All posts tagged: Discourse

San Diego mosque shooting reflects how online rhetoric, media depictions and political discourse contribute to increased Islamophobia

San Diego mosque shooting reflects how online rhetoric, media depictions and political discourse contribute to increased Islamophobia

(The Conversation) — Many Muslim Americans are fearful following a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego that left three worshipers dead. Investigators reportedly found hate speech and anti-Islamic writing inside the vehicle of the suspected shooters, who killed themselves soon after the attack. The director of the Islamic Center, Taha Hassane, condemned the attack while also encouraging individuals to respond with tolerance and love. “All of us are responsible for spreading the culture of tolerance, the culture of love,” he said, while lamenting the conditions that had led to such violence. The attack comes just one week before the celebration of Eid al-Adha, an annual festival celebrating the Prophet Abraham’s – Ibrahim in Arabic – willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God, and the conclusion of the annual Hajj – the pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the five pillars of Islam. It also comes on the heels of ongoing tensions in the Middle East and increasing political rhetoric in the United States. Republicans in Congress held hearings during the week of …

The Era of Rational Discourse Is Over

The Era of Rational Discourse Is Over

Americans have a long history of being hurried into war on false pretexts. The “yellow press” encouraged a war fever in 1898 by blaming the sinking of the USS Maine on the Spanish, even though the Navy’s own expert said it was caused by an accidental explosion. The George W. Bush administration justified the invasion of Iraq by claiming that Saddam Hussein had connections to the 9/11 attacks and was building weapons of mass destruction, neither of which turned out to be true. But with the Iran war, as in so many other ways, Donald Trump has broken new ground. He is the first president to start a war without even bothering to lie to the public, because he simply didn’t care what the public thought. The American people weren’t consulted about attacking Iran—neither formally, through their elected representatives in Congress, nor informally, by allowing pundits, activists, and civil-society groups to have their say. As Trump told The New York Times in January, his power as commander in chief was constrained by nothing but “my …

The enduring legacy of medieval Christian depictions of Islam in today’s political discourse

The enduring legacy of medieval Christian depictions of Islam in today’s political discourse

(The Conversation) — The war with Iran is not just a geopolitical conflict. We see religious rhetoric used to cast strategic interests as a moral or sacred matter. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson described Iran’s majority faith tradition, Shiite Islam, as a “misguided religion” while discussing the ongoing U.S. strikes against Iran on March 4, 2026. A complaint made to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation alleged that same month that an unnamed military commander had said that “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.” In the Book of Revelation, Armageddon represents the final battle between good and evil, associated with the second coming of Jesus Christ. Soon after the U.S. attack on Iran, right-wing pastor Andrew Sedra commented that “Trump is going after the head of the snake, which is Islam.” He added that “God is using President Trump in a prophetic moment of time to execute judgment on evil and wicked civilizations.” In part, such religious rhetoric draws …

Why Fandom Discourse Feels Extra Cringe Right Now

Why Fandom Discourse Feels Extra Cringe Right Now

In late November, Emily did something she hadn’t in a very long time: she got back on Tumblr and started discussing fandom. Specifically, Heated Rivalry, the surprise Crave smash hit series about a love story between two closeted hockey players, based on a queer hockey romance series that itself started out, in part, as gay Marvel fanfiction. In the early 2010s, Emily, who requested that only her first name be used due to fears over harassment, had been a huge Tumblr user. She went from Gossip Girl fandom to Glee fandom to Sherlock fandom to bandom (an umbrella term for fans of pop punk bands) to hockey. But by the end of the decade, she, like many other ardent users of peak Tumblr, had largely migrated to Twitter. “I was in my early twenties, I was trying to move to a new city, I tried to be more of an adult about things,” Emily tells WIRED. She left fandom spaces. Then, Heated Rivalry happened, and Tumblr exploded. “Old friends that I hadn’t spoken to in …

The Sticker Discourse – TheHumanist.com

The Sticker Discourse – TheHumanist.com

Something I’ve seen emerge – particularly since Trump was elected to a second term – is a form of civic participation I would best describe as sticker discourse. In Chicago, the city I live in, light poles, street signs and any other plasterable surfaces have become a sort of commons for the community – a forum that operates in the analog, refreshing itself every couple of days with new political slogans and diatribes. I personally have never seen anyone stickering – it’s something I assume happens at night when no one’s watching. Some of the messages are pre-printed, clearly purchased from an Etsy shop. But much more frequently, they are handwritten, often on post office pads, emphasizing the creativity (and humanity) of the author, as well as the effort (and risk) taken by its author. Some are quite clever. Many have made me laugh. The crasser ones don’t last long – they get papered over or torn off completely. There is an iterative process to stickering, I’ve learned; they’re often in conversation with each other …

Islamophobia and the dangers of chilling discourse

Islamophobia and the dangers of chilling discourse

This week, the release of the Casey report on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse (grooming gangs) laid bare the failures that prevented abuse against children being properly investigated. As the Government announced a public inquiry into the scandal, Louise Casey said for too long the authorities had shied away from the ethnicity of the people involved, adding it was “not racist to examine the ethnicity of the offenders”. This is perhaps best illustrated by the treatment of Ann Cryer. In 2002, when she was Labour MP for Keighley, Cryer became the first public figure in Britain to speak out about young white girls being abused in Rotherham by grooming gangs from the Pakistani community. Cryer was shouted down as a racist in meetings and found local councils “were petrified of being called racist and so reverted to the default of political correctness”. “There was a certain point when I felt like giving the whole thing up because I was being called a racist,” she said. Cryer’s experience should serve as a lesson that silencing …