". The below article highlights one activist woman who is actually majoring in Islamophobia at some university.
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4183/canadian-muslims-protest-honor-killing-label-as
As I see it, the opposition argument is that "honor-killings" are no different from other forms of domestic violence which plague all communities across the ethnic spectrum. Certainly, there are men in all communities who beat their wives or children for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with any specific culture or religion. We and the Canadians have laws to address that. There is a legitimate question, however, when such violence has cultural or religious connotations to it. If so, society has a right to address it. We cannot simply write off a segement of our population as being on their own because they belong to a particular group.
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3 comments:
Majoring in Islamophobia is sort of like majoring in white supremacy.
As long as the police are not making every Muslim family register for special scrutiny, being aware of all the motives and causes for a given crime is sensible police work.
Or a major in black/African-American histories and issues??
elwood, I have some doubts about black studies as an academic discipline, but its not the same thing.
Islamophobia is a label for an attitude, as is white supremacy. Majoring in an attitude is ludicrous. Even majoring in the history of the existence of an attitude is too narrow -- it needs a larger historical context to make sense, to be anything more than navel contemplation.
African-American history is per se no less legitimate than Slavic studies, or European history, or Latin cultures, or Chinese culture, history, and language. It is however an important caution that black studies should be a serious academic discipline open to all who wish to study this portion of human history and culture -- be the degree candidates of European, Asian, Latin, Africa, or mixed descent -- not a club house for people who think of themselves as "black."
By contrast, majoring in attitudes for or against Islam, or attitudes for or against white skin, falls short of any kind of legitimate academic inquiry. Now majoring in the history of Islam and its impact on the culture and politics of Asia, Africa, and Europe, would be a legitimate field of study.
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