On October 18th, over 70 people came
to CLAGS to attend a panel on “Que(e)rying
Islamophobia: Race, Sexuality and Imperialism.”
Speaking from different perspectives, the panelists
discussed how “queer rights” are framed by
the West as tools of an explicit Islamophobia
and deployed in the latest front in the purported
battle between Civilization (liberal modernity as embodied by ‘the West’) and barbarism (Islam). Speakers included (left
to right): panel curator and moderator Saadia Toor, College of State Island, CUNY; Sahar Shafqat, St. Mary’s College
of Maryland; Ayaz Ahmed, author of “Queer and Muslim in post 9/11 New York”; and Kourosh Shemirani, co-founder
of Qiam, the Queer Iranian Alliance.
