On Weds, Nov. 16, this Big Questions, Big Ideas presentation will examine the portrayal of Muslims as dog-haters at odds with Euro-American culture in online Islamophobic memes and the pamphleting of dog parks in North America and Europe. The goal of these memes, posters, and pamphlets seems to be to generate media attention, force Muslims and Muslim groups to respond to the absurd claims in ways that will highlight their difference with non-Muslims, and thereby force liberals into a false choice between pluralism and pet ownership. I argue that when teaching, reporting on, or discussing with a non-Muslim audience these controversies regarding Islam and animals—not just Muslims and dogs, but Muslims and pigs/pork or halal butchering—it is insufficient to simply address the controversy and refute it. This does the work of the Islamophobes for them. Rather, one must reveal the underlying strategy in order to better diffuse it.
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
6-7 p.m.
Matthew Hotham (Religious Studies)
“Pet Ownership as a ‘Racial Hinge’: Dogs and Islamophobia in Europe and North America”