cultural historian of religion | here: Islam and America | challenging Islamophobia | @georgetown alum | views mine.
North Carolina
Joined January 2012
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Nathan Lean retweeted
Breaking News: California Governor Gavin Newsom spared the lives of everyone on death row in the state, commuting the sentences of 548 prisoners. nyti.ms/4zu9I2f
Nathan Lean retweeted
The Donald Trump era in American politics ended Tuesday. This was the most comprehensive repudiation of a U.S. political party since post-Watergate. There have been dark moments when I thought our nation was irretrievably lost. I was wrong. It feels like morning in America again.
Nathan Lean retweeted
In 1860, an enslaved man named Sheppard Peek was listed among the possessions of William Peek, a white man in Crawfordville.
More than a century and a half later, Sheppard’s great-great-granddaughter has been elected governor of Georgia.
ajc.com/politics/2026/11/kei…
Nathan Lean retweeted
Tonight is likely to be a rejection of @MikeRogersForMI. All my tweeting aside, I’ve known Mike & Kristi for 30+ years, I know how much it will hurt to lose. If that happens, I hope they accept this in the spirit in which this is offered: You deserve to be miserable after the appalling bigotry you’ve spread like napalm. Go away.
Nathan Lean retweeted
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Haley Stevens and anti-Arab racism:
vanityfair.com/story/ta-nehi…
Nathan Lean retweeted
I wrote about the Trump Administration's efforts to denaturalize Ilhan Omar, and what's at stake for all Americans. For @NewYorker
Nathan Lean retweeted
This is straight up incitement and it’s fucking disgusting that @cspan is clipping and promoting it.
Sen. @tedcruz (R-TX) says that if U.S. Sen. candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) is elected into the Senate and is placed in the Senate Intelligence Committee, "there is a very real risk that Americans will die as a result."
Nathan Lean retweeted
“Arabs don’t produce literature” is really something you can only say if you’ve never had a moment’s contact with genuine civilization. A mind totally consumed by television and self-help books.
Nathan Lean retweeted
Fifteen years ago, Trump was demanding Obama show his birth certificate to prove he's American. Today, Trump and his allies make clear that proof of being American is not dependent on records, but on something else.
Nathan Lean retweeted
Try to imagine a prominent host on any news or entertainment network in America asking a fellow on-air panelist ‘You want more Jews in positions of power? You want more Black people in positions of power?’
Just try and imagine that. Try.
Nathan Lean retweeted
The Islamophobia in the Michigan Senate race is officially at nuclear-grade levels.
1. Ted Cruz claiming Abdul El-Sayed might share classified intel with the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorists
2. Trump calling AES "Mohammed" and mocking his name
3. Mike Rogers trying to tie AES's biological mom, whom he stopped being raised by when he was 3, to Al-Qaeda
This stuff is more pernicious than most people acknowledge today. Republicans could win this race by challenging AES's ideas, but they apparently can't help themselves but fear monger about his faith.
Florida Rep. Randy Fine wrote: “We need more Islamophobia, not less. Fear of Islam is rational.”
Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles: Muslims “don’t belong in American society.”
Alabama Sen Tommy Tuberville saying “The enemy is inside the gates" about Zohran, next to pictures of the Twin Towers burning on 9/11.
It has a very particular, distinct post 9/11 vibe to it. Really, really unhinged and ugly shit, and not nearly enough people calling it out.
Nathan Lean retweeted
I'd argue that the Islamophobia we see today is different than post-9/11 Islamophobia. In 2001, senior policymakers made it a deliberate effort to note that "Islam is peace" and that Muslims belong in the country.
The Islamophobia in the Michigan Senate race is officially at nuclear-grade levels.
1. Ted Cruz claiming Abdul El-Sayed might share classified intel with the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorists
2. Trump calling AES "Mohammed" and mocking his name
3. Mike Rogers trying to tie AES's biological mom, whom he stopped being raised by when he was 3, to Al-Qaeda
This stuff is more pernicious than most people acknowledge today. Republicans could win this race by challenging AES's ideas, but they apparently can't help themselves but fear monger about his faith.
Florida Rep. Randy Fine wrote: “We need more Islamophobia, not less. Fear of Islam is rational.”
Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles: Muslims “don’t belong in American society.”
Alabama Sen Tommy Tuberville saying “The enemy is inside the gates" about Zohran, next to pictures of the Twin Towers burning on 9/11.
It has a very particular, distinct post 9/11 vibe to it. Really, really unhinged and ugly shit, and not nearly enough people calling it out.
Nathan Lean retweeted
Re anti-Muslim rhetoric in Michigan elections, this is not new. During 2008 presidential elections, a copy of the film “Obsession”, about the dangers of radical Islam in the US, was sent to voters in swing states.
Nathan Lean retweeted
CNN pay a contributor who puts the word Islamophobia in scare quotes. I’m trying to imagine CNN paying a contributor who attacked a Jewish candidate while dismissing antisemitism in scare quotes.
I can’t.
This is how liberal media normalizes rightwing Islamophobia. Sadly.
Nathan Lean retweeted
Orientalism 101: Arab and Islamic aesthetics without Islam or Arabs.
New look at Timothée Chalamet and Anya Taylor-Joy in ‘DUNE: PART 3’.
(Source: empireonline.com/movies/news…)
Nathan Lean retweeted
Unlike the raid on John Bolton, the targeting of Omar has elicited zero condemnation from NYT, WSJ, and Washington Post. theintercept.com/2026/10/15/…
Nathan Lean retweeted
The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption. #NoDeathPenalty
Nathan Lean retweeted
Several years ago, I wrote about how, for a long time, English translations of Rumi stripped Islam from his poetry, giving the illusion that non-Western groups or Islam have not contributed to rich civilization.
newyorker.com/books/page-tur…
Nathan Lean retweeted
My beef with Abdul:
He says he’s a doctor. He’s not. He’s unlicensed.
He’s for abolishing the police. He deleted the tweet, but CNN found it.
His staff denied he’s a dual citizen w Egypt. Video shows Abdul saying he’s a dual citizen and he summered in Egypt.
He refuses to condemn the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran.
He blames terrorism on America’s policies.
He calls Israel bloodthirsty. Who uses that language?
He says he hasn’t taken a penny of corporate contributions, but his FEC report shows he received $1.9 million in contributions from 629 corporate executives, including from Nvidia, Google and Pfizer.
Abdul is a conman.