(I'm sure this will lead to a bizarre side discussion on which X-Men are most like our authors/regulars, but let's try to stay focused)

oh, now you're just asking for it.

Dean seems to call for examples of hate speech, not misconceptions. Though I think the misconceptions part would be more useful as a reference, I think.

oh, now you're just asking for it.

I was simply beating DrDoug to the punch.

Oh, and I bet you want to be Wolverine. Everyone wants to be Wolverine.

More seriously, I think Dean won't have much trouble finding instances of hate speech. I suppose embarrasing those bloggers might be useful, but I think he'll just get dogpiled (hasn't Malkin already accused him of being a dhimmi?).

I'd probably enjoy investigating and explaining myths and misconceptions, if I knew what they were.

"Perhaps someone has done this already, but I would find it useful if someone assembled the top 100 retarded misconceptions (e.g. "Islam was spread by the sword") about Islam/Arabs/MENA and clarified/refuted them point by point (obviously not handwaving apologia, but pointed and precise criticism, where necessary). Should we be doing that?"

eerie,

Well, on the one hand I think it would be helpful for those readers who come to Aqoul on an infrequent basis (or who are new readers). Personally, I would like to see something available here, if only as a reference point (can direct others to the site to get the facts or use it when debating cretinous morons elsewhere).

On the other hand, having someone here do the work necessary to create such a list would entail time and energy wading through cesspools of the right blogosphere. Do you (or someone else) really want to spend time at Little Green Footballs (where it's Islamofacists, every day, all the time)? I know I wouldn't.

I'll get things started since I've encountered more misperceptions than I can shake a stick at:

-Muhammad was a pedophile
-Muhammad had a tribe of Jews massacred for absolutely no reason
-Islam is inherently irrational(the pope's argument, because god is above human reason, including right and wrong)
-Islam preaches violence against anyone who isn't Muslim
-Muslims refuse to assimilate in Western countries
-Islam is inherently despotic and/or Muslims "don't understand" democracy
-Most/all Sunnis hate Shias and most/all Shia hate Sunnis, that they always have and always will
-No self proclaimed Muslim drinks alcohol or goes unveiled, etc.
-A Muslim woman who wears a veil is automatically more conservative than a Muslim woman who doesn't wear a veil

Arabs:
-the only thing that Arabs understand/respect is force
-Arabs are more pious than Americans
-Arab "video clips" are less racy than American music videos
-Most Muslims are Arabs
-Arabs are secretly plotting against Muncie, Indiana
-Arabs all look alike
-An Arab who supports Israel is "moderate"

me neither. I also think the misconception list is more helpful, I certainly don't need evidence of muslimhate. A few off the top of my head:

Dhimmi as slavery etc.

Muslims only supported Nazis during WWII.

Muslims want to establish a caliphate in Europe.

Islam was spread by the sword, because that's what the Quran commands them to, and Muslims always do what it says.

It is islamic custom to do honour killings. So are female genital mutilations.

Muslim terrorists are motivated by the Quran, not by politics.

They hate our freedom.

Muslims are tribal.

The French riots were a Muslim intifada in Europe.

-

Captain Britain???

Great! This is a great idea. I am tired of seeing some wannabe rightie Bushite whankers go on about how Islam is evil..etc. and then when I point out that they have their facts wrong or that there are different interpretations they accuse me of being a terrorist sympathizer or a dhimmi. The funny thing is that almost none of these people have ever been to the Middle East. At best some of them can come up with "I worked on an oil platform in the Gulf".

Other misconceptions:
All Muslims practice taqiyya, which the whanker haters translate as "lying to infidels"

Muslims are on a hidden mission to convert the entire world to Islam (the Eurabia theory)... sounds kind of like what people were saying about the Jews back in the day (the Protocols of the Elders of Zion theory)

Non-Muslims in Muslim countries still pay the jizyah (when in fact that has long ago gone out of style)

I'll get back to the serious stuff shortly. First, I submit that Meph should be Storm. Second, Captain Britain looks pretty cool.

Hmm, suppose Storm and I do have some synergy background wise, and I love the outfits. Ability to control the weather though? Not sure about the kick ass factor of that particular talent, would come in handy in London however..

I would Captain Britain.

I'd go with Gambit, but I admit my cajun accent isn't that great:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambit_%28comics%29

Oh that's not fair Tamerlane, you get your own mini series and all I get is some lame ride named after me. I guess Hale Berry played me so we're even.

For a lot of those misconceptions, it could simply be a matter of finding good sources and assembling them. Doesn't always have to be original, but properly cited with credible sources would be a step in the right direction.

Hmm, perhaps I should go with Psylocke (or Scarlet Witch, who is techically evil but no matter).

BTW, I came across this Marvel superhero who wears a niqab...rather reminds me of our bint.

How about "all Arabs are Muslims"?

This seems very common--a lot of people are surprised to hear that quite a few Arabs (indeed, a majority among Arabs in the U.S./Arab-Americans) are not Muslims.

eerie,

Maybe another approach might be to identify sources that are suspect and to highlight what's suspect about them. Or maybe identify elements from those sources that are suspect and provide corrections to them.

I'm thinking along the lines of Raphael Patai's "The Arab Mind" - loads of suspect material within it (one should be able to find reviews of the book online that are critical).

Another is "Why I Am Not A Muslim" which is a polemic against Islam from an ex-pat Pakistani living in the US. The author does provide some good arguments, but clearly has an ax to grind.

Food for thought...

Oh, and I agree with Kao - the "All Arabs are Muslims" misconception is one encounter when teaching World Regional Geography. Students are also quite surprised to learn that Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world (followed by Pakistan and Bangladesh).

(a) Where's my Marvel post? It is a cat, right? Though I suppose it could be an albino lynx or something.

(b) Not only should you make this list, but you should put it, along with the Wafa Sultan transcript, the how-to-be-a-moderate-muslim-table, the Sheikh novel graph, and other posts that involved real work and will stay interesting for a long time, under a special heading. Aqoul Articles or something like that.

(c) Off the top of my head:

- All Arabs are Muslims.
- All Muslims are Arabs.
- There is no Arab/Muslim art or literature worth checking out.
- Polygamy is very commong among Muslims/Arabs.
- Shia Muslims are more pro-American/moderate/less Muslim than Sunnis (or reverse).
- It is a religious duty for a Muslim to participate in violent Jihad to expand Islam.
- And a real favorite: "Islam means submission", as understood in the slavery & repression sense.

Hmm, this is a big can of worms. Wondering if I should create some kind of Encyclopedia Islamophobia sub-blog...

(a) Where's my Marvel post? It is a cat, right? Though I suppose it could be an albino lynx or something.

Uh, I blame the CIA. Can you repost?

I personally can't wait for "in Lebanon, bestiality is legal, as long as it's with a female animal" to start to be quoted as authoratatively true.

Uh, I blame the CIA.

Oh, so that's the three-letter word. Explains a lot.

Can you repost?

Certainly not. But I can tell you I had you slated as White Queen.

Certainly not. But I can tell you I had you slated as White Queen.

You're not the first person to say that.

(yes, I have a lot of nerdy friends)

Anyway, I'm going to think about how to implement this anti-Islamophobia idea, post some thoughts on my blog and get some feedback, etc.

In the meantime, feel free to continue the X-Men discussion here (L = Mr. Sinister? Raf = Cyclops?)

As I am not a blogger at Aqoul, perhaps I can lay claim to Magneto ?

Hmm, I think that fits rather well.

Heh.

Off to form a Brotherhood of Evil Mutant Bloggers....

A few of my favourites:

-The people of the Levant and North Africa were replaced by Arabs during some long ago Arab Conquest (a la Native Americans).
-Arabs (Muslims even) are ethnically homogeneous.
-There are no churches or synagogues in Muslim countries.
-Anti-Semitism was greater the Middle East.
-Muslim countries are dangerous.
-All Saudis are rich (it's not about Islam, but it gets me)
-All Arab countries are like Saudi Arabia (now updated to Afghanistan)

I don't know if you will be getting into the Isr-Pal situation, but here are a few:
-There is no Palestine.
-There are over 20 Arab countries; Why don't they take them?

Almost forgot:
-Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are Arab countries.

eerie, I'd love to help, but I'm just no expert. There are others on this blog far more knowledgeable than me on these fact-finding matters. I can do the most simple stuff, but not the more complex ones. I'll see what I can do.

What the bloody fuck is wrong with you people? Is this nonsense actually about coloured comic books?

Well on the subject of Palestine.

Another favorite of mine.
"Palestine was an empty land before the Jews came in in the 19th century. The Palestinians are actually recent immigrants." I don't know where people get this from

What the bloody fuck is wrong with you people? Is this nonsense actually about coloured comic books?

Ah, the curmudgeon's home. Welcome back.

Re getting into retarded Israeli-Palestinian spin, I see little point in debunking every bit of trivia because it distracts from real issues (although that might be a useful thing to point out for all sorts of dumb I-P arguments).

Bah, economic policy is ignored, but speculating about what bloody comic book character one is gets 30 odd responses?

I would like to re-emphasize the send up fo the Western media darling Muslim moderates (Wafa Sultan, etc). There do not seem to be a lot of people here not taking them at face value.

Bah, economic policy is ignored, but speculating about what bloody comic book character one is gets 30 odd responses?

Not necessarily ignored, more likely that people haven't got the expertise to add substantial commentary.

On the other hand, nearly everyone has read comic books. Even little Green Book lovers like you, I'm sure.

Yes, when I was 12.

A stage that passed with merciful brevity.

Well, I can't change the peculiarities of internet people.

What the bloody fuck is wrong with you people? Is this nonsense actually about coloured comic books?

See, we should switch to talking about CEREBUS.

Or maybe TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (the original run) - was it actually any good to start out with, before they got discovered and extremely rich?

"What the bloody fuck is wrong with you people? Is this nonsense actually about coloured comic books?"

Sorry, I can't help but love the big "L".

If I was the comic book character it would be the girl who took the essence of life from whoever she touched. Although I am neither female nor a person of want, she took reality away from those who believed. While it is cool to control the potential between the positive and negative poles (magneto), she controlled the poles themselves, or that which is real.

As for Arabs, I will always be grateful for how one Arab treated my father. Although I think the Arab who treated my father with great respect happened to be Christian, I see all Arabs as people of great worth. I am not sure if I know any Muslims. I assume there are some who would respect me and some who would not. I respect those who respect me and respect those who respect themselves.