Lulu Schwartz | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Schwartz in 2013 | |
| Born | Stephen Schwartz (1948-09-09)September 9, 1948 (age 76) Columbus, Ohio, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, writer |
Lulu Schwartz (bornStephen A. Schwartz, September 9, 1948, and also known previously asStephen Suleyman Schwartz[1]) is an AmericanSufi[2] journalist,columnist, and author. She has been published in a variety of media, includingThe Wall Street Journal.[3] Schwartz worked as a senior policy consultant and held the role of director of "Islam and Democracy Project" at theFoundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), aneoconservative think-tank based inWashington, D.C.[4] Schwartz is also the founder and executive director of the Washington, D.C.–basedCenter for Islamic Pluralism[1] and served as a member of Folks Magazine's Editorial Board from 2011 to 2012.[5]
A student of Sufism since the 1960s, Schwartz has been an adherent of theHanafischool ofSunni Islam since 1997.[1][2] Schwartz was a key figure in theneoconservative movement that held considerable influence in theadministration of George W. Bush.[6] Schwartz's criticism ofIslamic fundamentalism, especially theWahhabi movement withinSunni Islam, has attracted controversy. Alongside fellowneoconservative writerDaniel Pipes, Schwartz has been a major critic ofIslamism and has depicted Islamists as the new ideological nemesis of the West after the fall ofNazi Germany andSoviet Union.[7][8]
Strongly critical of theAKP government inTurkey, Schwartz has described it as a hostilepan-Islamist threat following theGaza flotilla raid incident in 2010.[9][10] Schwartz has also condemned theIranian government, asserting that American academia is being threatened by the infiltration ofpro-Khomeiniststate agents of Iran.[11] Schwartz's works have also been a major influence onneo-con factions that favour the severing ofSaudi Arabia-U.S. relations and lobbyU.S. foreign policy officials to take a hostile stance against theSaudi government.[12]
Schwartz was born inColumbus, Ohio to Horace O. Schwartz, aJewish independent bookseller, and Eileene M. Schwartz (née McKinney), a career social services worker and the daughter of aProtestantminister.[13] She later described both Horace and Eileene as "radical leftists and quite antireligious",[14] Horace a "fellow traveller", and Eileene a member of theAmerican Communist Party.[15] Schwartz was baptized in thePresbyterian church as an infant.[14]
The family moved toSan Francisco in 1951, where Horace became a literary agent and Schwartz's brother, Geoffrey, was born.[16][15] Schwartz attendedLowell High School[16] and became affiliated withLeninistcommunism until 1984.[14]
After college, Schwartz became a member of theSailors' Union of the Pacific and co-founded a smallsemi-Trotskyist groupFOCUS.[17] TheSan Francisco Bay Guardian wrote of Schwartz in 1989: "As he himself readily admits, Schwartz has made a lot of enemies over the years as he performed a series of dizzying ideological leaps: from theIndustrial Workers of the World to meeting withOliver North and the Outreach Group on Central America in the basement of the White House, from minusculeTrotskyist sects meeting in North Beach cafes to serving as a U.S. press representative for aContra leader.[18]
In the 1990s, Schwartz spent a decade as a staff writer for theSan Francisco Chronicle and was a member of the localtrade union at theChronicle, a branch of theNewspaper Guild. At the end of 1997, Schwartzconverted to Islam.[14] In 1999, she left theChronicle and moved toSarajevo,Bosnia and Herzegovina, living there for the next 18 months.[19] During theNATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, she published a piece in theChronicle accusing the Serbs of countless crimes while absolving theAlbanian population of Kosovo and theKLA of all responsibility regarding their involvement in theKosovo War and brushing all Serb arguments as mere propaganda.[20] The article was criticized by journalistRobert W. Merry for being tendentiously biased and highly inaccurate.[20]
While in Bosnia, Schwartz published the pro-Albanian bookKosovo: Background to a War.[21] It was criticized by historian Robert C. Austin for weak and polemical writing and for being "decidedly biased in favour of the Albanian community in Kosovo", who concluded that "When he is attempting to be an historian, Schwartz is at his worst".[21] Schwartz also supported theIraq War in 2003.[22]
On March 25, 2005, Schwartz launched theCenter for Islamic Pluralism. The center is a nonprofit organization based inWashington, D.C., with Schwartz as executive director.[1]
In 2020, under the name Stephen (Lulu) Schwartz, Schwartz ran for theSan Francisco Board of Supervisors in District 3. She came in fourth, with 1,374 votes (4.82 percent of the vote). The winner wasAaron Peskin.[23]
In 2017, Schwartzcame out as atransgender woman, using the names Ashk Lejla and Lulu.[24]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with Schwartz onThe Two Faces of Islam, February 2, 2003,C-SPAN |
Stephen Suleyman Schwartz is the Executive Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, DC
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)During the presidency of George W. Bush an idea known as 'neoconservatism' was highly influential. Certainly, many of the ideas implemented by the Bush administration had been articulated over the past two-and-a half decades by neoconservatives..Neoconservatives also held many prominent positions in the Bush administration: figures and advisors such as Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz; the vice president's chief of staff I. Lewis Libby; National Security Council staffer Elliott Abrams.. Stephen Schwartz, Bernard Lewis, Michael Ledeen, and Robert Kagan.
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