Hate, By Any Other Name

Why would an anti-hate group condemn a Muslim organization for a third-hand connection to hate, while remaining silent about unabashed Islamophobia in a nonMuslim one?

- Khadijah Kanji

Shootings, arsons, and vandalism of mosques. Intimidation, harassment, and violence against Muslims (or those perceived to be such). Common and growing, these expressions of hate encapsulate what we know to be “Islamophobia.” But understanding the breadth and depth of racism requires that we look beyond the face of the far right to the body that animates it; past its most explicit manifestation to the logic undergirding it. Indeed, racial logics inform and organize all of society – even, sometimes, those very elements dedicated to eradicating racism.

Last October, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAN) released a statement of “concern” over the appearance of Palestinian-American Muslim activist, Linda Sarsour, at the Islamic Circle of North America’s Carry the Light convention. CAN used Sarsour’s relationship with notoriously antisemitic, homophobic, and misogynistic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to argue that inviting her to speak was “contrary to the values consistent with promoting inclusive communities where hatred is clearly unwelcome.”