While it is perhaps not shocking that a UC Berkeley professor would harbor leftist views, equating the Boston terrorist attacks with “Islamophobia” may be taking leftism one step beyond the realm of what many consider reasonable.
Take Professor Hatem Bazian, who has called for an “intifada” in the U.S. and participates in divestment campaigns against “Israeli apartheid.”
Now, rather than acknowledge that the Tsarnaev brothers were Muslims acting on behalf of Islam, and rather than call on Muslims around the U.S. to condemn the attacks and prevent further radicalization of Muslim youth, Bazian penned an article entitled, “Boston Bombing, Islamophobia and Sudden Ignorance Syndrome.”
In the piece, Dr. Bazian, Director of the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at UC Berkeley Center for Race and Gender, wrote:
Let me be absolutely clear. Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed horrific crimes, ones that took the lives of three individuals, shattered dozens, and left the City of Boston in fear. But the Islamophobic machine committed crimes against our collective consciousness by exploiting the suffering and pain of our fellow citizens. Their words became a powerful incendiary to inflame the minds of an already panicked people.