This week on One Land, Many Voices, Wael and special guest host Peter Miller welcome Deepa Kumar to discuss her newly released book Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire.
We will begin the program by discussing two ads that are currently displayed on Portland's Trimet public transit system. An ad paid for by local Palestinian human rights groups which depict a shrinking Palestinian territory and a growing Israel. Next to a series of maps, the ad reads: "4.7 million Palestinians are classified by the U.N as refugees." We will also discuss the "Savage" ads paid for by Pam Gellar's far-right American Freedom Defense Initiative.
We will then interview Deepa Kumar about her thoughts on Pam Gellar's Ad, the roots of Islamophobia in the US, and the history between Islamophobia as an ideology and Israel.
Deepa Kumar is an Associate Professor of Media Studies and Middle East Studies at Rutgers University. She is the author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike, and most recently Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. Her articles have been featured in the Nation Magazine, SocialistWorker.org, and Monthly Review, among others.