Fair criticism means looking beyond the faults and failings By Fedwa Wazwaz On October 22, The Minnesota Daily published my commentary “Islamo-Fascism a very racist concept.” On October 23 and 24, a couple of letters to the editor responded to my artcle. A common thread in the letters was the right to criticize Islam. Do people have a right to criticize Islam? Let me begin by quoting a couple of lines of Islamic poetry: “The eye of Love to every flaw is blind, While the eye of hatred reveals all flaws.”
Tag: Islam
Religion vs. culture through the eyes of a newborn
By Heba Abdel-Karim Have you ever wondered why a newborn cries when he first sets eyes on our world?
Arabic not dangerous to America, but Arabic illiteracy dangerous to Muslims
This month, the Arabic language came under attack when Debbie Almontaser, principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, New York’s first public school that integrates Arabic language and cultural studies with a public school curriculum, explained that the English translation for the word “intifada,” literally means to “shake off.” Almontaser had been asked to explain a word on the T-shirts circulated by the AWAAM (Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media), a Brooklyn-based organization that empowers girls and women.
The attack on Khalil Gibran International Academy is one of the most recent examples of America’s fear of the Arabic language, but it is only one of numerous examples throughout the nation. In August 2006, JetBlue Airways refused to allow an Iraqi man to board a flight at Kennedy International Airport because he wore a t-shirt inscribed with Arabic and English. The phrase read, “We Will Not Be Silent.”