Skip to main content

Stanford Univ. Introduces First Course on Islamophobia

In an effort to explore Islamophobia and its manifestations, the University of Stanford is offering the first ever course on Islamophobia, to spark dialogue and expand students’ understanding of the topic.

The new ‘CSRE 30: Interrogating Islamophobia’ course is taught by Abiya Ahmed, the Markaz Resource Center Associate Dean and Director, The Stanford Daily reported.

“I could throw statistics at you and say ‘last year X number of Islamophobic acts or hate crimes or whatever occurred,’ but part of what we’re trying to do in the course is trying to expand how we understand Islamophobia,” Ahmed said.

📚 Read Also: To Combat Islamophobia, Charity Leaders Must Commit to Diversity & Inclusion

The class aims to “interrogate” Islamophobia by exploring it through a variety of angles. Each week will see discussions of a different topic from Islamophobia as a phobia to manifestations of Islamophobia on the left and right sides of the political spectrum. 

“We’re trying to understand what are all the different ways in which you can think about Islamophobia and how Islamophobia actually manifests, whether it’s explicit, like hate crimes and verbal abuse, or more systemic things like the Muslim ban that Trump tried to pass,” Yusuf Zahurullah ’24, the Teaching Fellow for the course, said.

📚 Read Also: 5 Tips for New Muslims Facing Islamophobic Bullying & Intimidation

Dialogue

Zahurullah hopes the class sparks dialogue on the history of Islamophobic incidents on Stanford campus. 

“There are certain political groups on campus, namely Stanford College Republicans, who in years past have brought in very Islamophobic speakers,” Zahurullah said.

“It’s a lot of like institutional things where it’s like, why is the school allowing this to happen?” 

📚 Read Also: How to Discuss Islam and Counter Islamophobia

Ahmed also hopes that class would help students understand both the concept and the practice of Islamophobia. 

“It’s a complex and nuanced phenomenon in the US both conceptually and in practice as a lived thing,” Ahmed said.

“Acknowledging that would help us counter it better.”

Islamophobia, defined as the dislike of, or prejudice against, Islam or Muslims, remains a prevalent problem in the US.

📚 Read Also: Microaggressions – A Talk from Sister Lauren Booth

According to FBI statistics, hate crimes against Muslims in the United States skyrocketed immediately after September 11, 2001, and are still on an upward trend.

Earlier this year, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported a 9% increase in the number of civil rights complaints it received from Muslims in the United States since 2020.

Titled “Still Suspect: The Impact of Structural Islamophobia,” the report detailed more than 6,700 civil rights complaints the Washington, DC, based group received in the past year. 

The post Stanford Univ. Introduces First Course on Islamophobia appeared first on About Islam.



source https://aboutislam.net/muslim-issues/n-america/stanford-univ-introduces-first-course-on-islamophobia/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

List of Times and Places Where Dua is Accepted

A short reminder regarding the recommended times of dua . And I think what you need to know here is that the recommended times of dua or recommended things that can cause your dua to be accepted, can be divided into two sort of large groups: Am I Good Enough to Make Dua for Myself? Situations where your dua is accepted. Times where your dua is accepted So I’m going to very briefly mention them one after the other as much as possible. As for situations where your dua has been accepted: – The person who has been wronged or oppressed . – A person who finds themselves in severe difficulty after a calamity has struck. – The person who is traveling. – Someone who is fasting. – The one who is reciting the Quran or has just recited the Quran – Someone who is performing Hajj or Umrah or jihad. – The one who is making dua for someone in their absence . Because we know that when you make dua for someone in his absence an angel says: “ Ameen and to you”. – A person...
Post a Comment
Read More »

Ghuraba (The Strangers): Nasheed with English Subtitles

Islam began as something strange, and it shall return to being something strange, so give glad tidings the strangers. (Sahih Muslim 145) This famous nasheed has many versions; this one is from Muhammad al-Salman and has the subtitles in English embedded. [We are] strangers and we do not bow the foreheads to anyone besides Allah  […] Transliteration to help in the pronounciation:  Ghurabaa’ wa li ghairillaahi laa nahnil jibaa Aisha Stacey  wrote in an article for Aboutislam.net : “I think that many of you would agree that being Muslim in the 21st century makes you well acquainted with being strange. It might even be a metaphor for random, as in you have been randomly selected. […] many converts to Islam will tell you about feeling as if they were strangers, before finding Islam. They will speak of feeling that they belonged somewhere else that their lives were just slightly off center. They often speak about a vague sense of knowing they were not like everyone else...
Post a Comment
Read More »

Taqwa – Living the Main Purpose of Ramadan

Taqwa is a major purpose for the month of Ramadan. The people of taqwa are those who do the things that they are commanded and avoid the things which Allah has made prohibitive. And evidently, to reach a state of taqwa requires vigilance, it requires patience and sincerity. The verse is pertaining to fasting I found in a single set of verses in chapter 2 starting at verse 183: O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous. ( 2:183 ) A Collective Act of Worship Allah is telling us that fasting has been made obligatory and then Allah tells us that just as it was prescribed for those before us. We often get asked this question in Ramadan, “how’s the fast going for us?” And if we gave ourselves a moment to think about it, we see that Allah Most High has made the fast inside the month of Ramadan easy for us because we know that there is a collective spirit to fasting; we know that we’re not alone in this ...
Post a Comment
Read More »