Article Review The List Created By The Runnymede Trust Runs

The list created by the Runnymede Trust runs a stark parallel to the political and social happenings in this country and around the world. Anti-terrorism legislation in the United States, and to an even greater extent in other countries like France and Switzerland, has become a vehicle for Islamophobia and creates even greater hardship for Muslims everywhere. On a social level, the Runnymede Trust’s forewarning of Islamophobia becoming more respectable is actualizing. Intellectual Islamophobia in the ilk of Bill Maher is becoming increasingly popular in American culture, and it runs largely on the views the report points out. An important aspect in the discussion about Islam, and one that ties into why a commentator like Bill†¦show more content†¦This was exemplified by the treatment of comments made by Ben Affleck when he appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO show, and those of Reza Aslan on CNN. While both argued against anti-Muslim prejudice, their opinions were vie wed very differently by the American media. While Ben Affleck’s visceral anger, calling Maher’s ideology â€Å"gross and racist,† was praised and valued, Aslan, a Muslim American academic and professor of religion, was forced into an apologetic stance to elicit a recognition that Muslims are diverse in their outlooks and beliefs before being dismissed anyway. His opinion was later recast as angry and hostile, invalidating his argument completely by basing it in emotion rather than rationality, tactics that we see employed over and over again. Compare Affleck’s obvious annoyance and Aslan’s polite frustration, and it is easily ascertainable that Affleck’s white privilege allows him to express similar sentiments as Aslan in far cruder terms, and not be dismissed entirely for it. Muslims, like many other minorities in the United States, have faced hardship for many years, but their struggle increased exponentially following the attacks on the W orld Trade Center. Increasingly, Muslim Americans have had to prove their worth as humans, as evidenced by the â€Å"Not in my Name† campaign. A statement by Audre Lorde encapsulates well what many Muslim Americans struggle with: â€Å"Black and Third world