he US anti-Semitism envoy has triggered a backlash over remarks she made about the pager attacks in Lebanon last week, which have been blamed on Israel.

At a recent event held by the Israeli-American Council, a moderator commented that “after October 7, there was a feeling around the world that Israel was weaker”.

In response, US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt said: “Do you want a beeper?”

The moderator later said: “I have a few.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demanded that the Biden administration fire Lipstadt, calling her remarks “dangerous”.

“Special Envoy Lipstadt’s callous remarks are not only disgusting, but also dangerous,” CAIR Government Affairs Department Director Robert McCaw said in a statement.

“At a time when our nation’s government claims it is working to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Lebanon, her flippant celebration of state-sponsored terrorism undermines diplomatic efforts to prevent a broader war in the region,” he said.

He said joking about the loss of innocent lives, especially children, is a disgrace and should have no place in US foreign policy discussions.

“It sends a message to the world that the US government condones or even celebrates the slaughter of Arab and Muslim civilians. This is not just immoral, it’s irresponsible,” he said.

McCaw said the Biden-Harris administration must immediately fire Lipstadt “and make clear that the United States does not support or celebrate state violence and terrorism against vulnerable populations”.

Lipstadt was confirmed by the US Senate on March 30, 2022 as the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, with the rank of ambassador, according to the State Department.

At least 37 people were killed and over 3,000 others injured in explosions of pager and radio devices across Lebanon on September 17 and 18. While the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the explosions, Tel Aviv has not denied or confirmed its involvement.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, which has killed over 41,400 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7 last year.

 The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Dilawar Syed as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, making him the highest-ranking Muslim official in the US government.

President Joe Biden had first nominated the Pakistani-born businessman to the position in March 2021, and he re-nominated him this year in the new Congress.

“Energized to serve millions of small businesses at @SBAgov and lift communities in partnership with @SBAIsabel. It’s been the greatest privilege to represent America on the global stage at @StateDept”.

Syed’s nomination stalled in committee last Congress after Republicans repeatedly failed to appear for votes. Thursday’s vote ended more than two years of blockade by Republicans in the last Congress.

Last year, Biden picked eight judicial nominees, including Nusrat Choudhury who would be the first Muslim woman to serve as a federal judge.

He also nominated Rashad Hussain to be the first Muslim US ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom.

Source: AboutIslam.net

Author: Kathleen M. Foody

Published in: ReOrient: The Journal of Citical Muslim Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Winter 2022), pp. 116-134

Publication Date: December 2022

Publisher: Pluto Journals

This article explores the historical and lingering effects of US government involvement in defining Islam as public and foreign policy. It focuses on the Islam Centennial 14, a US program to celebrate the fourteenth centennial of Islam – and manage the US’s global image – which was active in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Islam Centennial 14 organized a nationally touring museum exhibit, distributed information on Islam to partners and public schools, produced a newsletter, documentaries, and speaker series on Islam. It also culminated in one of the first academic centers in the US devoted to the study of Islam. The Islam Centennial 14’s activities provided a counter-narrative to rising Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment, while the discourses that swirled around them – including their own press reports, outside conspiracy theories, and academic analyses – foreshadowed more contemporary xenophobic politics. This article presents the Islam Centennial 14 specifically as a case study through which to consider the workings and ramifications of American Islamophilia. It examines how such celebrations of Islam as part and parcel of international and national governance reinscribe both racialized representations of Islam and, however inadvertently, anti-Muslim sentiments. It argues that Islamophilia is an under theorized corollary to more explicit anti-Muslim positions, and one who deployment and effects more than merit sustained attention.

Read the full article HERE.

Source: JSTOR

The FBI’s strategy for Preventing Violent Extremism in Schools aims to recruit teachers and school officials to monitor students for signs of radicalization. The criteria for what may constitute radicalization may as well be designed to facilitate racial and religious profiling and quash political dissent. It includes those who criticize US government policies, have qualms about “western corruption,” use “code word or unusual language,” and travel to “suspicious” countries. It also reinforces the mistaken belief that there are reliable indicators which may help predict who becomes a violent extremist.

The FBI’s strategy came under immediate fire for instructing teachers to effectively “act as puppets of federal law enforcement” and using the threat of terrorism to “justify a massive surveillance apparatus.” A coalition of 14 civil liberties organizations pointed out to FBI Director James Comey that the Bureau’s strategy “perpetuates profiling and negative stereotypes that Arabs, Sikhs, South Asians, Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim are prone to engage in extremist violence…”

Muslim students already face abuse and bullying in schools and the FBI’s strategy is likely to exacerbate this trend. In a study published last year, the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) reported that 55% of American Muslim students it surveyed admitted being subjected to “some form of bullying based on their religious identity,” a rate that was twice as high as the national average.

In addition to the threat of bullying, the FBI strategy also compromise the trust teachers strive to cultivate with students as well as teachers’ attempts to encourage original and creative thinking in students. As Congressman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) warned in a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, having teachers participate in the FBI’s strategy may “chill relationships with students or, for that matter, undermine a supportive learning environment.”

These concerns are not merely theoretical. The FBI’s strategy is modeled after UK’s Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program known as Prevent. Since the British Parliament passed the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act in 2015, public sector workers such as teachers and doctors have a statutory duty to identify students and patients at risk of violent extremism and report them to Channel, the government’s De- radicalization program. Some recent reports on Prevent illustrate the problems the FBI’s strategy is likely to encounter and the impact it will have on students and teachers.

Source: World Bulletin / News Desk