【英语语言学习】穆斯林教徒

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The holy month of Ramadan is about to begin. That's the period of fasting, introspection and prayer observed by Muslims around the world, including here in the U.S. We wanted to spend a few minutes reflecting on what it's like to be a Muslim in America. And for this, we turn to a familiar voice on this program. Arsalan Iftikhar is a human rights lawyer, a writer and an activist¹.

Over the years, he's become a go-to voice in American media, playing a variety of roles - explaining Islam, decrying² Islamic extremism and also what he sees as rising islamophobia. It is that last which concerns him in a new book, and the title sums up its mission. It's called "Scapegoats⁴: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies And Threatens Our Freedoms." And I began our conversation by asking him to talk about the word islamophobia.

ARSALAN IFTIKHAR: Generally speaking, islamophobia has come to mean a hatred⁵ of anything related to Islam and Muslims. And it's important to keep in mind that if you look at the civil rights history of the United States, every minority group in America has been scapegoats. And tomorrow, it'll be somebody else. And so that's the key thing here, is that, you know, when you look at the presidential campaign of Donald Trump⁶, it's not only the Muslim ban that he's called for. He's called for building a wall against Latinos and said disparaging⁷ remarks against African-Americans.

The point here is that we as Americans need to focus on the things that bring us together as Americans and not things that separate us. And I feel like - as though we have always had scapegoats in the past. We have scapegoats currently. And I believe that Islam and Muslims are the current scapegoats in America today.

MARTIN: Well, in fact, in the book you write about Germans during World War I who were targets of harassment⁸. You said at the time that they were actually the largest minority group in the United States - that German-language newspapers were shut down, German-American religious services were disrupted. You write that a German immigrant in Illinois was actually lynched after having been accused of stealing dynamite⁹. And then of course, during World War II, the internment¹⁰ of the Japanese, which is something that a lot of people are familiar with. Why do you think that is?

IFTIKHAR: Well, I think that as an American society, we've always needed a proverbial bogeyman. I think politicians have used bogeymen to further their own political agendas, whether it's Catholics that were coming across the pond at the turn of the 20th century to German-Americans to Japanese-Americans to anti-Semitism to Jim Crow and African-American - the African-American civil rights movement. And I think that now, in the post-9/11 civil rights era that we live in, I believe that Islam and Muslims are being used as a scapegoat³. And I think that many politicians are trying to score cheap political points, and I think that Donald Trump is a perfect example of that.

MARTIN: Now I want to talk about the second part of the title of the book, though, which is that it helps our enemies and threatens our freedoms. That's what you say islamophobia does. I mean, the premise¹¹ of your book is that there is a broader, corrosive¹² effect on the society if that mentality¹³ is maintained. Tell me why you think that.

IFTIKHAR: Well, because as I look at American history, right? Because even though the fill-in-the-blanks is Muslims today, tomorrow it could be anyone else. I mean, when the USA Patriot¹⁴ Act came out in 2001, you know, this was a 348-page document that trumped¹⁵ 50 federal laws. And it wasn't just targeted at brown Muslims who were suspected of terrorism. This allows the federal government to come in and, without a warrant, get all of your information without even notifying you, going to college registrars¹⁶, getting all their information. I mean, it affects everybody.

You know, political rhetoric¹⁷ leads to laws. And that's important to keep in mind, is that again, you know, the internment camps of World War II didn't come out of a vacuum. You had people - President Roosevelt's general, who was the head of Pacific Command, James DeWitt, was quoted in Congress as saying once a Jap, always a Jap. I mean, this sort of anti-Japanese rhetoric was actually what led to the internment camps.

And that's the thing, is that, you know, we can't just see this as, you know, ha ha, this is just kind of silly political rhetoric that's coming out. This could - you know, if somebody - if Donald Trump comes out tomorrow and says, you know, we should put Muslims in internment camps - well, you know, we've had them in the past. Who's to say that we can't have them again in the future?

MARTIN: Do things like the recent election of Sadiq Khan as London's mayor, the first Muslim to lead a major Western capital - does that give you any sense of hope?

IFTIKHAR: Yes, it absolutely does. I mean, the election of Sadiq Khan by the people of London is a great sign not only for multiculturalism¹⁸ in the United Kingdom and in London in particular, but again, it's a gut-punch to people who might pander¹⁹ in these homophobic memes and to the extremists themselves. I mean, you know, here you have a man who was the son of a bus driver who had emigrated from Pakistan over 50 years ago. He worked his way up, became a human rights lawyer and now is the mayor of one of the largest cities in the world.

And he's a practicing Muslim who's said that he's going to be a feminist²⁰ mayor, that he's going to speak out against anti-Semitism, that he's going to, you know, be a mayor for all Londoners. And that's the thing, is that, you know, we Muslims are just trying to contribute to our respective societies in whatever ways that we can.

And I think that as long as people understand that we are as diverse and we're not a monolith, just like no other group wants to be seen as a monolith, I think that we can begin to have that humanizing conversation in order to move our societies forward.

MARTIN: That's Arsalan Iftikhar. He's an international human rights lawyer. He's a regular commentator²¹ in the media. And his new book is called "Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies And Threatens Our Freedoms," and it's out now. And he was with us in our Washington, D.C. studios. Arsalan Iftikhar, thank you so much for speaking with us.

IFTIKHAR: It was my pleasure. Thank you, Michel.

1 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

2 decrying   

v.公开反对，谴责( decry的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Soon Chinese Internet users, including government agencies, were decrying the' poisonous panda. 不久，中国网民以及政府机构纷纷谴责“影响极坏的熊猫烧香”。 来自互联网
• Democratic leaders are decrying President Bush's plan to indefinitely halt troop withdrawals from Iraq after July. 民主党领导公开谴责布什总统七月后无限停止从伊拉克撤兵的举动。 来自互联网

3 scapegoat   

n.替罪的羔羊，替人顶罪者；v.使…成为替罪羊

参考例句：

• He has been made a scapegoat for the company's failures.他成了公司倒闭的替罪羊。
• They ask me to join the party so that I'll be their scapegoat when trouble comes.他们想叫我入伙，出了乱子，好让我替他们垫背。

4 scapegoats   

n.代人受过的人，替罪羊( scapegoat的名词复数 )v.使成为替罪羊( scapegoat的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They were made the scapegoats for the misfire of the program. 他们成了那个计划失败的替罪羊。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Only some of the guards and a minor hotel employee, chosen as scapegoats, were imprisoned. 只有一些保镖和那个旅馆的小职员当了替罪羊，被关进了监狱。 来自辞典例句

5 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 disparaging   

adj.轻蔑的，毁谤的v.轻视( disparage的现在分词 )；贬低；批评；非难

参考例句：

• Halliday's comments grew daily more and more sparklingly disagreeable and disparaging. 一天天过去，哈里代的评论越来越肆无忌惮，越来越讨人嫌，越来越阴损了。 来自英汉文学 - 败坏赫德莱堡
• Even with favorable items they would usually add some disparaging comments. 即使对好消息，他们也往往要加上几句诋毁的评语。 来自互联网

8 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

9 dynamite   

n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破)

参考例句：

• The workmen detonated the dynamite.工人们把炸药引爆了。
• The philosopher was still political dynamite.那位哲学家仍旧是政治上的爆炸性人物。

10 internment   

n.拘留

参考例句：

• Certainly the recent attacks against the internment camps are evidence enough. 很明显，最近营地遭受到的攻击就是一个足好的证明。 来自互联网
• The chapters on the internment are Both readaBle and well researched. 这些关于拘留的章节不仅具可读性而且研究得很透彻。 来自互联网

11 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

12 corrosive   

adj.腐蚀性的；有害的；恶毒的

参考例句：

• Many highly corrosive substances are used in the nuclear industry.核工业使用许多腐蚀性很强的物质。
• Many highly corrosive substances are used in the nuclear industry.核工业使用许多腐蚀性很强的物质。

13 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

14 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。

15 trumped   

v.（牌戏）出王牌赢（一牌或一墩）( trump的过去分词 )；吹号公告，吹号庆祝；吹喇叭；捏造

参考例句：

• That woman trumped up various baseless charges against him. 那个女人捏造种种毫无根据的罪名指控他。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Several of his colleagues trumped up a complaint to get him removed from the job. 他的几位同事诬告他，使他丟掉了工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 registrars   

n.主管注册者( registrar的名词复数 )；记录者；登记员；注册主任

参考例句：

• Authorization Code is required when attempting to transfer a domain between registrars. 当域名要转移注册商时需要授权代码。 来自互联网
• Only IATF registrars are authorized to conduct the surveillance audit. 仅仅IATF登记官被授权进行监视审计。 来自互联网

17 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

18 multiculturalism   

n.多元文化

参考例句：

• Switzerland is well known for cheese fondue, penguin parades and its multiculturalism. 瑞士一向以芝士火锅，企鹅游行和多元文化等特色闻名于世。
• That may be one reason why multiculturalism came easily to it. 这也是多元文化容易适应发展的原因之一。

19 pander   

v.迎合；n.拉皮条者，勾引者；帮人做坏事的人

参考例句：

• Don't pander to such people. 要迎合这样的人。
• Those novels pander to people's liking for stories about crime.那些小说迎合读者对犯罪故事的爱好。

20 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

21 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。