April 12, 2015 | Daily Sabah

From the human zoo to diversity initiatives

In the 18th, 19th and early parts of the 20th century, the idea of a human zoo was an established normative way to come into direct contact and examine closely the “lower breeds” of the human evolutionary scale. Human zoos of this type were present in major European cities and frequented by everyone in society…

De-Colonial Islamophobia Race/Racism

March 23, 2015 | Daily Sabah

Netanyahu is dismantling peace and entrenching apartheid

Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby was personally confident that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s shift to the right was only an election campaign ploy and will “not be the policies of the future Israeli government.” In making this observation, Elaraby was sending a comforting statement to Arab leaders that Netanyahu did not really mean…

Muslim History Palestine Race/Racism

March 1, 2015 | Daily Sabah

Netanyahu and eroding Israel’s standing in America

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me,” goes a well-known American saying and is an apt description for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt at selling another war in the Middle East, a push for a military attack on Iran. Netanyahu’s visit and planned speech to a joint session of…

De-Colonial Palestine Race/Racism

February 23, 2015 | Daily Sabah

Islam in countering violent extremism

In an L.A. Times editorial and a speech given at a three-day White House Summit focusing on Countering Violent extremism, U.S. President Barack Obama declared that the effort is “a battle for hearts and minds,” of the Muslim world. Obama maintained in the editorial: “Groups like al-Qaida and ISIS promote a twisted interpretation of religion…

Islam Islamophobia Race/Racism

February 5, 2015 | Turkey Agenda

Black History Month & Dismantling Whiteness in ‘the Shining City Upon a Hill’

A ‘shining city upon a hill’ is one of the most enduring metaphors for America’s self-constructed image of itself in the world, pillar in identify formation and the crafting of larger than life purpose religiously laden with inescapable inferences. In a Farewell Address delivered on January 11th, 1989, the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan framed…

De-Colonial Islamophobia Race/Racism

February 1, 2015 | Daily Sabah

A racial moment: Reflections on race, racism and resistance

February is the start of another Black History Month; an annual occurrence started first by historian Carter G. Woodson in 1926 as a one week celebration of African American contributions to the U.S., which then grew in 1976 to a full month. Symbolically appropriate, February is the shortest month of the years. What started in…

De-Colonial Race/Racism

January 19, 2015 | Daily Sabah

‘What’s the matter boss, we sick?’

The title of this piece is taken directly from Malcolm X’s speech, “The Race Problem,” which he delivered at Michigan State University in East Lansing on Jan. 23, 1963. In the speech, he drew a distinction between the terms “house negro” and “field negro” as they relate to the problem of race and the internalization…

De-Colonial Race/Racism

January 18, 2015 | Turkey Agenda

Europe, Immigration and the Post-Colonial South

We are all in agreement that large sections in Africa, Asia and the Muslim world are in total collapse with many failed or about to fail states in these regions. Take your pick of a country to include in this category: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Nigeria, Libya, Mali, Somalia, Liberia, the Congo, and the Central…

De-Colonial Islamic Politics Race/Racism

January 8, 2015 | Turkey Agenda

Charlie Hebdo, and Murder in the Name of Islam?

The news concerning Muslims engaged in terrorism, mayhem and murder in the name of defending Islam is non-stop and point to a serious crisis that is yet to be addressed. Every day a river of blood is flowing across the world with Muslim names attached to it both victims and perpetrators alike. Is this Islam…

De-Colonial Islamophobia Race/Racism

November 27, 2014 | Turkey Agenda

On Ferguson’s Verdict, Violence and Colonial Conditioning

The Ferguson verdict will be added as a generational marker in America’s long racial history and the inability or lack of intention to end the plague of racism. While Michael Brown’s case rightly received national and international attention many more African Americans suffer the same deaths at the hands of police daily, but remain nameless…

De-Colonial Race/Racism