01/09/2023
Wayne State University law professor Beydoun (American Islamophobia) delivers a moving history of Islamophobia and how it has been remade by the “War on Terror.” Enriching his study with autobiographical elements, Beydoun describes his childhood in Detroit and tells the story of how his mother’s decision to start covering her hair in public helped her “turn a page toward becoming the woman she wanted to be” to illustrate the absurdity of Western countries insisting that Muslim women must be “saved” from wearing the hijab. Among other injustices, Beydoun examines the 2019 mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, the scapegoating of Indian Muslims for the Covid-19 pandemic by the country’s Hindu nationalist government, the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, and reeducation camps for Uyghur Muslims in China. Though he covers vast swaths of geography and history, Beydoun consistently highlights the human cost of Islamophobia, profiling a young man in Palestine “shaken by fear” and a Somali Muslim refugee in Kenya whose sight is restored after she was blinded by cataracts. He also highlights his friendship with a veteran of the war in Iraq to illustrate the forces that drove working-class whites into the war on terror and how interpersonal relationships can repair the damage wrought by prejudice. Sweeping yet intimately detailed, this is a profound wake-up call. (Mar.)
