When people say "Muslims are not a race!"...

[Dr_Liszt]

... in any conversation about discrimination and islamophobia, don't you feel like smacking them on the face with the Koran and yell "FUCK YOU! STOP DEVIATING THE TOPIC, YOU FUCKING RACIST!" even though they are correct?

Semantics!

It's like they are saying "I can't be racist if they are not a race. So I can't be racist against brown people because they fit into the anthropological term of caucasian. The fact that they don't get white privilege and are at disadvantage in the power dynamics doesn't matter to me, because I can't be racist because the term doesn't apply. So I will be all of the raci--- err I mean... bigoted I want!!"


White people.

[aels]

Islam is not a race but I almost never hear criticisms about Islam that aren't tied up in some form of explicit or implicit racism. Islam is very much treated as a foreign, exotic 'other' practiced by sinister brown people with strange names and obscure motivations and who have 'savagery' and 'barbarism' in the blood. When people talk fearfully of Muslims, they don't think about a white middle-aged lady from Bradford who has made the choice to convert. They think about Arab or African men called Mohammed who want to destroy Western culture because they are inherently primitive and wish to destroy. Islam is not a race but they talk about it using coded language and relying on racist schemas.

[Dr_Liszt]

Yeah.. that's why they are still being racists. Just because the main target here is the religion it doesn't meant they aren't bringing their xenophobia into the conversation.

[Dr_Liszt]

Also I look forward moving to your country and stop being a real human there.

Even Az has said "You won't be treated too badly over here." He fails at being a comforting person.

[phe_de]

Islam is not a race but I almost never hear criticisms about Islam that aren't tied up in some form of explicit or implicit racism.

I didn't hear anything racist from Salman Rushdie at the Book Fair in Germany.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/ ... 7Q20151014
And usually, when people criticize the Daesh/ISIS, they don't mention the "race" of the people who kill people and destroy buildings.

Islam is not a race.

[aels]

[phe_de]

Concession noted.

[sikax]

[Cinemachinery]

I'm usually in line with the "don't divert" thing, but words mean things because definitions.

[Monk]

Yeah, it is frustrating. I usually just resort to calling them bigots, then, and tell them to STFU

[Cassius Clay]

phe_de won this thread.

[Anakin McFly]

It's true, they're not being racist against Muslims. They're just being racist against people who tend to be Muslims, and I doubt that finding out their target is, say, actually a Buddhist would change anything much.

So yeah, Muslims are not a race, but in a rant against brown-skinned Middle Eastern people that's as relevant as saying the sky isn't green. It's true, but they're still racist.

[Dr_Liszt]

I think the problem is that brown people experience white on white racism, so that's why it gets shady when you discuss it. Because it's weird as fuck. Especially because people use the words "muslim" and "arab" interchangeably. Even I do it too. Too much media brain-washing.

[sikax]

Especially because people use the words "muslim" and "arab" interchangeably. Even I do it too. Too much media brain-washing.

Please tell me that's a joke.

[Dr_Liszt]

What is a joke?

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

What is a joke?

I'd reply but all my jokes are too mean for my tastes.

[Dr_Liszt]

Haha... Is just that I want to clarify because I don't know he understood from my post.

[sikax]

What I took from the post is that you use the words "Muslim" and "Arab" interchangeably because the media has brainwashed you.

[Blade Azaezel]

What I took from the post is that you use the words "Muslim" and "Arab" interchangeably because the media has brainwashed you.

Everyone knows they're called 'Muslarabics'

[Dr_Liszt]

What I took from the post is that you use the words "Muslim" and "Arab" interchangeably because the media has brainwashed you.

Yeah, sometimes I do it. But it's because when I talk about racism I mean the muslim-arabs not the blonde blue eyed muslims who converted and experience white privilege. So I don't see the need to clarify, but apparently you have to because people like deviating the topic.

Also the media brainwashing was a joke. Since the media is the one who does it a lot.

[sikax]

I'm confused. When you're referring to Arabs within the context of people being racist toward them, you yourself personally refer to Arabs as "Muslims" and......that isn't being racist? And you don't see the need to clarify because it should be assumed that when you say "Muslims" you mean Arab Muslims?

Please, if I'm not understanding you, set me straight, because I really don't get it.

[Dr_Liszt]

What? I never said it wasn't racist. I did say it is a problem that even I myself do sometimes.

[sikax]

Fair enough. But, if you're aware that you do something you don't like in other people, shouldn't you stop doing it?

[Dr_Liszt]

Yes.

[Cassius Clay]

Liszt hates Arab Muslims.

[Gendo]

Fair enough. But, if you're aware that you do something you don't like in other people, shouldn't you stop doing it?

She's not saying that she does it and that's ok. She's admitting that it's a flaw that she has.

[Cassius Clay]

^

[sikax]

Gotcha

[Cassius Clay]

These nuts gotcha on your chin.

[phe_de]

Especially because people use the words "muslim" and "arab" interchangeably. Even I do it too.

And if we look at when Salman Rushdie held his speech at the Frankfurt book fair, we see that it's indeed weird.
Because there, the focus was on two Muslim countries: Indonesia, which is the guest country of the Book Fair, and not particularly known for terrorism or Islamic fundamentalism; and Iran, the country that pronounced a fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

Still in both countries Islam is the major religion; and both countries have one more thing in common: The majority of their population is probably as Arab as you and me.

[Cassius Clay]

Flawless victory by phe_de.