[lbo-talk] America's Anti-Muslim Prejudice

Joel Schalit managingeditor at tikkun.org
Mon May 8 10:47:39 PDT 2006


I don't think that's fair, Yoshie. The situation is a lot more complicated than that. By blaming the left's problems about talking about Islam on the high preponderance of Jews within the left, you over-generalize and make the kind of statements that lead people like me to say that there are prejudicial elements in the ways that you talk about Jews. Why? Because you imply that the Jewish left is somehow responsible for the poverty of the conversation, and the lack of an Islamic/Arab presence. I can't think of a better example of what I've been talking about. The examples you give of the left- Israelis you've published, like Mikado - Michel Warschawski - throw a wrench in this position because I know of very few left wing Jews who are as active in privileging Palestinian concerns within Israel's left than he is.

The real source of the problem you're getting at here - and which I agree about - is the fact that the Left needs to better educate itself about both Islam and Arab culture in general. This is a general American problem that afflicts the entirety of domestic progressive culture, including Jewish progressives. That is how I would put it. Because of the War on Terrorism, many European and North American publications and progressive intellectuals have attempted to do a better job of this, but still fail to do a decent job - both editorially and intellectually. You identify Monthly Review's deficits in this area, and I feel the same way about Tikkun. We all could be doing superior work on this regard. But to blame it on the overpreponderance or influence of any ethnic group is wrong - its an American problem period, and every community within the US left has more work to do to make up for this.

I think the situation will improve over time - it has to. The longer the war continues, the more Euro-American Left will learn about the Arab and Islamic worlds, and unlike the state department, both learn something, and make Arab & Islamic intellectuals and political activists regular participants in our own media and political cultures.

On May 8, 2006, at 8:24 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:


> On 5/8/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>> Marvin Gandall wrote:
>>
>> >I don't see any evidence that there is a problem in the way the
>> left talks
>> >about "Jews and Jewish issues" although it is strongly critical
>> of Israel.
>>
>> Check out Counterpunch on Israel - and my interview with Joel
>> prompted by their book collection
>> <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio_1.html#031127>.
>
> I contend that an incomparably bigger problem is the way leftists talk
> about Muslims . . . or sometimes just ignore them entirely when Muslim
> organizations ought to be contacted. That is in part because there
> are a large number of Jewish leftists of diverse left tendencies
> active in secular leftist endeavors of all sorts, whereas it's not the
> same with Muslim communities. Leftists here have ongoing relations
> with Jewish Israeli leftists, too (I myself have published works of
> such Israeli leftists as Efraim Davidi
> <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/davidi231005.html>, Bryan Atinsky
> <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/atinsky110206.html>, and Michael
> Warschawski <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/warschawski110106.html>
> and promoted the Diana Dolev [New Profile activist] US speaking tour
> <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/dolev181005.html> -- I can't say the
> same about MRZine's relation to Muslim thinkers overseas or even at
> home).
>
> It's noteworthy that some of the same people who objected to my
> articles had also objected to Deepa Kumar's thoughts on the way
> liberals and some leftists deal with Muslims:
> <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/kumar210206.html>. Many of the
> responses were so negative that she felt compelled to write a response
> to responses:
> <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/kumar030406.html>.
> --
> Yoshie
> <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
> <http://mrzine.org>
> <http://monthlyreview.org/>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>



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