islamophobia: what it is and how not to deal with it

So I went to a conference held at Masjid As-Salaam in Burnaby on Friday called Islamophobia: What It Is and How to Deal With It.  Speakers were Mohamed Elmasry of the Canadian Islamic Congress, Dereck O’Keefe of rabble.ca, and Khurram Awan, one of the legal team that took Macleans to the Canadian, Ontario, and BC Human Rights Commissions for Islamophobic publications.  And no big surprises.

One thing I did take out of it was a better understanding of why Br. Khurram did what he did.  I’m virtually convinced now that it was out of frustration–they couldn’t get Macleans to apologize or to admit wrongdoing, or to publish a rebuttal, so they took it to court.  I get it now.  But I agree with him even less now.

Look, I don’t want to come down too hard on my brothers.  I get where they’re coming from.  But if Macleans Magazine wants to degenerate itself into a reactionary Neocon bullet-point mag, let them, and let the market decide whether or not it wants to consume that kind of swill.  If the market is happy with that product, and–here’s the kicker–if the Muslim community and its friends can’t field a saleable alternative, the Government ain’t the solution.

I understand that the Canadian Islamic Congress doesn’t agree with that position, and they’ve got a lot of their political capital invested in a position precisely its opposite, so I don’t blame them for that.  But the way I see it, there are three potential social scenarios we’re facing here in Canada:

1. The people of Canada can’t stand us Muslims and are willing consumers of Macleans/CanWest neocon Islamophobia.
2. The people of Canada are relatively ambivalent about Muslims and consume Macleans/CanWest neocon Islamophobia because they don’t really care–but they don’t really buy it, either.
3. The people of Canada don’t really agree with Macleans/CanWest neocon Islamophobia and don’t really buy it, and what we’re really watching isn’t a series of potent strikes against Islam and Muslims, but rather the death-spasms of redundant media trying to shock-and-awe its way back into Canadian hearts and minds.

Whichever it is, litigation won’t help.  What will is ensuring Canadians at least have access to entertaining and informative commentary that offers a true (or at least truthy) picture of what Canadians’ Muslim neighbors believe and do.