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Battling bigotry with satire: CAIR initiative offers to ‘cure’ Islamophobes

Islamophobin tablets

In a peak of anti-Islam rhetoric and hate speech in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election, imagine a pill that could cure “blind intolerance, unthinking bigotry,” and even “irrational fear of Muslims.”

Though it may seem trivial at the first glance, imagining a medical solution to a deeply rooted problem has given a Muslim advocacy group the idea to launch a “satirical public awareness campaign to challenge growing Islamophobia in America.”

The initiative aims to empower those who seek to challenge Islamophobia in the United States by providing them with satire and humor as a tool.

“US Presidential Election Year Scapegoating” is another illness the “multi-symptom relief for chronic Islamophobia” offers to treat.

Called Islamophobin, the tablets “may result in peaceful coexistence” in the wake of hate speech against Muslims, Hispanics, African Americans, and women as accentuated by the rise of real estate tycoon Donald Trump, calling for a complete ban on Muslims entering the country and building a wall on the border with Mexico.

“Prompted at least in part by anti-Muslim rhetoric employed by public figures like Donald Trump and other GOP candidates, we decided to launch Islamophobin. With Islamophobin, we hope to dispel a serious problem with a witty and humorous manner,” explained the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) about the initiative.

The pills are declared as right for those who “fear and hate Muslims,” are “suspicious” of people different from themselves, get “abnormally nervous” when they see a Muslim or someone who looks like a Muslim, or “pray that a Muslim is not on their flight,” according to the campaign’s website. “Shh… it’s actually chewing gum.”

The campaign also warns that the pills should seriously be avoided by “those who already believe in religious diversity, tolerance and mutual understanding.” But “for those who hold bigoted stereotypes of Muslims and subscribe to Islamophobic conspiracy theories, use of this product may result in feelings of remorse and/or guilt.”

Inspired by the Muslim community in Sweden, the campaign is based on the idea that “a little humor goes a long way.”

“With Islamophobia on the rise in the US and other parts of the world what better way to help dispel the bigotry and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims than through satire?”


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