This website was created as part of a Spring 2013 course: Islamophobia and Constructing Otherness at University of California, Berkeley taught by Dr.Hatem Bazian. The Great People involved in bringing this information to you are:
Rohan Sachdev
My name is Rohan Sachdev and I am a 3rd year undergraduate at UC Berkeley,majoring in EECS. Apart from Engineering I have deep interest in political issues. What makes this class more important to me is the thought that how from historical times humans have used discrimination and racism to gain power. Islamophobia is one such form of discrimination.
Hannah Brady My name is Hannah Brady and I am a fourth year, graduating senior at UC Berkeley in French and Religious Studies, with an emphasis in Islam. After taking another class with Professor Hatem Bazian last semester entitled "Muslims in America," I decided to continue my education in this field with this course. Although the content is sometimes challenging and frustrating, I think that all of the issues that we discuss are relevant and provocative - and they engender a greater understanding of the world around me. I hope to be an agent of change in this world, amidst and despite all of these obstacles. |
Najwa Howard-Abuzeid
My name is Najwa Howard-Abuzeid and I am a 3rd year undergraduate majoring in Anthropology. My interest in learning about Muslim stemmed from the fact that I knew nothing about Islam or the Middle East. Even more so it pained me how ignorant I was of what is partly my culture and background. My grandfather was a devote Muslim who was a professor in Egypt, my mother grew up in Saudi Arabia and Sudan, and I have many distant family members all throughout the Middle East and North Africa and up until a year ago I could say nothing about this part of my heritage. Being of African and Middle Eastern descent Dr. Bazian's courses have nothing short of enlightening.
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Baljot Singh
I am a 3rd year undergraduate student, majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). Building circuits and writing code aside, I love learning about human behavior. In this class as well as in ASAMST 128AC, I learned the two most important characteristics of some human beings: categorical thinking and drive to exploit it to gain power. Personally, I think that islamophobia, in a nutshell, is the fear of Muslims that is engraved into the minds of naïve categorical thinkers by the power seeking parasites and exploiters. The awareness of this fact allows me to flip off the opportunists and help the gullible.
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