Is New Atheism an anti-Muslim, white supremacy movement?

[rug]

The New Atheist movement has become a pro-white supremacy movement that is anti-Muslim, anti-Arab bigotry dressed up with a thin veneer of fancy sounding words

CJ Werleman
Monday 6 April 2015 18:09 BST

Cenk Uygur is the lead anchor of one of the most watched online news broadcasts - The Young Turks Network. I’ve appeared on Uygur’s show twice. The purpose of that previous sentence is not an exercise in passive-aggressive bragging, but rather to state that I have met the man on two separate occasions.

As a journalist, I have appeared on many programmes - OK, that was bragging - because media outlets not only need content, but also analysis of what today’s headlines mean. They also need a wide variety of perspectives. Thus, I’ve met a great number of radio, television and online hosts. In related news, if I were forced to identify my one superpower, I would claim that it is my ability to make an accurate assessment of an individual’s humanity at the moment of face-to-face introduction.

At that moment where hands meet and pleasantries are exchanged, both narcissists and sociopaths look beyond you and talk past you in a way that makes you feel like you’re not even there. This is the polar opposite experience I have had on both occasions with Uygur. Every atomic particle projected from his being screams: “I care about you. I care about people. Now let’s communicate.”

Why am I telling you all this about Uygur?

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/new-atheism-anti-muslim-white-supremacy-movement-426032443

-CJ Werleman is the author of Crucifying America, God Hates You. Hate Him Back, Koran Curious, and is the host of Foreign Object. Follow him on twitter: @cjwerleman

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

[Trajan]

1. Of course we are ...

And ... we have evil eyes, red, scaly skin and a bifurcated tail!

Isn't the point of atheism to be AGAINST religion in some way? ... well there you go .. ANTI Muslim ... ANTI Christian ... ANTI Judaism ...

Take your pick ... and you will ...

[rug]

3. Who is "we"?

Other than that, a rather deflective response.

[Trajan]

9. Deflective in what way?

You mean because I didn't answer your question? ... ah, well ... this is why:

I have been atheist all of my adult life ... As an atheist, I found that I disbelieved ALL supposed theologies ... that is what it means to be atheist.

I also discovered something else - I found that those who professed faith in a theology would, as a group, persecute other human beings because they didn't belong to their particular group ...

Not only did they persecute them ... they codified into law the repression of those 'apostate/heretics' ... they enslaved them ... they tortured them ... they killed them in some of the most terrifying ways ..

It is because of THAT history that I actively reject theology ... ALL theology ... and those who profess them ...

Is that ANTI-theist? ... yes ... I believe it is, and it is justified ...

So, you guys don't like ANTI-theists? ... well? ... so what? .... does that make me Islamophobic? ...

Phobia connotes fear ... I don't fear religion - I reject it .. I don't believe it is good for the people of the world and I believe it is dangerous and backwards to our collective future. So I do speak out against it ...

Of course I do ... I speak out against Islam ad I speak out against ALL religions ...

Now ... does that make me a white supremacist? ...

Well I'll be ... how did you reach the conclusion that atheists are white supremacists? ... Isn't that really just your own abusive ad hominem to attempt to smear atheists as race haters?

My disagreement with religion had nothing to do with race ... yet, there you are .... making this false assertion ...

So ... You want an answer to your question? ... here it is ... get ready ...

NO!

But that won't stop you from future assertions as to the evil nature of atheism, .... we know that for sure ...

By the way ... some time in the past, you admonished me for referring to you as a theist ... yet, I did see a prayer of yours in the prayer circle forum ...

Really ... the dishonesty is so thick at times, you can cut it with a butter knife ....

Now ....watch my tail dance and flit about as I walk away from this disgusting mess of a thread ...

[rug]

11. Here: "we have evil eyes, red, scaly skin and a bifurcated tail!"

I realize it's much easier to rebut an overwrought caricature than to consider his assertions. That's the deflection.

As to the question, you are confusing me with the author, an atheist like you btw.

As to the rest of your proclamations, no one asked you. The fact that you felt the need to direct it at "you guys" suggests to me an interior dialogue more than a discussion.

Even though you didn't ask, I will give you my answer. What the author describes sounds more in triumphalism than supremacy. Triumphalism sprung full-blown from the privilege of western culture, rhetoric used often against non-European countries in the last century and a half.

Don't trip over your tail.

[rug]

12. What's your excuse?

[chollybocker]

2. anti-Muslim, white supremacy movement?

Sound more like New Christianity.

[rug]

4. This doesn't:

On last week’s show, Uygur asked whether anti-Muslim bigotry has become the new McCarthyism - a metaphor to the 1950s anti-Communist “practice of making unfair allegations, or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism”. During these years, lives and careers were destroyed by even the mere suspicion one associated with or knew a Communist. “You’re friends with a Communist - you can’t be trusted,” became the refrain of “Red scare” accusers.

Uygur provided a number of examples of anti-Muslim McCarthyism in practice. He pointed to those who accuse President Obama of being “anti-Israel” because he “knows two Palestinian professors”. In other words: “Obama pals around with Muslims - ergo ipso facto - he can’t be trusted.”

Uygur, an avowed atheist of Turkish origin, mentioned how he is often accused of being a “Muslim sympathiser”, “Muslim apologist”, or “terrorist excuser”. Taunts that have equally followed me since my 2010 release of Koran Curious: A Guide for Infidels and Believers.

[chollybocker]

8. wut?

I have no idea what you're trying to communicate with that blurb paste. Please to direct me to a point.

[rug]

13. The point is right there in his article, had you read it.

This is the declaration of a man who cares for all humans, no matter their religious persuasion or tribal affiliation. This is the declaration of a man who sees humans as more than the sum parts of their personal relationship with a God.

Uygur especially singled out “the whole Sam Harris, Bill Maher wing” of atheism aka New Atheism, aka anti-theism. “They are rabid, man. Everyday they do it [attack Muslim-Americans and those who defend Muslim-Americans] online. Everyday. They’re relentless.”

Nothing new Christiany about it.

[cbayer]

5. I think it is a mistake to associate this with "new atheists" or atheists at all.

He describes some individuals very well, but they are individuals and not representative of anyone else.

Since only a very small minority of atheists even identify themselves as anti-theists, it seems really unfair to paint "new atheism" with this brush.

There are some really wonderful, active, progressive voices in atheism. Why throw them under the bus in an attempt to challenge that small handful who are making a living off their bigotry towards Islam?

He really only talks about 3 individuals - Harris, Maher and Ayaan.

Let's call them what they are and leave their atheism out of it. As Cenk Uygur said, they are foaming at the mouth neoconservatives that have more in common with Cheney than any liberal.

[okasha]

6. "Faitheist!"

"Hack!"

"Apologist!"

"Asshole!"

"No such thing as atheist movement!"

"Harris is not a bigot!/Islamophobe /warmonger!"

"DÀAAWWWWKKKKKIIIINNNNSSS!!!!"

Just listing the usual responses to this type of article so that none of the usual suspects will forget any of them. Public service, y'know.

[rug]

14. Thanks, I'll have more time to read an actual newspaper now.

Even the comics would be more enlightening than those remarks.

[MisterP]

7. Gayatri Spivak called it a "White men saving brown women from brown men" trope

and that's just the start--back in the late 80s/early 90s they were denying Blacks and women could bring anything to the table, in the 70s they were fussing about women exceeding the fact that they were evolved for the kitchen and that some people were trying *periwinkles* on cancer like they were some kinda savage!

[Vartra]

15. Not at all.

Opposition to fascistic ideologies - which Werleman declines to consider - does not make a "white supremacy movement". The author appears to be childishly trying to get back at those who exposed his habitual plagiarism: https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/c-j-werleman-accused-of-plagiarism/

[Fumesucker]

16. "Media outlets need a wide variety of perspectives"

OK, I was trying to take the article seriously until I got to that point but that is sheerest fantasy, somewhere not on Television Phil Donahue is shaking his head while laughing his ass off.

[LeftishBrit]

17. No more than Christianity is...

or Judaism or for that matter Hinduism (obviously not 'white supremacist' in the latter case, but many regard Mr. Modi, Prime Minister of a country of over a billion people, as an Islamophobic, to some extent Christianophobic, fascist).

People can be fascists and bigots with any type of belief. There are certainly bigoted atheists - Geert Wilders comes to mind; but I'd say that there are far more white supremacists among Christians than atheists. And at least in the UK, white supremacism is probably most associated with the UK's top national religion: football!

[edhopper]

18. I guess since theocracies today

exists in non-white, non-western countries, those who criticize them and make the point that western style democracy, and especially Secular Democratic Socialism is a better form of government are thereby White Supremacists,

As opposed to all the people on DU who decry the intrusion of religion into our government. Because then it's not criticizing "other cultures" or something.

[edhopper]

19. Tweet from the author

[img][/img]

So yeah, he's one to talk.

[rug]

20. I saw that in tthe comments. It's from 2009.

Lot has happened from a lot of quarters since then.

[edhopper]

21. I think it's all a discussion killer

once you accuse those who criticize theocratic dictatorships of White Supremacy, the conversation is over.

(I don't mean you, you. I mean once a person accuses another)

[rug]

22. The headline is over the top which is unfortunate.

But he does make good points about the cultural biases, on both sides.

[edhopper]

23. I don't give other cultures a pass for things

that would never be accepted in ours. like the treatment of woman, or executions for thought crimes.

Yes it's a cultural bias. But looking at the way people live in say Norway or Japan compared to Yemen or Pakistan, I feel fine saying one is preferable.

[rug]

24. It's always good to check one's own biases before judging others'.

In this case, the author is doing it for them.

[Vartra]

26. "Doing it for them"?

No, he's not. In fact, when approvingly quoting a description of an ex-muslim as a "little brown-skinned" woman, he's giving belittling sexism a free pass.

Werleman has an undeclared conflict of interest. I guess that's what leads him to overlook such actual bigotry and egregiously misrepresent the views of others (to the point of including made-up crap like "atheism will end all wars", which is not a claim made by any of the people he's attacking).

Worst of all, he simply ignores the existence of vocal critics of islam, like Taslima Nasreen, Maryam Namazie, Salman Rushdie or Ali Rizvi, that don't neatly fit the "white supremacist" narrative he's concocted.

Werleman's i'm-a-hell-of-a-guy prose is excellent for inducing wincing, but it doesn't make up for the dishonesty of his case.

Declaration of interest: I once paid cash for one of this guy's books. It was just awful, and I felt ripped off.

[rug]

27. Yes, for them. They're clearly not doing it themselves.

[cbayer]

29. Welcome to DU and to the religion group Vartra.

While I think he sometimes makes some good, even important, points, I agree that he is a very bad messenger in general.

He does seem hypocritical when it comes to issues of bigotry and uses unnecessarily inflammatory language that he knows will enrage some in the atheist community.

He has also had some rather serious issues around the plagiarism.

[backscatter712]

25. Silly me, my pointy hood and white sheets are at the cleaners right now!

I think the article mischaracterizes a lot of atheists.

I tend to be more of the Greta Christina school of atheism than the school of the self-proclaimed-to-be-amazing atheist that makes a lot of Youtube videos.

Like any other large group of people, there's going to be a few assholes.

[rug]

28. Don't lose your ticket.

He is describing a very particular set of self-promoters who freely couch their criticisms in their own privilege. As an atheist himself, I doubt he's bashing either atheists or atheism.