Anti-Islamophobia Conference Only Tells Part of the Story

Excerpt:

Corey Saylor, a prominent Muslim activist in the United States, made a stunning admission last week. Speaking at a counter-Islamophobia conference at the University of Minnesota, Saylor admitted that anti-Muslim sentiment is driven in part by jihadists who kill in the name of Allah.

During a session titled “How Islamophobia Became Mainstream,” Saylor told the audience in the Hubert Humphrey Auditorium that “violent extremist groups that claim that Islam gives sanction to their actions contribute to Islamophobia.”

“There’s no doubt about it,” he said. To not acknowledge the impact that groups like ISIS have had on attitudes about Islam and its adherents “would be to not have a complete conversation.”

Dexter Van Zile, the Middle East Forum’s Violin Family Research Fellow, serves as managing editor of Focus on Western Islamism. Prior to his current position, Van Zile worked at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis for 16 years, where he played a major role in countering misinformation broadcast into Christian churches by Palestinian Christians and refuting antisemitic propaganda broadcast by white nationalists and their allies in the U.S. His articles have appeared in the Jerusalem Post, the Boston Globe, Jewish Political Studies Review, the Algemeiner and the Jewish News Syndicate. He has authored numerous academic studies and book chapters about Christian anti-Zionism.
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