Prof. Kemal Silay’s Opening Remarks from the Islamophobia Conference

Prof. Kemal Silay’s Opening Remarks

It is with honor that I am welcoming all of you this evening to our conference entitled “Islam, Political Islam, and Islamophobia.” It actually feels great to be at this conference that I had decided to cancel one night... With little or no institutional support (not even a symbolic one), and many suspicions surrounding this conference, I am grateful that we are all here tonight opening this significant scholarly gathering. After the announcement of the coming of this conference, many people on this campus and in other places begun to question my so-called intentions by organizing such an event joining forces with my friend and colleague Dr. Tuğrul Keskin of Portland State University.

Some people wondered if was going through some sort of psychological crisis by organizing an event on Islamophobia since I have been publically criticizing the politicization of Islam, and that have been a determined intellectual in the fight against militant Islamism. I had also organized and/or proudly involved with many events on anti-Semitism. Let me make it very clear tonight that I am not an Islamist, and by organizing an event on Islamophobia, I am not attempting to justify the global operations of militant Islamism nor am I providing a platform to apologetics towards radicalism of any sort. I believe in justice and genuine pluralism not a liberal/capitalist implementation of it. This conference examines the intersections between Islam, political Islam, Islamophobia, and human rights. Islamophobia is a form of prejudice against Muslims. With racist and fascist overtones, it often manifests itself as an irrational fear of Muslims. This must come to an end! There may be only one Islam but Muslims come in 1.5 billion colors with their vastly different interpretations and practices of Islam. And they are for sure not responsible for the evil crimes of the 19 terrorists.

I would like to thank the Center for the Study of the Middle East, Sociology of Islam and Muslim Societies, and the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center for their contributions. I am especially grateful to my dear students Defne Jones and Batuhan Bozdoğan, and April Younger and Karen Niggle of the Department of Central Eurasian Studies.

With this let me introduce our Keynote Speaker Dr. Deepa Kumar:

Deepa Kumar is an Associate Professor of Media Studies and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University.

Her work is driven by an active engagement with the key issues of neoliberalism and imperialism. Her first book, Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike is about the power of collective struggle in effectively challenging the priorities of neoliberalism.

Kumar began her research into the politics of empire shortly after 9/11.

Her second book titled Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire looks at how the "Muslim enemy" has historically been mobilized to suit the goals of empire.

She is currently working on a third book about Political Islam, U.S. foreign policy and the media.

She has been active in various social movements for peace and justice and has written numerous articles in both scholarly journals and alternative media. She is a much sought after public speaker and has spoken at dozens of university and community forums on a range of topics: Islamophobia, Political Islam, US foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia, the Arab Spring, women and Islam, etc. She has shared her expertise in numerous media outlets including BBC, NPR, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Hürriyet Daily News (Turkey), Iran Fars News (Iran), Al Arabiya (UAE), and other national and international news media outlets.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Deepa Kumar to Indiana University, Bloomington!

Islamophobia International conference Pictures

Islamophobia International conference, organized by Ottoman and Turkish Studies and Sociology of Islam

Islamophobia International conference this weekend 

By IDS Reports | IDS  Mar. 28, 2013 

http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=92010

Discrimination against Muslims has become more prevalent nationwide since the Sept. 11 attacks. This will be just one topic of discussion Friday and Saturday at the “Islam, Politics and Islamophobia” conference.

The international conference, one of the Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies Chair Conferences, will take place at the Indiana Memorial Union Faculty Club room 250 on Friday and Persimmion Room on Saturday. The conference is organized by IU Professor Kemal Silay and Tugrul Keskin of Portland State University. It will be open to the public, but registration is required at the IMU.

It will cover an array of topics pertaining to Islam and western culture. Each topic will be presented by scholars from universities. Silay said the inspiration behind the conference was the unfair generalization of those who practice Islam.

“Only a fraction of the 1.5 billion Muslims of the world have been involved in violence and/or radical Islamism,” Silay said. “Yet a great number of these innocent people have been discriminated against and harassed on a daily basis.”

Silay said Muslims in all strata of society face negative attention from both the public and the government, often resulting in discriminatory practices.

“These practices, born of stereotypical descriptions and definitions of “Islam” and “Muslims,” are connotative of the level of fear and hatred in many parts of the world when topics concerning this religion and its adherents arise,” he said.

Consequently, many of the topics covered in the conference will have to do with “Islamophobia.”

“Islamophobia is a form of prejudice against Muslims,” Silay said. “With racist and fascist overtones, it often manifests itself as an irrational fear of Muslims.”

He also made the distinction between Islam and Islamism. Islamism is radically politicized and often violent, while Islam is simply the religion.

“Islamism, especially militant Islamism, is not the same as Islam,” Silay said. “Most ordinary Muslims are afraid of Islamism, as well.”

Silay said this conference is different than others in that it does not attempt to justify the global operations of militant Islam.

“This conference examines the intersections between Islam, political Islam, Islamophobia and human rights,” he said.

— Sarah Zinn

An International Conference: Islam, Political Islam, and Islamophobia, Indiana University–Bloomington March 29-30, 2013

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Islam, Political Islam, and Islamophobia:

An International Conference

Indiana University–Bloomington

March 29-30, 2013

Organizers:

Dr. Kemal Silay

Professor of Turkish Language and Literature

Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies Endowed Chair Professor

Director, Turkish Language Flagship Center

Director, Turkish Studies Program

Indiana University

Dr. Tuğrul Keskin

Assistant Professor of International and Middle East Studies

Affiliated Faculty of Black Studies, Sociology, and Turkish Studies

Portland State University

Friday, March 29, 2013

5:00–7:00 PM • Reception • IMU • Faculty Club • Room 250

5:30–5:45 PM • Opening Remarks by Dr. Kemal Silay, Indiana University

5:45–6:45 PM • Keynote Address by Dr. Deepa Kumar, Rutgers University: “Islamophobia and the Politics of the Empire: From Neoliberalism to Imperialism”

Saturday, March 30, 2013

9:30–9:45 AM • Registration • IMU • Persimmon Room

9:45–10:00 AM • Welcoming Remarks by Dr. Kemal Silay • IMU • Persimmon Room

10:00–11:30 AM • Session 1 • IMU • Persimmon Room          

Islam and Islamophobia in Comparative Perspective

Chair: Dr. Kemal Silay

“Islamophobia, Alienation and Ways Forward to Strengthen Community Cohesion:

A Comparative Case-Study” • Dr. Valentina Bartolucci, University of Pisa, Italy

“The Origins of Western Islamophobia” • Brian C. Bradford, Western Michigan University

“Why Antisemitism and ‘Islamophobia’ Are Two Different Things” • Dr. Gunther Jikeli, Germany

“Islam is the Devil… and so Is Joseph Smith: A Comparative Analysis of Anti-Islamic Blogs and 19th Century Anti-Mormon Pamphlets” • Dr. Jeff Tischauser, Triton College, USA

11:45–12:45 PM • Lunch • IMU • State Room West

1:00–2:30 PM • Session 2 • IMU • Persimmon Room

Political Islam and Islamophobia

Chair: Defne Jones

“The Wave of Arab Spring: The Impact of Political Islam and Islamophobia • Dr. Zakaryya Mohamed Abdel-Hady, Qatar University

“The Genealogy of Islamophobia in Germany: From Woodblock Prints to Contemporary Political Rhetoric” • Dr. Courtney Dorroll, University of Arizona

“Bestselling Fiction, Political Rhetoric, and Islamophobia” • Dr. Celene Ayat Lizzio, Harvard University

“Insider Islamophobia: The Role of Islamophobic Authoritarianism in the Birth and Success of Political Islam in Muslim Countries” • Dr. Ahmet Temel, University of California–Santa Barbara

2:30 –2:45 PM • Coffee Break                                                                         

2:45 PM–4:00 PM • Session 3 • IMU • Persimmon Room

Islamophobia in the United States

Chair: Dr. Kemal Silay       

“Islam and Islamophobia in Texas Textbooks” • Dr. Tamer Balcı, University of Texas–Pan American

“Something Thoroughly and Uncompromisingly Foreign” • Dr. Rian Thomas Bobal, Georgia State University

“‘All-American’ Islamophobia: Sexism, Neoliberalism, and Mainstream Media” • Melinda Brennan, Indiana University

“The Impact of Islamophobia in America on Political Discourse in Turkey and Iran” • Defne Jones, Indiana University

4:00 PM–5:30 PM • Session 4 • IMU • Persimmon Room

Territorial and Regional Islamophobia

Chair: Dr. Feisal Amin Rasoul al-Istrabadi

“Islam and Islamophobia in the Post–Soviet Countries” • Dr. Lala Aliyeva, Harvard University

“Governmentality and the Structure of ‘Islamophobia’ in Turkey • Dr. Matthew de Tar, Whitman College

“The Increase of Muslim Population and the Concern of Europe: The Relationship Between Change of Population and Islamophobia” • Dr. Tuncay Güloğlu and Dr. Ahmed S. Muhamed, Cornell University

“Fata Wants the Obilić Hero, Not Daddy’s Son Bajazit: Musical Islamophilia and Islamophobia in 1980s Yugoslavia” • Dr. Maya Petrović, Princeton University

5:30 –6:00 PM • Coffee Break

6:00–7:30 PM • Session 5 • IMU • Persimmon Room

Islamophobia as a Multifaceted Concept

Chair: Dr. Tuğrul Keskin  

“Violent Discourse: Themes in Islamophobic Polemics” • Dr. Andrea E. Cluck, University of Michigan

“Towards a Multidimensional Concept of Islamophobia” • Dr. Farid Hafez, Austria

“The Reach and Influence of the Islamophobia Industry: How a Global Anti-Muslim Network Manufactures Fear of Muslims” • Dr. Nathan C. Lean, Georgetown University

“The Media’s Impact on Islamophobia” • Dr. Sabine Schiffer, Germany

“Islamophobia, Sharīʿa and the Global City: Insights from Sydney and New York” • Dr. Joshua M. Roose, University of Western Sydney, Australia, and Dr. Bryan S. Turner, City University of New York

8:00–9:30 PM • Dinner • IMU • Federal Room

The organizers are grateful to the following units and organizations

for their generous contributions:

Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies Chair, Turkish Studies Program,

Center for the Study of the Middle East, Sociology of Islam and Muslim Societies,

Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center

Call for Papers

Indiana University, Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies Chair Conferences: 5

Islam, Political Islam, and Islamophobia: An International Conference

To be held on March 29-30, 2013 at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

Muslims representing all strata of society throughout the world face an extraordinary degree of negative attention from both public and government eyes often resulting in discriminatory practices. These practices, born of stereotypical descriptions and definitions of “Islam” and “Muslims,” are connotative of the level of fear and hatred in many parts of the world when topics concerning this religion and its adherents arise. The upcoming conference will attempt to clarify this phenomenon by examining intersections between Islam, political Islam, Islamophobia, and human rights. How does Islamophobia resemble other forms of social prejudice, and in what ways does it differ? What is the political function of Islamophobia?  To what degree and in what ways is Islamophobia fed by the actions of political Islam? To what degree does the politicization of Islam exacerbate the victimization of Muslims? To what degree do the militant operations of political Islam serve as an excuse for those who intend to legitimize and institutionalize prejudice against Muslims? To what degree is prejudice a result of ignorance or lack of understanding of Islam and its followers? This conference invites all scholars of relevant disciplines for an in-depth theoretical, analytical, conceptual, and historical examination of Islamophobia. Proposals showing signs of polemics, propaganda, conspiracy theories, binary dichotomies, such as “Arabs vs. Jews,” “East vs. West,” “Muslims vs. Christians,” “Israelis vs. Palestinians,” and the like will be rejected. The medium of the conference will be English. However, a small number of papers in Turkish will also be considered due to the advanced instructional needs of Indiana University’s Turkish Language Program.

Brief proposals (approximately 250 words) along with CVs should be sent to: turk@indiana.edu

Deadline for proposals: November 1st, 2012

Organizers:

Dr. Kemal Silay, Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies, Director of the Turkish Studies Program, Indiana University

Dr. Tuğrul Keskin, Assistant Professor of International and Middle Eastern Studies, Portland State University