“Personally, I’m not fond of either extreme in feminine clothing – burkas or bikinis. I believe that beauty contests exploit women, and I’m pleased that they seem to be less and less popular with each passing year, and will not be at all sad when they are no more.

“Nevertheless, women have the right to express themselves however they see fit, and the reaction of some Americans to Rima Fakih’s winning the Miss USA beauty pageant should be enough to prove once and for all that Islamophobia does exist, and that it has nothing to do with ‘political Islam’, ‘radical Islamists’, ‘Islamism’, or any of the other carefully crafted terms used to attempt to hide their hatred of Muslims as actually being a defense of western civilization against extremist or ‘radical’ Muslims.

“The truth is out there now for everyone to see. It is simply Muslims that they hate.”

Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim, 18 May 2010

See also Khaled Diab, “Miss USA 2010 and a confused conspiracy theory”, Comment is Free, 18 May 2010