July 2-9, 2012 Issue

Cover art by: Cover design by Milton Glaser Incorporated

Feature

Fear and Loathing of Islam

In the US today, the very ordinariness of Muslim-American life has become grounds for suspicion.
Moustafa Bayoumi
How the Media Created the Muslim Monster Myth

From Arab bandits to TV terrorists, the history of Islamophobia in US popular culture is long and ugly.
Jack Shaheen
Deploying Informants, the FBI Stings Muslims

Behind nearly every “foiled terror plot” lurks a government informant sent to entrap hapless young Muslim men.
Petra Bartosiewicz
Islamophobia and Its Discontents

Assailed by the right as a fiction, anti-Muslim bias is all too real for those who live with it.
Laila Lalami
The True Story of Sharia in American Courts

Sharia is as unthreatening to the US legal system as the ideas in the Old Testament. Yet bigoted hysteria is fueling legislation that actually undermines our courts.
Abed Awad
The Long Roots of the NYPD Spying Program

Before the War on Terror and Ray Kelly’s spies, the War on Crime helped transform the NYPD into a small army.
Ramzi Kassem
The Sugar Mama of Anti-Muslim Hate

Philanthropist Nina Rosenwald has used her millions to cement the alliance between the pro-Israel lobby and the Islamophobic fringe.
Max Blumenthal
When Your Father Is Accused of Terrorism

My dad, Dr. Sami Al-Arian, was arrested by the FBI on trumped up charges, sending a chill through the local Muslim community. Yet we found support from unlikely allies.
Laila Al-Arian

Editorial

Post-Wisconsin Labor Pains

The crushing recall loss shows that labor must find better ways to defend itself in the electoral arena.
The Editors
Blaming the Messengers

Revelations about Obama’s drone assassinations led to official outrage—against the leakers. It’s the policy that warrants investigation.
The Editors
The Outrage of Stop-and-Frisk Policing

Growing public protest, along with two landmark lawsuits, may put an end to this dragnet policy that overwhelmingly targets young black and Latino men.
David Cole
Noted

Connor Guy on Washington State’s pot politics, Robert Dreyfuss on NATO’s civilian casualties, plus a new election blog from Greg Mitchell
Various Contributors
Déjà Vu at Rio+20

After two decades, we’re no closer to reducing global poverty or enhancing sustainable development. Politicians will change only when mass action forces them to.
Mark Hertsgaard
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Column

The Likability Factor

Calvin Trillin
What’s the Matter With Creationism?

Forty-six percent of Americans believe that God created human beings within the last 10,000 years or so. Worry.
Katha Pollitt
Europe: Hotbed of Islamophobic Extremism

Europeans are not threatened by a Muslim minority. It’s the other way round.
Gary Younge

Books & the Arts

A Vast Choir of Voices: On Claude Lanzmann

In his memoir, The Patagonian Hare, the Shoah director’s life upstages his masterwork.
David Rieff
Shelf Life

Emily Bernard’s Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance.
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro
Heart and Soul

Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus
Stuart Klawans
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