Bruce B. Lawrence

Maqbul Fida Husain, known as M.F. Husain, was India’s most famous, and its most infamous, contemporary painter. Often labeled the Picasso of India, his life and work spanned the 20th century and inched into the 21st century.

Islamophobia is an ideological project and it is not limited to cartoons. It is not the purview of the political right. It is not a Zionist conspiracy. It is not an evangelical polemic. It draws on the uncertainty about Islam that pervades the American public square since 9/11.

While most reports focus on the brutal massacre of over fifty Philippine citizens and the religious tensions that appear to be at work, beneath the surface it looks a lot more like a good old-fashioned power struggle.