"Islamophobia, Dehumanisation & Constructing Otherness" by Dr. Osman Latiff (2020-11-30)

## Description

As part of Islamophobia Awareness Month Sapience Institute delivered a free online webinar: "Islamophobia, Dehumanisation & Constructing Otherness".

Summary of "Islamophobia, Dehumanisation & Constructing Otherness" by Dr. Osman Latiff

This summary is AI generated - there may be inaccuracies. *

00:00:00 [01:00:00

Dr. Osman Latiff discusses Islamophobia and how it is similar to other forms of hatred and dehumanization. He also discusses how the Quran provides a model for overcoming Islamophobia through effective engagement.

00:00:00 In this presentation, Dr. Osman Latiff discusses Islamophobia, dehumanization, and constructing otherness. He explains how these attitudes lead to tendencies such as othering and dehumanization, and how they are harmful to all humans. He encourages listeners to be empathy and understand others as individuals, rather than treating them as members of a single group.

00:05:00 Islamophobia is a fear or hatred of Muslims, and is often rooted in racism. This fear can lead to abuse and attacks against Muslims.
00:10:00 Dr. Osman Latiff discusses how negative stereotypes about Muslims create bias and discrimination against them. He also discusses how the self is created and sustained with the creation of the other.
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00:20:00 Islamophobia is the fear or hatred of Muslims. This fear is often projected onto Muslims as a way to justify discrimination and violence against them.

Dr. Osman Latiff discusses how Islamophobia is used to construct otherness and demonize Muslims. He also points to examples of how this has played out in the media, specifically with regards to the Syrian refugee crisis. Sanah Hamadi's article highlights the difficulties that Arabs have in cooperating and sharing common goals, and Edward Saeed refers to a case in which a Muslim woman was accused of being a terrorist. These examples illustrate how Islamophobia creates obstacles for Muslims in their attempts to cooperate and achieve collective goals.

00:25:00 Discusses how negative portrayals of Arabs in the media often serve to promote American wars. He also mentions how Arabs are often depicted as evil, backwards, and inhuman in popular culture.
00:30:00 Discusses the prevalence of Islamophobia, dehumanization of Arabs, and the construction of otherness. It features examples from media, social science textbooks, and popular culture of how Arabs are typically portrayed. These portrayals have negative consequences, such as impede empathy and hinder communication between different groups.
00:35:00 According to John Howard Griffin, the visual representations of black people in the media have a significant effect on the way that image of black people is perceived. Butler's book, "Precarious Life," discusses how the concept of humanization is used to justify the abuse of victims of war and conflict. Griffin argues that the self is created through the juxtaposing of self and otherness, and that the self is defined and created through this process. He goes on to say that the effects of dehumanization are numerous and tragic, including the perpetuation of rape and violence.
00:40:00 Discusses the history of how perceptions of Muslims and Arabs have been created, focusing on how this relates to the recent rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. points out that this otherness is perpetuated by a negative portrayal of those groups in American media.
00:45:00 Discusses the vilifying of a people before, during, and after the Crusades, which resulted in the construction of otherness between Muslims and Christians. This othering led to the Crusades, which were waged against Muslims.
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00:55:00 Dr. Latiff discusses Islamophobia and how it is similar to other forms of hatred and dehumanization. He also discusses how the Quran provides a model for overcoming Islamophobia through effective engagement.

01:00:00 [01:15:00

discusses the way that dehumanization and constructions of otherness can lead to fear and prejudice. It discusses the ways in which Islamic teachings encourage patience and remembrance of Allah, and how these principles can help overcome phobias. Finally, the video provides an example of how the practice of religious discipline can help overcome fear and prejudice.

01:00:00 Discusses the way that dehumanization and constructions of otherness can be harmful and lead to fear and prejudice. It discusses the ways in which Islamic teachings encourage patience and remembrance of Allah, and how these principles can help overcome phobias. Finally, the video provides an example of how the practice of religious discipline can help overcome fear and prejudice.

01:05:00 Discusses the concept of Islamophobia, which is a fear or hatred of Muslims. It discusses the ways in which people can be susceptible to stereotyping, and how this can lead to hostility and discrimination against Muslims. It also discusses the example of a Dutch politician who became Muslim and changed his views on the process of transformation. Finally, the video points out that even though all people are not Islamophobic, there are those who do hold this viewpoint.
01:10:00 Dr. Osman Latiff discusses the importance of defining one's own narrative in order to challenge Islamophobia and dehumanization. He discusses the example of the Battle of Gohan, in which the Muslim Prophet Muhammad displayed great patience and humility despite the insults and shouts of his enemies. Latiff points out that the Prophet's message of peace was still heard by his followers, even in difficult situations. Latiff emphasizes the importance of countering Islamophobia with peaceful and constructive dialogue.
01:15:00 Discusses how Islamophobia, dehumanization, and constructing otherness play into the violence and fear surrounding current events, such as the Syrian refugee crisis and terrorist attacks. He asks for Allah's strength to help us respond appropriately.

Full transcript with timestamps: CLICK TO EXPAND

0:00:02 [Music]0:00:09 [Music]0:00:32 and welcome to all 0:00:34 on this presentation on islamophobia 0:00:36 dehumanization and constructing 0:00:37 otherness 0:00:38 as part of islam phobia awareness week 0:00:40 and uh presented by 0:00:42 uh sapience institute i want to thank 0:00:45 all of you for your attendance all of 0:00:47 you for being here with us today 0:00:48 inshallah 0:00:49 this of course is a very crucial topic 0:00:51 one that has 0:00:52 uh you know very and many ramifications 0:00:56 consequences causes and effects affects 0:00:59 every single one of us as human beings 0:01:01 and particularly for us as muslims 0:01:03 but in the in the broader scale of 0:01:04 things all of us as human beings because 0:01:06 we're dealing with 0:01:07 a very human affair and that is to um 0:01:11 you know render somebody as less than 0:01:13 human or to subhumanize them and 0:01:14 dehumanize them 0:01:16 and we'll look at today in charlotte 0:01:17 many many different things uh to do with 0:01:19 the way that 0:01:20 otherness is constructed in human 0:01:22 society how it has 0:01:23 bring on us as muslims and therefore 0:01:25 creates and leads to 0:01:27 this uh um irrational fear of islam 0:01:30 islamophobia 0:01:31 and also how it taps into other trends 0:01:34 in society all of which if not 0:01:36 if they're not if they're not understood 0:01:39 properly if they're not dealt with in a 0:01:41 way that is 0:01:43 uh that is pleasing to allah and in a 0:01:45 way that is guided by islamic principles 0:01:47 and values 0:01:48 um you know will lead to tragic 0:01:51 consequences and 0:01:52 and therefore in situations where 0:01:54 genocidal tendencies emerge in human 0:01:56 society we 0:01:57 all all of us as human beings have a 0:02:00 responsibility 0:02:01 if i wanted to take this inshallah as a 0:02:03 very important topic 0:02:04 intruder for our discussion today um and 0:02:07 again i welcome all of you for your 0:02:08 attendance so 0:02:09 let us therefore begin in the name of 0:02:11 allah subhanahu wa to allah 0:02:12 we ask allah for all success for all 0:02:14 ability 0:02:17 there is no success or ability except 0:02:18 with allah 0:02:22 all right so the first thing i want us 0:02:24 to look at right now is 0:02:26 is what does it mean to see the human 0:02:29 what does that mean remember of course 0:02:31 that uh 0:02:32 when we have attitudes uh mindsets 0:02:36 opinions views um that lead to 0:02:40 uh disallowing uh another human being 0:02:43 to have what one believes is incessantly 0:02:46 sorry is uh is inherently valuable in 0:02:49 oneself and we deny that to somebody 0:02:52 else 0:02:52 it leads to the tendencies i've just 0:02:55 mentioned earlier about othering and 0:02:57 dehumanization 0:02:58 and what that is is the relegating of 0:03:00 another to a distance of 0:03:02 other now that distance could be a 0:03:04 cultural distance it could also be 0:03:06 a physical distance but within within 0:03:09 the troops of that physical distancing 0:03:12 uh we we erect these mental 0:03:15 physical barriers and walls and we 0:03:18 designate 0:03:19 to that distant physical or cultural 0:03:21 other 0:03:22 uh you know and as a place of of outside 0:03:25 outsideness an outsider place a place 0:03:28 that is not 0:03:29 as befitting and valuable and worthy as 0:03:32 the place that we're inhabiting 0:03:35 and this exists of course as a mental 0:03:36 construct exists 0:03:38 uh in in many different mediums of media 0:03:41 formats uh also exists physically as 0:03:44 well 0:03:45 that is to say seeing in the other much 0:03:47 less and sometimes a complete absence 0:03:50 of what one sees in oneself right so all 0:03:52 that is morally reprehensible 0:03:54 is defined in the other whatever you 0:03:56 deem good in yourself 0:03:58 is good within yourself and within your 0:04:01 own 0:04:01 uh you know clique within your own 0:04:04 social network 0:04:06 uh but whatever is morally reprehensible 0:04:08 then is defined in that other 0:04:10 and that's really how otherness is 0:04:11 constructed it's like uh 0:04:14 like it says on mental canvases every 0:04:16 one of us has a mental canvas 0:04:18 but if we're painting on our mental 0:04:20 canvases 0:04:22 uh with broad strokes and white brushes 0:04:25 what we're doing 0:04:25 is that we're disallowing uh those 0:04:29 identifications and those fine lines and 0:04:31 those nuances 0:04:33 and and and grayer areas and color and 0:04:36 subtle 0:04:36 outlines we're disallowing them on 0:04:38 others because we're figuring on other 0:04:40 people 0:04:41 as a single identity 0:04:44 we're disallowing uh in individuality 0:04:47 and that's really 0:04:48 where where empathy breathes from it 0:04:51 breeds from 0:04:52 individualizing another human being and 0:04:55 and believing 0:04:56 and believing valuable that that other 0:04:58 person has 0:04:59 life experiences uh oftentimes they're 0:05:02 gonna 0:05:02 almost uh resemble mine very closely all 0:05:06 of us meaning we all have hopes and 0:05:07 fears 0:05:08 and dreams in life but if we're painting 0:05:11 on our mental canvases 0:05:13 uh this dehumanized distant culturally 0:05:16 distant physically distant 0:05:17 dehumanize other with only wide brushes 0:05:20 and using broad strokes that means we're 0:05:22 not 0:05:23 allowing that person to to exist 0:05:27 uh you know as as a full human being or 0:05:30 as somebody who has you know more than 0:05:33 one 0:05:34 uh part of himself is not just 0:05:37 seen as as totally one thing for example 0:05:40 and that's really i think a good apart 0:05:42 for us a place for us to begin 0:05:44 now the key thing is that there are too 0:05:46 many positive human attributes 0:05:48 uh that allah creates within human 0:05:50 beings of course allah in the quran 0:05:52 he says there is a nobility in in the 0:05:55 sons of adam 0:05:56 and within that we begin of course from 0:05:58 a very fitra based state a fifth rabbi 0:06:00 state that where 0:06:01 you know we're inherently inclined uh 0:06:04 and recognizing of allah subhanahu 0:06:06 wa'ta'ala we have these good traits 0:06:08 within us 0:06:09 but the self itself as a person of 0:06:11 course lives 0:06:12 in his social settings 0:06:15 uh we are affected by environment for 0:06:18 environment is a big thing 0:06:19 because the prophet even said that even 0:06:21 though the child is born on this fitra 0:06:23 it's his parents who would make him into 0:06:25 you know turn him into a jew or a 0:06:26 christian or a fire worshiper 0:06:27 our social settings our friends our 0:06:29 networks our parents 0:06:31 our schooling our media all of these 0:06:34 things have an effect 0:06:35 on us and our value systems and our 0:06:37 beliefs um 0:06:45 allah says consider the self right how 0:06:47 it's 0:06:48 in inclined towards it's inspired 0:06:50 towards 0:06:51 uh depravity evil but also inclined 0:06:55 towards inspired 0:06:56 you know with with goodness and 0:06:58 saintliness in a piety and consciousness 0:07:00 of allah 0:07:00 you could find in fact in one human 0:07:02 being both of these 0:07:04 both of these kind of modes within one 0:07:06 person a person could be 0:07:08 very very good to those that he wants to 0:07:10 be very very good to 0:07:11 and very evil to those who wants to be 0:07:13 very very evil too 0:07:15 uh so but within the human being there's 0:07:17 too many positive human attributes 0:07:19 which prevent us from seeing others as 0:07:21 expendable right so just tap into 0:07:23 the human conscience the fact that every 0:07:26 single person in fact every one of 0:07:27 everything in allah's creation 0:07:29 it has a part of that mercy which allah 0:07:32 which what the prophet spoke about when 0:07:33 he says 0:07:35 allah has a hundred parts of his mercy 0:07:37 one's 0:07:41 and allah is revealed one part of his 0:07:42 mercy between humans and jinn 0:07:44 and and animals even you know and you 0:07:47 know 0:07:48 they all share from that one part of 0:07:50 allah's mercy and allah has delayed 99 0:07:52 parts 0:07:52 to show a mercy to his servants on the 0:07:54 day of judgment 0:07:56 may of those recipients of allah's mercy 0:08:00 in this life and also in the next life 0:08:02 um right so to see others as expendable 0:08:05 the human eyes and other 0:08:06 impeding us from uh acting in cruelty 0:08:10 and with murderous intent that's not 0:08:11 that the natural state of man 0:08:13 to be like that dehumanization is to 0:08:15 undermine those impediments so all those 0:08:17 good impediments right that we have 0:08:18 preventing us 0:08:20 from being so evil is undermined 0:08:23 with and through dehumanization chris 0:08:25 whedon defines 0:08:26 othering as referring to the process of 0:08:29 constructing another people 0:08:30 or a group as radically different to 0:08:32 oneself as 0:08:34 or one's own group usually on the basis 0:08:36 of racist or no ethnic-centric 0:08:38 ethnocentric discussion 0:08:39 so therefore that's going to define what 0:08:41 our group is is it 0:08:43 is an ethnic group for example is a 0:08:45 group based upon our race 0:08:46 for example is that or is that all and 0:08:49 only where we see 0:08:50 uh you know human humanity existing and 0:08:54 everything other than that outside of 0:08:55 that 0:08:56 is is void of humanity and therefore we 0:08:59 wouldn't see those people 0:09:00 uh as uh as fully human 0:09:04 that's really where where dehumanization 0:09:06 sits 0:09:07 now here we have uh the main topic of 0:09:10 ours today which is islamophobia now i'm 0:09:13 beginning of course i began with 0:09:14 seeing the human and a bit of small 0:09:17 discussion about othering and 0:09:18 humanization because 0:09:20 this is really where xenophobia sits it 0:09:22 sits in this discourse it sits within 0:09:25 the discourse of 0:09:26 othering right and and when it's 0:09:28 unchecked 0:09:29 and it's in in its very extreme forms it 0:09:31 would lead to 0:09:32 dehumanization now we're going to go 0:09:34 through many examples of that inshallah 0:09:35 today 0:09:36 so islamophobia is defined is rooted in 0:09:38 in racism 0:09:40 and is a type of racism that targets 0:09:42 expressions 0:09:43 of muslimness or perceived muslimness 0:09:46 now let's think about that for a moment 0:09:47 what does that mean 0:09:48 what is muslimness what does that mean 0:09:51 that means of course you know what 0:09:53 islamophobia 0:09:55 is is people's fear 0:09:58 which then results in abuse and attacks 0:10:01 and 0:10:02 hatred uh for for things and for people 0:10:06 and for symbols that express 0:10:09 muslimness or islam islamic symbols 0:10:12 islamic code islamic behavior 0:10:13 islamic dress code islamic personages 0:10:17 people of importance prophets and so on 0:10:20 and so forth 0:10:21 and that's where it's written in racism 0:10:23 and it's a type of racism that targets 0:10:25 expressions of muslimness 0:10:27 or perceived muslimness 0:10:30 it's an exaggerated fare this is an 0:10:33 exaggerated affair 0:10:34 hatred and hostility towards islam 0:10:37 and muslims that is perpetuated by a 0:10:40 negative stereotype we're going to go 0:10:41 through many examples of that today how 0:10:43 these constructs are created and how 0:10:45 they have an effect on people's uh 0:10:47 views about other human beings in this 0:10:50 case muslims 0:10:51 so perpetuated by negative stereotypes 0:10:53 resulting in bias discrimination 0:10:55 and the marginalization exclusion of 0:10:57 muslims from social political and civil 0:11:00 and civic life which of course is going 0:11:01 to be the natural consequence of that 0:11:03 and it's true therefore for you know 0:11:05 just think about uh 0:11:07 if anybody knows about nazi germany you 0:11:10 would realize that the nazis of course 0:11:11 had this very 0:11:12 um sophisticated propaganda campaign 0:11:15 joseph goebbels and others 0:11:17 in targeting the jews as 0:11:20 as a minority in in germany and then 0:11:23 later of course in 0:11:24 other places in poland for example um 0:11:27 and then 0:11:28 building up creating negative 0:11:29 stereotypes about them 0:11:31 and that therefore once it enters the 0:11:32 public consciousness the public mind 0:11:35 it's uh proliferated throughout media 0:11:38 and schooling and textbooks and 0:11:39 everything else 0:11:40 it would result in discrimination 0:11:43 because 0:11:43 the the recipients of that negative 0:11:46 stereotyping 0:11:48 and discrimination the recipients of 0:11:50 that of course 0:11:51 would slowly uh begin to see 0:11:54 the jewish population as less as less 0:11:56 worthy 0:11:57 than themselves and then of course when 0:12:00 it's going to continue that it was you 0:12:01 know 0:12:01 because you would have so much uh you 0:12:04 know visual 0:12:05 and written propaganda about the jews as 0:12:08 being less than humans as being 0:12:10 you know like vermin and cockroaches and 0:12:15 savage-like and animal-like uh that 0:12:17 would happen to public consciousness 0:12:19 about those people and it's the same 0:12:21 here with islamophobia and with all 0:12:22 people in any examples 0:12:24 where we have phobias to do with like an 0:12:27 exaggerated or irrational fear towards 0:12:30 the people whether they're black 0:12:31 people in racism islamophobia and 0:12:34 muslims 0:12:35 uh the vietnamese the vietcong for 0:12:37 example 0:12:38 and so marginalization and exclusion of 0:12:40 muslims from social political and civic 0:12:42 life and so therefore that's another 0:12:44 definition of islamophobia 0:12:47 now let's look at this constructing the 0:12:51 other constructing the other what does 0:12:53 that mean 0:12:54 here we are so 0:12:58 all right so um now the dehumanized 0:13:01 other is 0:13:02 irrational savage and 0:13:06 uh and threatening right this is from my 0:13:09 book 0:13:09 on being human which is available for a 0:13:12 free download from 0:13:13 sapience institute website uh the 0:13:15 juveniles other is irrational 0:13:17 savage and threatening on mental canvas 0:13:20 is a humanized other is painted with 0:13:21 broad strokes and white brushes 0:13:23 there are no identifications no fine 0:13:24 lines nuances that we discussed no green 0:13:26 light in the greys and those 0:13:27 outlines that human eyes is fed 0:13:30 mistreated and generalized 0:13:32 uh and so in rallying calls against the 0:13:35 other images and narratives 0:13:37 of how alien barbaric and inhu and human 0:13:41 the other is are propped up these ideas 0:13:43 are then repeated continuously 0:13:45 and relentlessly until believing 0:13:47 anything different about that other 0:13:49 becomes 0:13:49 incongruous right it becomes the status 0:13:52 quo that becomes 0:13:53 the dominant uh view 0:13:57 about that other any sympathizers with 0:13:59 that other are better placed 0:14:01 with that other rather than with us 0:14:04 thinking about 0:14:04 this the self and other constructs the 0:14:07 self heard the selfness is in fact 0:14:09 is created uh initi is in fact created 0:14:14 and sustained 0:14:15 with the creation of the other right 0:14:18 because the self of course becomes the 0:14:20 the the binary becomes the 0:14:23 dichotomy of that other if the other is 0:14:26 total evil 0:14:27 uh then the self is uh is 0:14:30 is total good then or is less evil at 0:14:33 least uh 0:14:34 than being total good uh i want us to 0:14:37 look at this image over here this is a 0:14:39 an image from the rehabilitation and 0:14:42 research center for torture 0:14:44 torture victims in copenhagen and 0:14:47 denmark i think the 0:14:48 the picture reveals a lot is also in the 0:14:50 book on being human 0:14:53 and this is entitled surrounded by 0:14:56 torturers he cannot see 0:14:58 uh anonymous watercolor okay here we are 0:15:01 now what is to look at this picture for 0:15:02 a second and think about what we're 0:15:03 seeing here 0:15:05 uh now this of course is very evocative 0:15:07 image uh 0:15:08 in fact the image is called the image in 0:15:10 fact is called the fair is still 0:15:12 me and what does it suggest it suggests 0:15:14 a beastial persona or of a tortured 0:15:17 person 0:15:18 donning a hood that conceals uh a 0:15:22 bear-like identity so you can probably 0:15:23 make up 0:15:24 you know from that hood a kind of a 0:15:26 bear-like image 0:15:28 now though he can't see the idea is that 0:15:31 he's very much to be seen 0:15:33 right as a centerpiece as if heralded by 0:15:35 the prison guards 0:15:36 in the images there's also a halo around 0:15:38 him you can probably make up 0:15:39 and we wonder whether this halo edged 0:15:41 around 0:15:42 uh him is is the beam of a torch from 0:15:45 behind him 0:15:46 a floodlight shining onto him or whether 0:15:48 in fact 0:15:50 the artist instead challenges us to 0:15:53 consider the binary oppositions 0:15:55 wherein symbols of dehumanized and 0:15:56 dehumanized life 0:15:58 become uh become juxtaposed 0:16:02 you could also probably see that behind 0:16:03 him you see the gods and the 0:16:05 the the togetherness of the gods is set 0:16:08 against the isolation of the prisoner 0:16:10 like therefore the pac-like formation of 0:16:13 the gods and the lone 0:16:14 bear-like prisoner is in fact ironic 0:16:17 because 0:16:18 he's supposed to be the one that's fair 0:16:19 then not them uh 0:16:22 and it's like the wounded bear-like 0:16:24 prisoner who has been 0:16:25 hunted and the prison guards they herald 0:16:28 him 0:16:29 there's much to be seen in this 0:16:30 photograph in this picture sorry 0:16:32 in this painting the cartoon suggests a 0:16:34 larger larger-than-life 0:16:35 individual and though his his protruding 0:16:38 feet 0:16:39 uh you know perhaps reflect limbs 0:16:41 swollen by beating 0:16:43 and in this the prisoner appears 0:16:46 imbalanced 0:16:47 now since his feet don't seem to appear 0:16:50 any 0:16:51 and injuries on his feet uh you know 0:16:54 might they 0:16:55 our perception of it might they in fact 0:16:57 be 0:16:58 be symbolic uh of of his own stamped 0:17:02 presence there's different ways that we 0:17:04 could see this picture 0:17:05 but i want you to pay attention to the 0:17:07 way that our perceptions 0:17:10 uh really have uh a bearing on what we 0:17:12 make up 0:17:13 what we make of this picture right the 0:17:15 the bail i could i think is very 0:17:17 interesting think about his clothing 0:17:18 clothing being ripped the blood on his 0:17:20 chair we have this contrast between 0:17:23 the civil and the uncivil and so the 0:17:25 gods behind him 0:17:27 uh who who perhaps tortured him who 0:17:29 captured him 0:17:30 uh who do this to prisoners maybe in 0:17:34 all days all different days uh 0:17:38 a pair civilized civil with their 0:17:40 uniforms 0:17:41 and this person the innocent perhaps 0:17:43 perhaps an innocent victim uh 0:17:46 is is made to appear as um as a beast 0:17:49 gel 0:17:50 right so and also the scruffy clothes of 0:17:52 the prisoner 0:17:53 and is she undone and is gotten undone 0:17:55 and everything else so 0:17:57 now muslims and i will go through it now 0:18:00 if we look at the next picture 0:18:05 look at this picture over here 0:18:09 so muslims 0:18:14 we of course we face a a constant 0:18:17 uh sense of othering a barrage of 0:18:20 press reports like the one that you can 0:18:21 see in front of you now from the daily 0:18:22 mail 0:18:26 and what do they do they they kind of 0:18:28 vilify uh 0:18:30 muslims muslim faith muslim 0:18:33 dress code or other muslims they they 0:18:37 this kind of uh sense of othering it 0:18:40 heightens anxieties and comes to shape 0:18:42 the way that we see ourselves as a 0:18:44 people almost largely defined 0:18:47 through violence right because that's 0:18:50 the perception it's a bit like um 0:18:52 w e b du bois has a wonderful book 0:18:55 called uh the souls of black folk where 0:18:57 he describes this concept of double 0:18:59 consciousness 0:19:00 so there's one thing about w boys boys 0:19:03 defining 0:19:04 the way that black people in america 0:19:06 african americans 0:19:07 saw themselves but they're living in in 0:19:10 two 0:19:11 uh juxtaposed kind of identities really 0:19:15 because 0:19:15 one way that their ha one consciousness 0:19:18 is the way that 0:19:19 uh the whites have imputed upon them 0:19:21 already 0:19:22 a standard of behavior standard of 0:19:24 living a center of beliefs 0:19:25 and therefore they struggle because they 0:19:27 think you know what what 0:19:29 what are we actually exhibiting are we 0:19:32 truly exhibiting our own consciousness 0:19:35 right uh or are we exhibiting what the 0:19:38 whites 0:19:38 would have us er exhibit you know it's a 0:19:42 very interesting 0:19:43 concept and it's and it really taps into 0:19:44 the idea of seeing and being seen 0:19:47 right so because we're always being seen 0:19:50 does that notion of 0:19:51 being seen therefore have an effect and 0:19:53 a bearing on the way that we 0:19:55 choose to be seen by the people who are 0:19:58 always putting the spotlight on us and 0:20:00 and have us 0:20:01 uh you know projected in a particular 0:20:03 way uh so therefore motifs of barbarity 0:20:06 uh so if a normal person for example saw 0:20:09 a person 0:20:10 a picture like this well i wouldn't i 0:20:12 wouldn't say and i think we shouldn't 0:20:13 use normal person because 0:20:15 that's again an incorrect assumption 0:20:17 every person 0:20:18 is different and unique but perhaps we 0:20:20 can say that if some people 0:20:23 looked upon a picture like this they 0:20:25 would 0:20:26 have already framed within their minds 0:20:28 uh 0:20:29 within and through those pictures the 0:20:32 different kind of hats of the 0:20:33 silhouettes of the hats 0:20:34 that the people are wearing the burkas 0:20:36 for example the niqab 0:20:38 motifs of barbarity backwitness images 0:20:41 of women in hijab or burqa 0:20:43 framed around narratives of fair these 0:20:46 are refugees 0:20:47 right refugees pictured showing 0:20:49 therefore this is what 0:20:50 refugees are bringing with them right 0:20:53 this is what they're going to look like 0:20:54 and as you can see you can see rats rats 0:20:57 following them 0:20:58 you know it's this horrendous horrific 0:21:00 picture 0:21:02 this is fair of the affair of muslims 0:21:04 and the unknown 0:21:06 a common place and so 0:21:09 if you look here side by side 0:21:13 1930s nazi anti-semitic propaganda 0:21:16 and a daily mail cartoon from 17 0:21:18 november 2015 0:21:20 right so you see rats and remember that 0:21:24 rats are a pest rats are a pest and so 0:21:27 like 0:21:28 as in so to have rats and cooperated in 0:21:31 the language of propaganda 0:21:33 in the holocaust or here with muslims 0:21:35 and islamophobia 0:21:37 it's deliberately delivering this 0:21:38 message therefore that a pest needs to 0:21:40 be 0:21:41 you have to have an infestation you 0:21:43 manifestation you need a cleansing you 0:21:45 need 0:21:46 a removal of that infestation uh you 0:21:49 know to save yourselves and 0:21:51 and the population and so on and so 0:21:52 forth and therefore to be 0:21:54 projected to be predict to project it 0:21:57 you know as 0:21:58 human beings accompanied by rats is is 0:22:01 very 0:22:02 uh is very telling you know of that and 0:22:04 so 0:22:05 that's an example and this of course 0:22:08 this daily example i'm only choosing 0:22:10 uh or one example here but it's daily 0:22:12 examples of things like that that we can 0:22:14 see 0:22:15 uh in in in media particularly tabloid 0:22:18 media 0:22:19 all right so now who and what do we see 0:22:23 and what do we see this is very 0:22:25 interesting i think for us right now 0:22:27 um this is from 0:22:31 sanya hamadi right again this is it's 0:22:33 interesting because san hamadi himself 0:22:36 is a is an arab 0:22:39 and this is the uh the 0:22:43 this is the the narrative he has of 0:22:46 arabs 0:22:47 uh and he said the arabs so far have 0:22:49 demonstrated an incapacity for 0:22:51 disciplined and abiding unity 0:22:54 they experience collective outbursts of 0:22:56 enthusiasm but do not pursue patiently 0:22:59 collective endeavors which are usually 0:23:02 embraced half-heartedly 0:23:03 which are uh yeah they show a lack of 0:23:06 coordination 0:23:08 right lack of coordination and harmony 0:23:11 in organizing in organization 0:23:15 and function nor have they revealed an 0:23:17 inability 0:23:18 for cooperation any collective action 0:23:22 for a common benefit 0:23:23 or a mutual profit is alien to them 0:23:26 and just think about this just look at 0:23:28 this and think about it for a second 0:23:29 what's actually being 0:23:31 said over here right and think about the 0:23:33 ways that 0:23:34 uh in this individual's mind right and 0:23:38 from what he's writing over here the way 0:23:40 that a construct of arabs is created 0:23:43 and i've i've i've highlighted specific 0:23:46 words here 0:23:47 and um edward saeed makes mention of 0:23:50 this case as well 0:23:51 collective outbursts collective 0:23:53 endeavors 0:23:54 coordination cooperation collective 0:23:57 action 0:23:57 common benefit one of the tragic ironies 0:24:00 behind this whole thing is the fact that 0:24:01 there's no mention 0:24:03 about what those collective things 0:24:04 actually are 0:24:06 right so what is it what is a collective 0:24:08 endeavor that they're supposed to not be 0:24:10 able to do 0:24:11 what is collective action that they're 0:24:12 not doing what is common benefit that 0:24:15 they're not providing 0:24:16 right what is the cooperation that they 0:24:17 are not providing that they're not 0:24:18 fulfilling facilitating 0:24:20 what is the coordination and so by 0:24:22 leaving it so vague and ambiguous 0:24:24 by by using these kind of words it just 0:24:27 taps into public consciousness 0:24:29 and of course is very disparaging 0:24:30 towards our people the other key thing 0:24:32 about islamophobia is that 0:24:34 and this is an example so the way that 0:24:36 uh we we are seeing 0:24:38 uh one people as 0:24:42 one uh you know as as one as one 0:24:45 group and disallowing uh people 0:24:48 to be kind of a complex a complex 0:24:52 the complex complex mesh of all 0:24:54 individual 0:24:56 people right so the arabs of course are 0:24:59 not one 0:25:00 ethnic people living in one geographical 0:25:03 area 0:25:04 you have arabs from all over the uh 0:25:07 different countries of the world and and 0:25:09 each of them have different 0:25:11 uh different tastes and different skills 0:25:14 and talents and each one of them have 0:25:16 different 0:25:16 uh culture and different you know likes 0:25:19 and dislikes and this is i mean it's 0:25:21 just very simple 0:25:22 but it's but it's true for every other 0:25:24 human being it's all for all of us 0:25:26 but therefore by casting all arabs 0:25:29 as one and the same and therefore uh 0:25:31 unable to do 0:25:32 the things that hamadi mentions uh this 0:25:36 is a clear reflection of what islami 0:25:38 phobia is and where it results from and 0:25:40 how it's created and generated 0:25:42 um now 0:25:46 all right here we are all right so now 0:25:48 uh 0:25:49 herbert kelman reminds us that to 0:25:51 humanize someone is to perceive him as 0:25:53 an individual 0:25:54 independent and and distinguishable from 0:25:56 others 0:25:57 right that's something of course hamadi 0:25:59 doesn't do in his 0:26:00 uh in his comment right so to perceive 0:26:03 as an individual 0:26:04 independent and distinguishable from 0:26:06 others capable of making choices 0:26:09 right but by by castigating all arabs 0:26:12 as one and therefore uh unable to do so 0:26:15 many things 0:26:16 uh it's just the opposite of this the 0:26:18 same way one's predispositions to 0:26:20 error or one's likes and dislikes are 0:26:23 necessarily part of oneself 0:26:25 then so too must exist in the other 0:26:28 whatever you're seeing in yourself of 0:26:29 your own vulnerabilities 0:26:30 they also exist in another human being 0:26:32 which would mean an acceptance of being 0:26:34 disagreed with 0:26:35 or even in being disliked actually right 0:26:37 so but it's just 0:26:38 allowing therefore that space of uh 0:26:41 of humanizing to take place um the idea 0:26:45 is to see the other as a complex 0:26:47 human being to be genuinely curious 0:26:50 about the other person and to realize 0:26:52 that experiences affect different people 0:26:54 in different ways and do not be 0:26:56 presumptuous 0:26:57 about one person's attitude and 0:26:59 viewpoints due to an attitude 0:27:01 formed about the group to which the 0:27:03 other belongs 0:27:05 or because of views that um 0:27:08 uh you know his in group has formed 0:27:11 about one's 0:27:12 self is a requirement of empathy 0:27:15 um now before i continue let me go back 0:27:18 a little bit actually 0:27:19 so on on this one about again hamadi's 0:27:23 thing there is a longer discussion i 0:27:25 have in my book on being human 0:27:27 uh about the way that uh 0:27:30 arabs and muslims have had a kind of 0:27:33 just 0:27:34 successive negative portrayals uh in 0:27:37 in political cartoons in american 0:27:39 newspapers 0:27:40 in in american movies uh there's a 0:27:43 big research connected by a man called 0:27:45 lindenmann 0:27:47 and his research reveals this that in 0:27:50 papers like you know the washington post 0:27:51 washington star the miami news 0:27:53 the baltimore sun and others there's 0:27:56 always this excessive negative portrayal 0:27:59 uh in political cartoons uh 0:28:02 you find this for example particularly 0:28:05 during 0:28:06 you know israel's wars and campaigns of 0:28:08 barbarity 0:28:10 uh in in against the the people of gaza 0:28:13 uh a tendency of of just negative and 0:28:16 dehumanizing portrayals of arabs 0:28:18 and and sometimes oftentimes in fact 0:28:20 specifically palestinian arabs 0:28:22 now such negative images in fact are 0:28:24 often used 0:28:25 to promote american wars 0:28:28 like for example in iraq or in the case 0:28:31 of uh 0:28:32 other analysis like by parma or nasser 0:28:35 to promote israel's campaigns against 0:28:36 palestinians 0:28:38 um now nasser in fact has an interesting 0:28:40 chapter because 0:28:41 his work is on in fact his book is 0:28:43 called real 0:28:44 bad arabs real as in our eel badasses 0:28:48 upon their real bad arabs and he studies 0:28:52 uh the portrayal of arabs in american 0:28:55 movies 0:28:56 uh between like the late or 1890s 0:29:00 and and around 1960 and it reveals this 0:29:03 predominant image and that's a lot of 0:29:05 years 0:29:06 60 70 years predominant image of arabs 0:29:09 as backwards 0:29:10 as evil and as inhumane right 0:29:14 in in you have jack shahi i know sir i 0:29:17 think jack shaheen 0:29:18 has the book called real bad arabs he 0:29:21 has 0:29:21 an analysis of even more he looks at 0:29:23 over 900 hollywood movies 0:29:26 between 1896 and 2001 0:29:29 and this finds his dominant trend of 0:29:31 media presentation of arabs 0:29:33 as the dehumanized villain right so the 0:29:36 arab is always 0:29:38 the one to be fared as a villain uh and 0:29:41 you also have for example 0:29:42 that dehumanization negative portrayal 0:29:45 of arabs in radio in television 0:29:47 movies the arabs are prone to committing 0:29:50 acts of terrorism 0:29:52 against americans that's the muslim 0:29:54 faith you know 0:29:55 the muslim faith is kind of behind all 0:29:58 of this 0:29:58 uh and these are kind of mythical images 0:30:00 of arabs 0:30:01 as inherently evil violent uncultured 0:30:05 threatening uh prominent in in you know 0:30:07 social science textbooks even in 0:30:09 elementary schools right and so 0:30:13 this negative stereotype by arabs is 0:30:16 very predominant 0:30:17 yeah in media but also in in in 0:30:20 hollywood and and 0:30:21 in the movie industry um and so 0:30:25 now here's an example this is from 0:30:27 edward saeed he says the arabs appear as 0:30:29 an 0:30:29 over uh sorry let's go down sorry my 0:30:34 mistake 0:30:39 yeah so what he says is says that the 0:30:42 arabs appear 0:30:43 as an oversexed degenerate capable 0:30:47 it is if it is true of cleverly devious 0:30:51 intrigues but essentially sadistic 0:30:54 treacherous 0:30:55 low in newsreels and or newspapers the 0:30:58 arab is always shown in large numbers 0:31:01 right no individuality this whole point 0:31:03 so just think about the importance of 0:31:04 individual 0:31:05 individuality and so he says therefore 0:31:07 the arab is never 0:31:08 shown as an individual always as in 0:31:11 large numbers 0:31:12 no individuality no personal 0:31:14 characteristics of experiences 0:31:16 most of the pictures represent mass rage 0:31:19 and misery or irrational uh 0:31:23 inner gestures all right so just think 0:31:24 about the contrast there 0:31:26 one of my i have a book being released 0:31:28 in charlotte just in a few months now 0:31:30 uh entitled uh between war 0:31:34 descent and empathy seeing our others in 0:31:36 darkened spaces 0:31:37 and i have a chapter that discusses this 0:31:40 kind of the chap looks at the visual 0:31:43 constructs 0:31:44 that sometimes are very effective 0:31:48 in empathy bearing at other times they 0:31:50 kind of 0:31:51 impede upon that empathy bearing and 0:31:55 and i have a contrast between american 0:31:57 school shootings 0:31:59 with a particular focus on 2007 virginia 0:32:02 tech school shooting 0:32:03 which was like a high point in american 0:32:04 media because every single life was 0:32:06 humanized and 0:32:07 a lot of uh air time was given to seeing 0:32:10 the 0:32:10 the families of the victims but 0:32:14 by contrasting that then with iraq in 0:32:16 fact 2007 it was the worst year in iraq 0:32:19 since the war began in iraq um but you 0:32:22 don't have that sense of individualizing 0:32:24 even in suffering and grief 0:32:26 uh as edward said says you know many 0:32:28 years ago that is 0:32:29 this kind of seeing them as one uh one 0:32:32 homogenous 0:32:34 mesh uh and not as as individuals 0:32:38 and so uh 0:32:41 here's the question now here's another 0:32:43 way of looking at it this is from 0:32:45 uh now this is from in fact this is 0:32:47 interesting because 0:32:48 here we have a um uh this is from john 0:32:52 howard griffin in his book called black 0:32:54 like me 0:32:55 now he was a white american author who 0:32:57 temporarily altered 0:32:58 the pigment of his skin in order to 0:33:01 experience and 0:33:02 understand first hand the life of a 0:33:04 black man 0:33:05 very interesting a very courageous and 0:33:07 brave of him do that this is in southern 0:33:08 states of america 0:33:10 he describes his experience in in this 0:33:12 book black like me 0:33:13 now what this book recounts is numerous 0:33:16 incidents of the othering of black 0:33:17 people 0:33:18 of the arousing of hatred and suspicion 0:33:20 towards griffin 0:33:21 uh who you know for the whites he was an 0:33:25 african-american although he was really 0:33:26 a white person 0:33:27 his experience is very telling of the 0:33:29 psychology of dehumanization 0:33:31 prevalent in the states during that time 0:33:34 in fact what he writes is this he says 0:33:36 that i 0:33:38 learned within a very few hours that no 0:33:40 one was judging me 0:33:41 by my qualities as a human right 0:33:44 so now if you look at this he said they 0:33:46 could not see me or any other black man 0:33:48 as human individual 0:33:50 because they buried us under the garbage 0:33:52 of their stereotype give us that's a 0:33:53 very powerful 0:33:55 opening line read that again they could 0:33:57 not see me or any black man 0:33:59 as a human individual because they 0:34:02 buried us under the garbage of their 0:34:04 stereotype view of us 0:34:05 they saw us as different from themselves 0:34:08 in fundamental ways how could white men 0:34:11 ever really know black men if on every 0:34:13 contact the white man's stereotype view 0:34:15 of the black man 0:34:16 got in the way it's about the building 0:34:19 up of those stereotypes right i never 0:34:22 knew a black man who felt this 0:34:24 stereotype view 0:34:25 fit him right so that's kind of 0:34:28 obviously 0:34:28 unfair it's an it's the lie uh 0:34:32 always in every encounter even with good 0:34:33 whites we had the feeling that the white 0:34:35 person was not talking with us 0:34:37 but with the image of us that's a very 0:34:41 powerful line right that last line 0:34:44 right we had the feeling that the white 0:34:48 person was not talking with us 0:34:49 but with his image of us that image 0:34:53 creation is perpetuated in media 0:34:56 through just talking you know amongst 0:34:59 themselves stereotyping 0:35:02 lying uh you know the media visual 0:35:05 representations 0:35:06 all of these things have an effect on 0:35:08 the way that image 0:35:10 of of black people was created and this 0:35:12 is something that john howard griffin 0:35:13 really reveals uh you know quite 0:35:16 poignantly 0:35:17 in in his book and so 0:35:21 that's i think a very very powerful 0:35:23 observation that you know he makes 0:35:26 uh in in his book that there's they're 0:35:27 not in fact speaking with us 0:35:30 they're in fact speaking uh you know 0:35:32 with that image 0:35:33 of us instead all right so 0:35:37 now why do people why do we dehumanize 0:35:40 what is it 0:35:41 now amongst other reasons there are 0:35:43 potential political 0:35:44 motivations now this is something 0:35:46 interesting this is from 0:35:48 butler's book precarious life uh the 0:35:50 powers of mourning and violence and 0:35:52 uh you know of course there's many 0:35:56 things that she advocates that we 0:35:57 inherently disagree with 0:35:59 uh you know but but this i think was 0:36:02 interesting and this 0:36:03 is a lot that she i mean she does in 0:36:06 fact 0:36:06 in relation to um the human suffering 0:36:09 element of of authorized victims 0:36:12 of war and conflict and she says that 0:36:15 the very conception of the human is 0:36:17 brought into question 0:36:18 it is not simply that some humans are 0:36:21 treated as humans 0:36:22 and others are dehumanized it is rather 0:36:24 that humanization becomes the condition 0:36:27 for the production of the human to the 0:36:29 extent that a western civilization 0:36:30 defines itself 0:36:32 over and against the population 0:36:33 understood as the definition of the 0:36:35 illegitimate if not 0:36:36 db human this whole point i made about 0:36:38 that the binary 0:36:40 the the juxtaposing of self and 0:36:43 otherness 0:36:44 that the self in fact is defined and 0:36:46 created 0:36:47 with that and through that juxtaposing 0:36:49 of 0:36:50 uh of of the other the if the other 0:36:53 therefore 0:36:54 is made up of all of these evil 0:36:56 tendencies and traits then the self of 0:36:57 course must be 0:36:58 you know uh pure 0:37:01 and wholesome and this is the way that 0:37:04 these things are created 0:37:06 um now i also want us to 0:37:09 think about um 0:37:12 yeah so here we are now 0:37:17 the one we dehumanize we now count as 0:37:20 the other 0:37:22 uh the other consists of incomplete 0:37:25 parts 0:37:26 right incomplete parts insufficiently 0:37:29 human and thus inadequate for a place 0:37:33 in the world or our world for the 0:37:35 dehumanized principles of morality 0:37:38 no longer apply and any moral restraints 0:37:41 against abuse 0:37:42 torture or killing are readily overcome 0:37:45 right 0:37:45 so you know that that suffering is going 0:37:47 to be proliferated because 0:37:49 those restraints against abuse moral 0:37:52 restraints 0:37:53 you know a bettering of education a 0:37:54 bettering of teaching 0:37:56 um you know a an encountering 0:37:59 uh of humans together uh all of these 0:38:03 things you know can have an effect 0:38:05 but they're readily overcome 0:38:06 humanization is a facing it is to 0:38:09 contort another's image and ascribe to 0:38:12 it 0:38:12 all the qualities one would find 0:38:15 repugnant 0:38:16 to have within oneself all right 0:38:19 and of course the the list is endless of 0:38:22 the effects 0:38:23 of islamophobia of constructing of 0:38:26 otherness 0:38:26 of dehumanization and what it leads to 0:38:29 uh one of the 0:38:31 one of the sections in my book 0:38:34 uh is about a a very tragic incident 0:38:37 concerning 0:38:38 a young girl and her family in iraq 0:38:41 in 2006 and this is a very tragic case 0:38:44 of our sister our blessed sister abir 0:38:47 abir hamza qasim al-janabi and her 0:38:50 family 0:38:50 you know her family you know her sister 0:38:53 hadil 0:38:54 her father muhammad 0:38:58 her her mother uh 0:39:02 you know all of whom were killed on this 0:39:04 very tragic day and what happened is on 0:39:06 march 0:39:06 the 12th 2006 five u.s soldiers 0:39:11 uh of the 502nd infantry regiment 0:39:14 uh they they left their checkpoint 0:39:18 for the genevieve farm house this is 0:39:19 this very simple 0:39:21 family the genevieve family and this is 0:39:24 and they lived in the 0:39:26 southwest of the village of yusufiya in 0:39:28 the town of mahmudi in iraq 0:39:30 so one of the soldiers brian howard 0:39:34 he acted as acts as a lookout and the 0:39:37 other four soldiers 0:39:38 they entered the house they entered the 0:39:40 family home 0:39:41 the father in fact the father was 0:39:43 outside with hadil 0:39:45 uh you know um and so 0:39:49 they kind of pushed him in with their 0:39:51 guns to all get in 0:39:52 to all enter the house and this was 0:39:55 subsequent really to a plan devised 0:39:57 by the assailants of raping a __ girl 0:40:02 raping a __ girl right now that word 0:40:04 __ is very essential 0:40:06 because __ although muslims would see 0:40:08 that as a as a title 0:40:10 of of great respect because a person has 0:40:12 performed the hajj 0:40:13 the americans looked upon iraqis as 0:40:16 hajjis and that was a dehumanizing label 0:40:19 right to see someone sahaja you with 0:40:21 someone is like 0:40:22 seeing them as as a vermin or as 0:40:25 cockroach or as a rat 0:40:27 and so afternoon that day the soldiers 0:40:29 they entered the home 0:40:31 uh where you know two of the soldiers 0:40:33 barca and cortez 0:40:35 and green in fact three of them took 0:40:37 turns to rape a beer abeer abir was 14 0:40:40 years old 0:40:41 i have a chapter a very lengthy chapter 0:40:43 uh in my book that's coming out in 0:40:45 charlotte 0:40:45 in a few months time uh called 0:40:49 the framing of abir it's about 0:40:52 the mahmudiyah killings and the framing 0:40:53 of iberia and it's about the way that 0:40:55 abir khazal janabi 0:40:57 was framed in america in american media 0:41:00 and one of the first things 0:41:01 that you know commentators after the 0:41:04 effects 0:41:05 noticed but also some good you know 0:41:07 social media sites picked up on quite 0:41:09 early 0:41:10 is the fact that uh they never gave a 0:41:12 beer 0:41:13 very early on uh her true 0:41:16 age right in the american media she was 0:41:18 25 years old 0:41:20 right so the big difference in people's 0:41:22 minds about raping 0:41:24 a 14 year old child and then raping a 25 0:41:29 year old woman 0:41:30 right but by by because it went against 0:41:33 the dominant narrative 0:41:35 uh of in american media as american 0:41:38 saviors 0:41:39 entering into iraq and liberating the 0:41:40 iraqi people this went against the 0:41:42 dominant narrative of 0:41:44 of a woman damsel in distress victim 0:41:48 saved by american champions of of 0:41:50 freedom 0:41:51 went against that because the ones who 0:41:55 horrifically horrifically planned this 0:41:58 attack 0:41:59 raped this child you know abhir 0:42:03 took turns in doing that was 0:42:06 and then of course in the other room 0:42:08 they have the mother and the father have 0:42:09 hadil 0:42:10 and the remaining members family were 0:42:12 all shot dead you know 0:42:14 and it's likely that abeer would have 0:42:15 had her family being shot dead 0:42:18 as she was being raped 0:42:22 the men then shot dead up here set her 0:42:24 body on fire 0:42:25 and then left the house you know now 0:42:28 this is the key point about 0:42:29 dehumanization 0:42:30 and islamophobia green stephen green 0:42:34 you're also an ex-drone operator by the 0:42:36 way he stated that he raped a 0:42:38 14-year-old abeer and killed her 0:42:40 alongside her family 0:42:41 because he didn't this is the quote he 0:42:44 quote 0:42:44 didn't view iraqis as human 0:42:48 end quote right he didn't view iraqis 0:42:52 as human now how can somebody 0:42:55 not view iraqis as human when they look 0:42:59 like you 0:42:59 and they talk like you and they laugh 0:43:01 like you and they cry like you 0:43:03 all of these human the human humanity 0:43:06 the same we call these human codes of 0:43:08 recognizability 0:43:10 how did he not see that but because that 0:43:12 image 0:43:13 of iraq iraqi society iraqi people 0:43:16 muslim people in iraq negative image 0:43:19 negative portrayals is so 0:43:21 dominant in american media like i 0:43:23 mentioned 0:43:24 in american movies in american media 0:43:26 american images 0:43:28 of that distant arab muslim other 0:43:32 that of course taps into people's 0:43:34 consciousness of course it 0:43:36 has it doesn't excuse him for anything 0:43:38 for what he did 0:43:39 but that's that's how that image of the 0:43:42 other is 0:43:42 is created uh and this of course was a 0:43:45 very horrific case but these things 0:43:47 happen 0:43:48 on a daily basis in in war and there's 0:43:51 so many things that people could say 0:43:53 uh what happens in palestine what 0:43:54 happens in you know in 0:43:56 in places like in iraq uh in in syria 0:44:00 and many 0:44:00 different places in the world for 0:44:02 affecting muslims and also affecting 0:44:04 non-muslims victims of injustice and 0:44:06 violence as well 0:44:08 [Music]0:44:10 now this is uh very interesting for our 0:44:13 topic about 0:44:15 othering because there is of course 0:44:20 a historical uh in a baggage there is 0:44:24 a lot uh kind of in in human history 0:44:27 that has created this uh sense of 0:44:31 othering particularly here in this case 0:44:32 of muslims um the european perception 0:44:36 of arabs muslims and turks as 0:44:39 dark and devilish others in fact 0:44:42 emanated from 0:44:44 uh military engagements ottomans had in 0:44:46 the balkans 0:44:47 uh and it had its important role in 0:44:50 creating this otherness about them and 0:44:53 in 0:44:53 self-image making as well uh 0:44:57 but the vilification so you'll see that 0:45:00 the vilifying of a people 0:45:01 carries with a train of propaganda so if 0:45:05 you look at this this is an account of 0:45:07 one of the surviving accounts of the 0:45:10 speech of of pope evan ii at claremont 0:45:14 um now in this speech of his 0:45:18 uh which of course is was written after 0:45:20 the 0:45:21 the the success of the crusaders in the 0:45:23 first crusade 0:45:24 so therefore it's kind of it's bound by 0:45:26 this uh 0:45:27 you know exaggeration but the but the 0:45:30 but the language is very key 0:45:32 so what he says is the grave reports 0:45:34 come from the lands around jerusalem 0:45:35 that are raised 0:45:36 absolutely alien to god has invaded the 0:45:39 land of the christians 0:45:40 uh which of course is completely 0:45:42 nonsense because muslims had been 0:45:44 settled there for 0:45:45 uh for many centuries by that time they 0:45:47 have either raised the churches of god 0:45:50 to the ground or enslaved them to their 0:45:52 own right which of course was complete 0:45:53 nonsense 0:45:54 they cut open the navels of those whom 0:45:55 they choose to torment 0:45:57 which was also complete nonsense then at 0:45:59 them as they lie on the ground with all 0:46:01 their entrails out which is so 0:46:03 so evil and sadistic but it's complete 0:46:05 nonsense what can i say of the appalling 0:46:08 violation of women 0:46:09 which is nonsense again on whom does the 0:46:11 task line of avenging this 0:46:14 if not on you so this is appeal you know 0:46:16 to 0:46:17 uh the people of france and 0:46:20 uh and christians to to right to the 0:46:23 challenge of 0:46:24 of uh fighting the muslims and of taking 0:46:27 the city of jerusalem from them 0:46:29 take the road to the holy sepulchre 0:46:31 rescue that land and rule over 0:46:32 yourselves 0:46:33 for that land as scripture says floweth 0:46:35 with milk and honey 0:46:36 take this road for the remission of your 0:46:38 sins assured of the unfading glory 0:46:41 of the kingdom of heaven and when pope 0:46:43 every second had said these words 0:46:44 everyone shouted in unison 0:46:46 due to wall to swole meaning god will 0:46:48 say god will said 0:46:50 now this is a a part of a much longer 0:46:52 discussion 0:46:53 uh you know there's a lot i mean my 0:46:57 my you know i'm a crusade historian by 0:47:00 the way 0:47:01 so my my my work my first book in fact 0:47:04 is 0:47:04 a book on the crusades my masters and pc 0:47:06 were both on the crusades 0:47:08 um but what this is really revealing 0:47:12 is that this account and other accounts 0:47:14 of 0:47:15 of christian pilgrims to jerusalem they 0:47:17 reveal that 0:47:18 you know before the 12th century a grand 0:47:21 narrative 0:47:21 of muslims as enemies as the spoilers of 0:47:24 jerusalem as 0:47:26 heathen didn't exist before that time 0:47:29 the stage hadn't yet been set the 0:47:31 political circumstances involving 0:47:33 the cell dukes you know encroaching into 0:47:36 constantinople and 0:47:37 battle of manzika in in 1074.0:47:41 al-barisalan uh you know they what did 0:47:44 they say 0:47:45 in emotion kind of a mental uh 0:47:48 imagining or reimagining of muslims as 0:47:51 the enemies 0:47:52 of god who had to be fought now these 0:47:55 four 0:47:55 different accounts of urban speech each 0:47:58 present 0:47:59 a different version of what his speech 0:48:01 entailed 0:48:02 but the build-up of anti-muslim rhetoric 0:48:05 is 0:48:06 is you know you can't mistake this 0:48:07 unmistakable he presents a situation 0:48:09 under a threat of a wicked race 0:48:11 partake in abominable practices crusade 0:48:14 propagandists you know from urban second 0:48:16 speech 0:48:17 uh in this time clermont 25 to fight the 0:48:20 crusades in subsequent decades 0:48:22 produced the image of the muslims as a 0:48:23 godless defiler 0:48:25 of christian sanctities as a barbaric 0:48:27 torture of christians as an idol 0:48:29 worshiper 0:48:30 the othering of the muslims had begun 0:48:31 and became more pronounced 0:48:33 when muslims were outside the bounds of 0:48:35 normative civilized society as 0:48:37 animals right when he says for example 0:48:40 who cut open the navels of those whom 0:48:42 they choose remember this is animalistic 0:48:44 taken from you know this account 0:48:47 right so now why this is so important 0:48:50 for us 0:48:50 understanding islamophobia it's very key 0:48:53 because 0:48:54 you see how propaganda plays an 0:48:56 essential 0:48:58 part in the build up to the crusades 0:49:01 right but this is how it happens for 0:49:03 anything for these uh 0:49:04 attacks that happen against muslims 0:49:07 right so 0:49:08 inflammatory imagery provokes moral 0:49:10 outrage 0:49:11 right uh and you see that the 0:49:15 in this case the othering of muslims was 0:49:17 connected to the idea of the spoiling of 0:49:19 christian sites 0:49:20 right the above i mean he preaches the 0:49:23 barbarity towards 0:49:24 other christians that come from uh come 0:49:27 from these lands 0:49:28 now what makes this interesting so as 0:49:30 you can see in the top it's not 0:49:32 i mean the genesis of the crusades was 0:49:33 not coming from from clermont 0:49:36 it began in fact in the iberian 0:49:37 peninsula uh 0:49:39 the spain in fact was the first theater 0:49:41 of crusading 0:49:42 and the pope gregory the seventh and and 0:49:45 then uh 0:49:46 evan a second after that so you had 0:49:48 crusades that were launched against 0:49:50 muslims 0:49:51 to retake the city of zaragoza for 0:49:54 example or 0:49:55 defend the church of taragona and the 0:49:57 remission of sins were granted 0:49:59 to christians from spain spanish 0:50:01 christians who would do that 0:50:03 you know in within spain but they would 0:50:05 have remission of sins as the 0:50:06 as christians later on a few years after 0:50:09 that 0:50:09 uh when they traveled to jerusalem 0:50:13 now this is interesting because 0:50:16 uh you know what happens and i'll just 0:50:19 move down one second 0:50:23 there we are now 0:50:26 the spanish inquisition of course uh in 0:50:29 the 16th century 0:50:30 uh was the worst was the worst 0:50:32 manifestation of this and by the way 0:50:34 so as we saw urban a second uh account 0:50:38 of people 0:50:39 shouting as a as the captain jerusalem 0:50:41 just full to fall so all these horrific 0:50:43 acts that they would commit against the 0:50:44 muslims 0:50:45 smashing babies heads against the walls 0:50:47 and slaughtering people 0:50:48 uh they would say decibel god wills that 0:50:50 god wills it to happen 0:50:52 uh thomas the tacomada the grand the 0:50:55 grand um 0:50:56 uh he was he wasn't the grandmaster he 0:50:59 was the um 0:51:01 he was a grand inquisitor the grand 0:51:03 inquisitor 0:51:04 after so you had nicholas america in his 0:51:06 book derek told him inquisitorium 0:51:08 and then you had thomas de camada top of 0:51:11 the mother he came out with the 0:51:12 the slogan 0:51:15 and just like means god wills it god 0:51:18 wills it 0:51:19 so the language is the same right so 0:51:21 whatever they're doing 0:51:22 in the inquisition horrific horrific 0:51:24 torture of muslims 0:51:26 just like where god wills it to happen 0:51:28 now that image 0:51:29 is built up so for example in in the uh 0:51:32 in spanish inquisition in 16th century 0:51:34 muslims were depicted as saracens 0:51:37 hagarians 0:51:38 hagerine beasts look at that hagreen 0:51:41 beast 0:51:42 in the 16th century in the hashburg 0:51:44 empire muslim turks 0:51:45 were portrayed as terrible turk 0:51:48 as a sub-human enemy spaniards uh 0:51:51 described the moras 0:51:53 as greedy and sadistic and official 0:51:56 documents of mariscos 0:51:57 uh were routinely referred to as 0:51:59 pestilence 0:52:01 just imagine that image a picture of 0:52:02 that of those rats as pestilence 0:52:04 as a plague a fever a pestilential horde 0:52:09 or beasts or vipers within the bosom of 0:52:11 spain 0:52:12 this was a kind of language used in 0:52:14 polemic texts 0:52:15 written in support of the expulsion of 0:52:17 muslims 0:52:18 now one of them a former preacher in 0:52:20 valencia francesca wrote that 0:52:22 how the treason and bad customs of the 0:52:24 mariscos 0:52:26 were inherited in their corrupted blood 0:52:28 and their mother's milk 0:52:30 it's crazy crazy look at that you know 0:52:33 they've inherited this evil you know 0:52:35 from because they're just naturally 0:52:37 evil but this then continues so as you 0:52:39 can see i've got radovan 0:52:40 karachik this is from the genocide in 0:52:42 bosnia he says muslims will disappear 0:52:45 what that people will disappear from the 0:52:47 face of 0:52:48 the earth now the genocide of muslims in 0:52:50 bosnia and from 1995 0:52:53 uh this concept is critical right and 0:52:56 understand i think i have 0:52:57 in the next slide maybe not uh 0:53:01 here we are it's actually over here all 0:53:03 right so just look at it i'll i'll go 0:53:05 back in a second 0:53:06 but here we have kratojek rather than 0:53:08 kratoc and he was infamous in describing 0:53:10 bosnian muslims as filth as traitors 0:53:12 and vermin that needed to be annihilated 0:53:15 in the words of 0:53:16 biljana plaffcik krejcic's deputy it was 0:53:19 serb genetically deformed material that 0:53:22 embraced 0:53:23 islam right let's go back for a second 0:53:26 now what makes this interesting 0:53:30 uh well not interesting but actually 0:53:32 just horrific 0:53:34 is this so if you look at the next one 0:53:37 okay so we have a bit more about race 0:53:39 over here but we can actually skip this 0:53:41 one 0:53:41 because we have covered a bit about race 0:53:43 but if we have different things about 0:53:45 the way that um uh 0:53:48 the processor amino gave such an amazing 0:53:51 space of acceptance and nobility 0:53:54 not just acceptance but nobility uh to 0:53:57 to bilal of course he was a black 0:53:59 abyssinian slave 0:54:01 and then of course taught that uh 0:54:04 you know that anyone who disparages 0:54:06 somebody else on account 0:54:07 of their ethnicity and color is his 0:54:09 reflection of ignorance 0:54:12 and the prophet demonstrated to one of 0:54:14 his noble companions 0:54:18 over here therefore we have um okay 0:54:22 here we are now okay we're going to get 0:54:26 to 0:54:27 terence manifesto in a second uh okay so 0:54:30 on june the 5th this is again 0:54:32 the holocaust 1942 the human beings 0:54:34 marked for the death and mobile 0:54:35 gas chambers at chelmo are always 0:54:38 referred to as the cargo 0:54:39 or the items it's going back to the 0:54:42 holocaust and 0:54:43 disallowing personal identity 0:54:45 disallowing disallowing the humanity 0:54:47 that they're not human beings with names 0:54:49 and naming of course is so powerful 0:54:51 because 0:54:52 it's a person's personality identity is 0:54:54 within that name 0:54:55 but they weren't allowed to have names 0:54:56 they were called cargo and items 0:54:58 therefore it made it easier 0:55:00 for those nazi soldiers and guards to 0:55:03 slaughter 0:55:03 the jewish population because they 0:55:06 didn't see them 0:55:06 as fully human beings now brent and 0:55:09 taran of course the 0:55:10 the one who took part in who who 0:55:14 carried out the christ church terror 0:55:16 attacks which claimed the lives of 50 0:55:18 muslims 0:55:19 praying at the noor masjid and the 0:55:21 linwood islamic center 0:55:23 last year in 2019 you know 0:55:26 for him you see this concept because 0:55:29 there existed an entrenched sense of 0:55:31 othering 0:55:32 of muslims in his manifesto this one the 0:55:35 great replacement 0:55:36 um and there's so much that connects the 0:55:39 mastermind of the bonus bosnian genocide 0:55:42 right rather than karajic that we just 0:55:44 read about a second ago 0:55:45 and taran in fact radovan karajik was 0:55:48 infamous in describing boston muslims as 0:55:49 filth as traitors 0:55:51 and vermin that needed to be annihilated 0:55:53 as we discussed but the 0:55:55 you see the parallels here you know so 0:55:58 so 0:55:59 uh patently because he describes 0:56:02 everything 0:56:03 in his in his manifesto right so look at 0:56:07 what he says 0:56:08 he says that um 0:56:11 so he describes that the motive for his 0:56:13 attack was to create fear and 0:56:16 calls for the killing of muslims in 0:56:19 europe it threatens 0:56:22 turks referring to them with the 0:56:24 dehumanizing 0:56:25 roaches meaning cockroaches and he says 0:56:28 in his manifesto 0:56:29 but if you attempt to live in european 0:56:31 lands anywhere west of the bosphorus 0:56:33 we will kill you and drive you roaches 0:56:36 from our lands 0:56:38 so what does it sound like it sounds 0:56:39 like urban a second 0:56:41 speech you know now here we have 0:56:44 uh someone that we're all familiar with 0:56:46 at least for those of us in the uk 0:56:49 katie hopkins so katie hopkins of course 0:56:52 very famous islamophobe who really 0:56:55 really 0:56:57 just has no uh has no 0:57:00 end in in dehumanizing and 0:57:03 uh uh muslims and uh is very 0:57:07 anti uh you know it's that sense of uh 0:57:10 she 0:57:10 it really has no uh tolerance for that 0:57:13 sense of muslimness that we saw in the 0:57:15 first definition 0:57:16 uh in april 2015 hope copkins wrote a 0:57:19 column 0:57:19 for the sun titled rescue boats against 0:57:21 about refugees 0:57:23 and she says i'd used a gunship to stop 0:57:25 migrants 0:57:26 in which she began by stating no i don't 0:57:28 care show me pictures of coffins 0:57:31 show me bodies floating in water play 0:57:33 violins 0:57:34 and show me skinny people looking sad i 0:57:37 still 0:57:37 don't care you think to yourself what 0:57:40 kind of 0:57:41 i mean what kind of uh i mean absence of 0:57:44 humanity there is 0:57:45 in that statement you know i mean that's 0:57:49 that's just horrific what she's saying 0:57:52 later in the piece she called migrants 0:57:53 in britain 0:57:54 this plague of feral humans look at that 0:57:58 migrants who are escaping war zones 0:58:02 you know who've lost family members and 0:58:04 they've just been surrounded by death 0:58:06 and they're coming for somewhere else 0:58:07 for safety and saying that this 0:58:09 plague of feral humans and stated make 0:58:12 no mistake 0:58:13 these migrants are like cockroaches 0:58:15 right 0:58:16 exactly the language of dehumanization 0:58:18 is one of the same 0:58:19 it was the same in rwanda right so 0:58:23 uh if you look at rwanda here 94 tutsis 0:58:27 were castigated with a spoiled identity 0:58:30 a state of nothingness 0:58:31 as things cockroaches as animals 0:58:35 so you see what these things tap into 0:58:37 right they tap 0:58:38 into this culture of hate which leads 0:58:41 them to abuse which leads them to attack 0:58:43 which leads to murder 0:58:44 you know used to murder leads to attacks 0:58:47 against 0:58:48 people other human beings muslims 0:58:50 because of this 0:58:51 propaganda that's you know uh is uh 0:58:54 fueled in in tabloid media within a 0:58:57 people 0:58:58 like these ones i've just spoken about 0:59:01 now 0:59:02 now how do we question is for us how do 0:59:05 we 0:59:06 overcome uh how do we overcome 0:59:10 uh islamophobia through effective 0:59:12 engagement 0:59:13 uh now this is key for us to understand 0:59:16 because this is something that's quranic 0:59:18 and allah gives us a beautiful example 0:59:21 here because remember that 0:59:22 uh the prophet sallam he of course 0:59:25 underwent 0:59:26 uh you know very virile and and evil 0:59:29 attacks 0:59:30 from his own people you know people who 0:59:33 he was uh he was sent to initially of 0:59:36 course the makkan people 0:59:37 uh dealt with him in a very horrific way 0:59:40 uh 0:59:41 they they character assassinated him 0:59:43 they they 0:59:45 abused him they threw the intestines of 0:59:48 animals on him 0:59:49 you know they did horrific things to him 0:59:51 they did they killed his companions 0:59:54 they threw him out of makkah and live in 0:59:55 the wilderness 0:59:57 uh but allah gave a very beautiful 0:59:59 ordinance in the quran 1:00:01 about responding with that which is 1:00:03 better and allah 1:00:05 and allah ties this in fact to our role 1:00:08 as 1:00:08 duat our role as as carriers of islam as 1:00:11 callers 1:00:12 to islam 1:00:22 and who speaks better than someone who 1:00:24 calls people to allah 1:00:25 does what is right and says i am one of 1:00:28 those 1:00:28 devoted to allah and one of the muslims 1:00:30 and allah says 1:00:34 good and evil cannot be equal allah says 1:00:40 repel evil with what is better 1:00:47 and your enemy 1:00:50 will become as close as an old and 1:00:53 valued friend 1:00:55 but only those allah says who are 1:00:56 steadfast in patience 1:00:58 only those who are blessed with great 1:01:00 righteousness will attain 1:01:02 such goodness and if a prompting from 1:01:04 shaytan would stir you 1:01:06 he should steal you seek refuge with 1:01:07 allah and he is 1:01:09 all hearing and all-knowing a very 1:01:11 important paradigm for us to look 1:01:13 closely at 1:01:14 right about you know times in the 1:01:17 prophet's life where 1:01:18 these kind of things happen but we 1:01:20 should think about 1:01:21 the prophetic character the prophetic 1:01:24 example 1:01:25 right and then of course what allah 1:01:26 outlines for us as muslims 1:01:28 in the quran what kind of an example to 1:01:30 follow now of course 1:01:31 there may be a distinction to be made 1:01:33 between state power 1:01:35 state power you know propelled uh kept 1:01:38 in place 1:01:39 by uh you know nationalism 1:01:43 and by capitalism uh you know and 1:01:46 industries of war uh these things that 1:01:49 really perpetuate 1:01:50 uh dehumanization perpetuate 1:01:52 islamophobia 1:01:53 to to sell these wars and to create 1:01:56 these binaries in the world between 1:01:59 uh you know and just for the sake of 1:02:01 just the balance of power you know for 1:02:03 the sake of 1:02:03 uh projecting some nations as saviors of 1:02:07 freedom and liberty and so 1:02:09 and therefore the opposite end others as 1:02:12 being 1:02:12 the opposite of that and like we've 1:02:14 discussed before the way that constructs 1:02:16 of self and otherness are created 1:02:18 uh is really defined by one another 1:02:21 but we're dealing with the self so the 1:02:23 self therefore manufactures 1:02:25 uh this evil and imputed on the other 1:02:28 and therefore it gives legitimacy to 1:02:31 one's 1:02:32 self to oneself and so 1:02:37 uh you know in the prophet's time we 1:02:38 have been examples like that 1:02:40 but before we look at that here we are 1:02:42 okay now dehumanization 1:02:44 is a blurring this is from my book and 1:02:46 we're coming towards the end of it soon 1:02:47 inshallah 1:02:48 but just i wanted to incorporate this 1:02:50 because i think it's important 1:02:51 when we spoke about stephen green as 1:02:54 being a drone pilot 1:02:56 what does that do in our world today 1:02:58 dehumanization is a blurring of 1:03:00 distinctions 1:03:01 and rendering of others as faceless and 1:03:03 unlike ourselves 1:03:05 as discussed the rise of drone warfare 1:03:07 in our skies today 1:03:08 of remote controlled air war has 1:03:10 generated a new mode of de-personalized 1:03:12 killings 1:03:13 of dehumanizing of demonization distance 1:03:16 and detachment 1:03:17 chamber u in drone theory explain 1:03:19 thousands of miles can now be 1:03:21 interposed between the trigger on which 1:03:24 one's finger rests 1:03:25 and the cannon from which the cannonball 1:03:27 will fly 1:03:28 the mechanism of dehumanization and the 1:03:30 way it betrays the trueness of human 1:03:32 conscience 1:03:33 in its forcible self-antagonizing to 1:03:35 look away 1:03:36 from what lies of itself before itself 1:03:40 this is you know from from on being 1:03:41 human 1:03:43 but we're seeing how that's created and 1:03:45 constructed all right so 1:03:47 again about overcoming some phobia 1:03:49 through effective engagement 1:03:51 now there's a range of things here for 1:03:53 us to think about uh on the one hand of 1:03:55 course we see that in makkah allah is 1:03:56 revealing 1:04:07 be patient about what they say right and 1:04:09 glorify your lord 1:04:11 so in the morning and in the evening 1:04:13 allah is saying that continue with your 1:04:15 with your task of of remembering allah 1:04:17 subhanahu wa 1:04:18 allah allah says uh 1:04:22 be patient by what they say is 1:04:28 allah says be appreciated what they say 1:04:30 and remember our servant dawood 1:04:33 allah says he had power power of 1:04:35 obedience to allah 1:04:36 and he was awab 1:04:40 returning all of his affairs back to 1:04:42 allah meaning don't 1:04:43 lose your sense of that religious 1:04:46 discipline 1:04:47 of always being in allah's remembrance 1:04:49 of always praying to allah always 1:04:51 trusting in allah 1:04:53 be patient with what they say that's an 1:04:55 example here of the mama 1:04:57 the mama even i thought was important 1:04:59 now we often make an assumption that the 1:05:01 average 1:05:02 man you know might be naturally 1:05:04 confrontational or hostile to islam or 1:05:06 muslims we all of course process process 1:05:09 media information 1:05:11 in in different ways and there are those 1:05:13 who might be more susceptible to 1:05:14 stereotyping 1:05:16 than others depending on their 1:05:17 background information 1:05:20 demographics and genuine concerns that 1:05:22 when the prisoner of the omaha 1:05:26 decided to accept islam he said to the 1:05:29 prophet 1:05:30 that there was nothing he despised more 1:05:33 he says than your land but now your land 1:05:36 has become the most beloved land to me 1:05:39 right this means that you know 1:05:41 his other ring of islam and muslims 1:05:45 affect not only his perception of of the 1:05:47 russell 1:05:48 but also of the land associated with the 1:05:50 prophet the religion 1:05:52 the prophet the blessed face even 1:05:53 mentioned his religion and the city were 1:05:55 all a point 1:05:56 of concern for thomamer but the but the 1:05:59 prosecutions in a transformative 1:06:01 character 1:06:02 and forbearance opened a new space of 1:06:05 understanding for the prison remember 1:06:07 the president was saying this is dawah 1:06:08 this is 1:06:09 calling the world to allah how do you 1:06:12 call the world to allah 1:06:14 you know under the umbrella of such uh 1:06:17 you know intense 1:06:18 propaganda and media campaigning and and 1:06:21 and and abuse and and dehumanization 1:06:25 islamophobia how do you do that right 1:06:27 and you see the prophetic character 1:06:29 remarkable 1:06:30 right so he had he had a kind of it's 1:06:32 kind of a point of just concern for the 1:06:34 mama 1:06:35 right but the prophet from the 1:06:37 transformative character and 1:06:38 forbearance opened a new space of 1:06:40 understanding for the prisoner 1:06:42 though he initially assumed that the 1:06:43 process could in fact have killed 1:06:46 uh him he also knew that his release 1:06:48 from captivity was 1:06:50 was also a possibility right look at 1:06:53 examples here of 1:06:54 people at balbir saying balbara singh of 1:06:55 course was one of the masterminds of the 1:06:57 destruction of 1:06:59 of the babri masjid in the 1990s 1:07:02 you know that the uh that the hindus 1:07:06 uh destroyed you know now of course it's 1:07:08 it's a temple 1:07:10 um but he was one of those who and in 1:07:12 his account he says i did 1:07:14 it to please my gods you know uh 1:07:16 alhamdulillah 1:07:17 versus became muslim he's now uh 1:07:20 muhammad 1:07:21 i think muhammad is his name and he 1:07:23 makes his vow and he says i'm going to 1:07:25 now 1:07:25 build the 900 mosques you know i had to 1:07:29 compensate for what i did 1:07:30 and of course see if he became muslim 1:07:32 allah forgive all of his 1:07:33 sins but still he has that conscience 1:07:36 now he's built alhamdulillah more than 1:07:37 90 months 1:07:38 since that time 1990s his name is 1:07:41 muhammad 1:07:41 balbir singh other one of course jaram 1:07:44 van clever and this is 1:07:45 that dutch uh politician uh and these 1:07:48 are people who uh 1:07:49 i think he wrote the book he wrote a 1:07:51 book uh that was uh 1:07:54 against the process and then looking 1:07:57 closely at the prophetic life 1:07:58 prophetic character discipline he 1:08:02 himself becomes muslim subhanallah 1:08:04 right so this always people gonna 1:08:07 you know do things like these people did 1:08:09 over here 1:08:10 because guidance is in allah's hands but 1:08:12 allah wants us to do well 1:08:13 look at the example of the process and 1:08:15 abu bakr's father 1:08:16 very beautiful example now remember of 1:08:19 course that the makkans 1:08:21 you know were the ones who were you know 1:08:23 they were the ones who were the most 1:08:24 virile and the other ones they had this 1:08:26 whole propaganda campaign against islam 1:08:27 and the pro-salem 1:08:29 now the program comes back into makkah 1:08:30 the fatal mark of the opening of makkah 1:08:32 gets back into makkah and 1:08:37 when he does uh abubakar had a father 1:08:42 who was an elderly man and the and he 1:08:45 goes and he goes and you know brings his 1:08:46 father out to come and see the rasam 1:08:48 and when he does so the prophet looked 1:08:50 at the old man and says to abu bakr 1:08:52 he says 1:08:57 only you left the old man in his home so 1:08:59 i could have gone out to see him 1:09:01 so i could have gone out to see him 1:09:03 subhanallah and abu bakr says no but he 1:09:06 has more of a need to see you 1:09:07 ya rasulullah and of course abu bakr's 1:09:10 words were true 1:09:11 but then the prophet then the narrator 1:09:13 says 1:09:15 and then the prophet sat the old man 1:09:18 down before him the 1:09:20 muscle then you he wiped over his his 1:09:23 suddenly you know his chest 1:09:25 and he said to him submit to allah then 1:09:27 he submitted to allah subhanahu wa 1:09:29 right so it's a beautiful reflection of 1:09:32 the way that 1:09:33 we should not treat all people the same 1:09:36 now for sure there are 1:09:38 uh anti-islamic and islamophobic 1:09:41 sentiments and media and this is a daily 1:09:44 thing happens across you know 1:09:45 across me that we see but we should 1:09:48 never think 1:09:50 that all people believe that nonsense 1:09:52 because i think 1:09:53 they actually don't they don't i mean 1:09:55 it's many people therefore you encounter 1:09:57 and they realize the bias in their own 1:09:59 media and they realize that they realize 1:10:01 our muslims are not 1:10:02 like that it's not of course uh our job 1:10:05 to apologize for anything and we should 1:10:07 not do that because that's another way 1:10:08 of 1:10:09 of being uh you know seeing this 1:10:12 just seeing and and being seen right we 1:10:15 we don't see ourselves 1:10:17 as as as uh as criminals 1:10:20 that we would have to apologize for 1:10:21 anything right uh the one who's a 1:10:24 criminal should apologize for his own 1:10:25 for his own mistake uh but alhamdulillah 1:10:28 the whole idea of of of individualizing 1:10:32 is one of the key points about about 1:10:34 human empathy 1:10:36 uh now uh think about 1:10:39 defining your own narrative or the 1:10:42 spiritual presence of a muslim allah 1:10:44 says the servants of rahman 1:10:47 lord of mercy are those who walk humbly 1:10:49 on the earth and who when the foolish 1:10:51 address them they reply peace 1:10:53 uh define your own narrative it's very 1:10:55 important for us 1:10:57 in our media in media wherever you're 1:11:00 wherever you have a place and a space if 1:11:02 you're an author if you're in the media 1:11:04 if you're a teacher you know if you're 1:11:07 somebody respected in society if you're 1:11:08 a khatib 1:11:09 an imam wherever you are define your 1:11:12 narrative 1:11:13 right because that's not if if that's 1:11:15 not always done well 1:11:17 by people in media in defining the 1:11:20 muslim narrative 1:11:22 uh that we of course always have a 1:11:24 responsibility before anything to find 1:11:26 our narrative 1:11:27 and think about this for as an example 1:11:29 on the battle of gohan 1:11:30 uh now of course there were losses on 1:11:33 the muslim side and abu sufyan was not a 1:11:34 muslim by that time 1:11:36 he took a place and he began to shout 1:11:39 and he 1:11:40 says to the prophet he says to the 1:11:41 prophet's company he says 1:11:44 is muhammad with you and the prophet 1:11:47 heard that and number book nobody heard 1:11:49 that 1:11:49 and the prophet says to them 1:11:52 don't answer him don't answer him and 1:11:55 then he shouts again and says 1:12:01 amongst you abu bakr amongst you and he 1:12:03 says prophet said again 1:12:05 don't answer him 1:12:08 then he says is homer amongst you 1:12:12 says and the prophet said don't answer 1:12:15 him 1:12:16 right and then abu sufyan said 1:12:20 now hubble the idol that they worship is 1:12:23 all majestic and great 1:12:24 what did the prophet say buhu answer him 1:12:28 now 1:12:29 and they said should we say rasulallah 1:12:32 and the prophet say said say allah 1:12:36 is higher and more majestic and more 1:12:37 glorious than that see how the narrative 1:12:40 was 1:12:40 in is in the muslim hands the prophet 1:12:43 was showing them you define your own 1:12:44 narrative 1:12:45 we don't have to respond right when when 1:12:47 they're saying is muhammad there is a 1:12:49 bakker 1:12:50 but now of course allah is of the allies 1:12:52 the concern 1:12:53 that's their problem the problem is that 1:12:55 they worship other worship with allah 1:12:57 they make sure with allah subhanahu 1:12:59 wa'ta'ala and they call it and they and 1:13:01 the prophet even in that situation still 1:13:03 had dawah 1:13:04 in his mind allahu akbar you know and 1:13:07 then abu sufyan said 1:13:09 uh he said 1:13:12 we have to god that we worship and you 1:13:15 have no israel 1:13:16 and the prophet said ajibu now answered 1:13:18 him and they said what should we say 1:13:19 rasulullah 1:13:20 and he said say to them 1:13:26 and then he said you know this is 1:13:27 revenge for badr and the sahaba they 1:13:30 said they said 1:13:31 that but our dead are in paradise or 1:13:33 that are in hell 1:13:34 you know so the narrative is very key 1:13:36 and essential here 1:13:37 right to be able to have active 1:13:39 engagement to challenge stereotypes 1:13:42 challenge biases you know write write 1:13:44 the books you know 1:13:45 make the make the podcast make the 1:13:48 documentaries 1:13:49 show of course you know the uh the the 1:13:52 evils of of islamophobia 1:13:54 and of course uh you know the the 1:13:57 vindicating of 1:13:58 uh or the the um 1:14:02 you know the the pressing upon these 1:14:04 stereotypical 1:14:06 uh you know points and language of of 1:14:09 of dehumanization and uh you know 1:14:12 against other innocent 1:14:13 people as well so uh 1:14:16 and now we're gonna end it here in 1:14:18 charlotte this is um 1:14:20 so one of the one of the key things i 1:14:22 think was that you know if 1:14:23 to overcome islam phobia effective 1:14:25 engagement there are of course 1:14:27 always key for us and to always remember 1:14:30 uh what what could happen you know when 1:14:32 these kind of things are unchecked 1:14:34 and it's not a pushing back against 1:14:37 these tendencies they're pushing back 1:14:39 against the stereotyping and pushing 1:14:41 back against the abuse 1:14:43 pushing back against islamophobia you 1:14:46 know due to 1:14:47 a very intense program of dehumanization 1:14:49 of the tutsi people 1:14:51 uh in rwanda these two big 1:14:54 tribes hutus and tutsis much of the 1:14:56 violence was carried out between 1:14:58 neighbor and neighbor 1:15:00 right so think about that right these 1:15:01 people who are neighbors 1:15:03 killed in killing each other husband and 1:15:06 wife 1:15:07 clergy and congregation teacher and 1:15:08 students who to militia 1:15:11 the interhom way resorted to hacking to 1:15:13 death men and women 1:15:14 they'd grown up with in schools attended 1:15:17 the same churches spoke the same 1:15:18 languages even intermarried 1:15:21 right but the campaign of othering the 1:15:23 tutsis was just fermented and 1:15:25 disseminated through schools 1:15:27 media and in political rhetoric we have 1:15:29 an obligation to push back against that 1:15:31 right inspiring armed youth to kill 1:15:34 openly 1:15:35 the murders you know would the murder 1:15:37 would force others 1:15:38 to do the same so if you have you know 1:15:40 if they had slogans like do or die 1:15:43 meaning in a kill or get killed 1:15:45 promising them food and stuff like that 1:15:48 right so the idea is therefore that uh 1:15:50 the tutsis were they were given like a 1:15:52 spoiled identity 1:15:54 state of nothingness things cockroaches 1:15:56 animals 1:15:58 and the country then descended into a 1:15:59 savage outbreak of violence 1:16:01 right so we found the same thing in uh 1:16:03 in the rape of the 1:16:04 king 1937 the holocaust right bosnia 1:16:08 all right they began they all began the 1:16:10 same way through an elaborate series of 1:16:12 propaganda 1:16:13 which featured in media and schools 1:16:16 the lynching of black people in america 1:16:18 was precipitated by a culture 1:16:20 in a culture of stigmatizing blacks 1:16:23 you know as the label of gooks was used 1:16:26 to authorize the vietnamese in the mili 1:16:28 massacre 1:16:29 in which hundreds of vietnamese 1:16:30 civilians were killed by american 1:16:31 soldiers 1:16:32 you know think about the that that that 1:16:35 [ __ ]1:16:36 you know no it's not just of course it's 1:16:37 abeer's costume 1:16:39 family and the killing is horrific many 1:16:41 other families 1:16:42 also been killed in iraq and this is the 1:16:45 idea about killing a [ __ ]1:16:47 you know so we have a lot therefore for 1:16:50 us to do 1:16:52 now uh one of the points made by philip 1:16:55 zimbardo in his book 1:16:56 um what is his book called again 1:17:00 the lucifer effect he said that the 1:17:03 yesterday's gooks 1:17:04 right have become today's hajjis and 1:17:07 towelheads 1:17:08 in the iraq wars the new corpse of 1:17:10 soldiers 1:17:11 derogates these different looking 1:17:13 citizens and soldiers right 1:17:16 so he decides sergeant majele and he 1:17:19 says that you you just sort of tried to 1:17:20 block out 1:17:21 the act that they're human beings and 1:17:23 see them as enemies 1:17:25 you call them hajjis you know you do all 1:17:27 these things that make it 1:17:28 easier to deal with killing them and 1:17:31 mistreating them 1:17:33 right so so much for us to bear in mind 1:17:36 now our world as i've written over here 1:17:39 is rapidly changing 1:17:40 more than 300 million people have lived 1:17:43 outside of their native homelands 1:17:45 and the average person is likely more 1:17:48 uh is today sorry more alert to his 1:17:50 world than ever before 1:17:52 the dichotomy is uh dichotomous 1:17:54 relationship between self and other 1:17:56 sometimes between spectate and spectated 1:17:59 has become more pronounced 1:18:01 the crisis of refugees of the rohingya 1:18:03 or in myanmar 1:18:04 or syrians in their mass exodus of their 1:18:06 country to escape the ongoing conflict 1:18:09 terrorist attacks and indiscriminate 1:18:10 killings created by isis 1:18:12 by neo-white's neo-nazi white 1:18:14 supremacists 1:18:15 or by hindu nationalists create anxiety 1:18:18 in our world 1:18:19 and sometimes the insecurity we feel 1:18:21 generates feelings that can range from 1:18:23 anxiety 1:18:24 insecurity and abhorrence at these 1:18:27 junctions 1:18:28 humans together we become fearful and 1:18:30 untrusting 1:18:31 now these feelings of fair mistrust 1:18:33 generalizations in group pressure to 1:18:35 conform 1:18:36 to prejudices right to prejudices 1:18:40 uh of the other feelings of betrayal and 1:18:43 recurrent discrimination in hostile 1:18:44 communities 1:18:45 become potential barriers to empathy so 1:18:48 i think therefore that we have 1:18:49 a very big work to do we should all be 1:18:52 aware of 1:18:53 islamophobia aware of the constructs 1:18:56 of othering and dehumanization how it 1:18:59 affected us 1:19:00 you know muslims in the past as i 1:19:02 mentioned examples of spanish 1:19:04 inquisition 1:19:05 or the crusades uh or you know 1:19:08 other countries are the examples and 1:19:11 also the way that it's affecting 1:19:13 us today uh we ask allah for for 1:19:16 strength ask allah that we can use you 1:19:19 know our 1:19:20 our faith as a strongest part you know 1:19:23 of our response 1:19:25 to these kind of currents um and may 1:19:28 allah protect 1:19:29 all people wherever they are 1:19:41 [Music]1:19:49 you

"Islamophobia, Dehumanisation & Constructing Otherness" by Dr. Osman Latiff (2020-11-30) ​

Summary of "Islamophobia, Dehumanisation & Constructing Otherness" by Dr. Osman Latiff ​

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"Islamophobia, Dehumanisation & Constructing Otherness" by Dr. Osman Latiff (2020-11-30)

Summary of "Islamophobia, Dehumanisation & Constructing Otherness" by Dr. Osman Latiff

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01:00:00 [01:15:00