Excerpt:
Bigotry is awful – and the purveyors of hatred and discrimination need to be confronted and isolated.
But what happens when those who lament bigotry consistently engage in their own prejudice and animus? What if they do it in concert with a member of a designated terrorist organization who has called for the absolute destruction of a nation?
Ahmed Bedier and Hatem Bazian had to go to Istanbul to find out.
They were among 25 irony-challenged participants at last weekend’s “Contextualizing Islamophobia: Its Impact on Culture and Global Politics” conference organized by the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). Center director Sami Al-Arian served on the Majlis Shura, or board of directors, for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group.