'Islamophobia' in the Bay Area?

‘Islamophobia’ in the Bay Area?

Hatem Bazian

Is the San Francisco Bay area a hotbed of “Islamophobia”? According to a new study by UC-Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian and his co-author, the counterintuitive answer is yes. But as journalist Stephen Schwartz demonstrates in “‘Islamophobia’ in the Bay Area?,” commissioned by Campus Watch and published today at American Thinker, the study, “is fatally flawed in its methodology, the evidence it musters does not support its conclusions, and it is little more than propaganda to use as a political bludgeon against anyone who objects to radical Islam.”

According to ‘The Bay Area Muslim Study: Establishing Identity and Community,’ (BAMS) the San Francisco Bay Area, long known for its tolerance towards minorities and adherence to multiculturalism, is a hotbed of ‘Islamophobia.’

Its principal author is Hatem Bazian, a senior lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley’s Near Eastern Studies Department, director of Berkeley’s Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project, which advertises BAMS at its website, and ‘Academic Affairs Chair’ at Zaytuna Collegein Berkeley. Bazian’s co-author is Farid Senzai, an assistant professor of political science at Santa Clara University, a Jesuit school, and a faculty member (subject undisclosed) at Zaytuna. Senzai is also director of research at a little-known entity originating in Detroit, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding(ISPU), which co-commissioned the May, 2013 Bay Area study.

To read the rest of Schwartz’s article, please click here.

Twitter
Telegram
LinkedIn
Email
Copy
Link copied
Print

University of California, Berkeley

Winfield Myers

Winfield Myers is managing editor of the Middle East Forum and director of its Campus Watch project, which reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities. He has taught world history and other topics at the University of Michigan, the University of Georgia, Tulane, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He was previously managing editor of The American Enterprise magazine and CEO of Democracy Project, Inc., which he co-founded. Mr. Myers has served as senior editor and communications director at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and is principal author and editor of a college guide, Choosing the Right College (1998, 2001). He was educated at the University of Georgia, Tulane, and the University of Michigan.