Dabashi judged atheist-liberal Islamophobes more dangerous than conservative ones

Evidence

While remaking himself, Hitchens led the making of a new cottage industry of liberal Islamophobes. These voices anchored their Islamophobia in atheism and disseminated it through mainstream outlets like HBO. Muslim intellectual Hamid Dabashi observed, “I would say, without a moment of hesitation, [Bill] Maher and [Sam] Harris, and before he passed away that careerist Christopher Hitchens, are far more dangerous Stormtrooper lieutenants of Islamophobia. These liberal Islamophobes are finagling their hatred of Muslims with smiling faces, silly jokes, phony arguments, forced laughter and manufactured consent—with the full cooperation of otherwise perfectly respectable outlets.” — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 319

Categorization

• XREF: Contradiction/counterpoint to the familiar claim that American Islamophobia is a right-wing phenomenon, useful against Iftikhar.
• SHARE: Send to a friend interested in the new-atheist intellectual tradition for the ‘manufactured consent in respectable outlets’ framing.