12 Dec 2022 | Terms/Tropes

Western Double Standards & 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup

The recent controversies surrounding the 2022 FIFA World Cup revolve around an ongoing orientalist lens where Western pundits still continue to view the greater Muslim world laced in condescension and double standards not given to other non-Muslim countries, (like China or Russia) who get to host global sporting events without much controversy at all. read the complete article

31 May 2022 | Policy/Law

The Misappropriation of Islamic Terminology

Phrases such as “Christian Sharia Law” and “election jihad” do two things: 1) use Islam and Muslims as a point of reference for all things bad, evil, and unjust, and 2) acknowledge the negative connotations around Islamic terminology in the post-9/11 world and misappropriate these terms to manufacture a threat. Both scenarios are successful because the association of Islam and Muslims with danger is already ingrained in the public’s mind. It’s not only a replay of age-old orientalist thinking — everything “over there” is bad/uncivilized, and “we” are not “them” — but it’s also a sort of linguistic Islamophobia, instrumentalizing Islamic terminology to connect Muslims with danger, violence, and oppression. read the complete article