18 December 2015 — FAIR
Arun Kundnani on Islamophobia & the ‘War on Terror,’ Keane Bhatt on a Tale of Two Elections
This week on CounterSpin: Alleged San Bernardino killers Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik did not pledge allegiance to ISIS on social media, the FBI now says, but no matter: The California killings have already added fuel to an upsurge of Islamophobia in US media and politics that in some ways is worse than that seen in the wake of September 11, 2001. One new element is the murky idea of “radicalization.” We’ll talk about that with Arun Kundnani, adjunct professor at NYU and author of, most recently, The Muslims Are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism and the Domestic War on Terror.
Also on the show: US media had a lot of worries about the recent elections in Venezuela; allegations of fraud and unfair advantage for the Maduro government were rampant, though the opposition party ended up ahead. Meanwhile, the same sorts of concerns, with greater foundation, were being raised in Haiti, to decidedly less elite media interest. We’ll discuss a Tale of Two Elections with journalist and activist Keane Bhatt.
As usual, we take a quick look back at the week’s press, including debate questions, Scalia’s racism and the Bernie blackout.
The New Dark Age 
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