Really? Correcting flawed misunderstandings
Perspective
Abdul Rahman Murphy
Issue date: 12/7/09 Section: Opinions
Really? That was my first thought after reading Christopher Skeet's editorial about Islamophobia on the Chicago Flame's website. Word after word, line after line, I became more and more worried; not that the allegedly violent nature of the Islamic faith was being exposed, but that a piece that is written by someone who is so clearly uneducated in regards to the Islamic creed might actually be taken seriously.
Now, according to Skeet's article, every Chicago Flame staff member should be anxiously awaiting some sort of backlash against their offices (perhaps by someone who drives a cab, can barely speak English in his always angry accent, beats his wife, and fulfills every other over-generalized stereotype). Their energy, however, would be better used in quality control as opposed to fearing a community of nearly 400,000 American Muslims in the Chicagoland area.? Skeet's diatribe of a write-up is flawed in two major aspects: his clear prejudice in his choice of examples - examples that really show the logical fallacies of his article - as well as his clear lack of understanding of Islam.
The history of any group of people presents the opportunity to use a broad, fat brush, to create an unjust representation, using paint from an easel of radical occurrences.? In an age of social-justice, this neo-racism shouldn't be taken as a viable opinion, let alone tolerated as a public voice at all. Blinding hatred of a group, in this case Muslims, acts as an impediment towards objectivity, an impediment that was all too clear in Mr. Skeet's choice of examples. He needn't have hand-picked his examples of extremist (not peaceful) Muslim behavior from lands so far as Mogadishu, or even the newly-adopted land of Brett Favre - he could've gone to the Ickes Projects or the Mosque on Homan Avenue, where a group of Chicago Muslims have tables full of food to serve to those who need it on a weekly basis (rain or shine, warm or cold). He could've gone to Villa Park, where one of the largest mosques in the United States, Islamic Foundation, holds monthly food and clothing drives for the needy members of the Chicago community. He could've even attended the UIC Muslim Student Association's "Fast-a-thon" an event that encouraged fasting for a day, no matter your background, in order to yield sponsorships that would send donations to impoverished citizens of our great country.?
Now, according to Skeet's article, every Chicago Flame staff member should be anxiously awaiting some sort of backlash against their offices (perhaps by someone who drives a cab, can barely speak English in his always angry accent, beats his wife, and fulfills every other over-generalized stereotype). Their energy, however, would be better used in quality control as opposed to fearing a community of nearly 400,000 American Muslims in the Chicagoland area.? Skeet's diatribe of a write-up is flawed in two major aspects: his clear prejudice in his choice of examples - examples that really show the logical fallacies of his article - as well as his clear lack of understanding of Islam.
The history of any group of people presents the opportunity to use a broad, fat brush, to create an unjust representation, using paint from an easel of radical occurrences.? In an age of social-justice, this neo-racism shouldn't be taken as a viable opinion, let alone tolerated as a public voice at all. Blinding hatred of a group, in this case Muslims, acts as an impediment towards objectivity, an impediment that was all too clear in Mr. Skeet's choice of examples. He needn't have hand-picked his examples of extremist (not peaceful) Muslim behavior from lands so far as Mogadishu, or even the newly-adopted land of Brett Favre - he could've gone to the Ickes Projects or the Mosque on Homan Avenue, where a group of Chicago Muslims have tables full of food to serve to those who need it on a weekly basis (rain or shine, warm or cold). He could've gone to Villa Park, where one of the largest mosques in the United States, Islamic Foundation, holds monthly food and clothing drives for the needy members of the Chicago community. He could've even attended the UIC Muslim Student Association's "Fast-a-thon" an event that encouraged fasting for a day, no matter your background, in order to yield sponsorships that would send donations to impoverished citizens of our great country.?
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 15
Zachariah B. Wiedeman
posted 12/07/09 @ 7:31 AM CST
Thank you, Abdul for this polite and informative article. I write something in response to Salwa's article that I would like to share here:
http://optimiskeptic. (Continued…)
Atheist
posted 12/08/09 @ 5:16 PM CST
The Mohammedan Mr. Murphy said:
"Not once, in his article, does he cite a textual Islamic source - neither the Qur'an, nor the Hadith (actions and statements of Muhammad). (Continued…)
AbdelRahman Murphy
posted 12/09/09 @ 11:27 PM CST
Atheist:
As soon as you mature enough to have a discussion based on fact on not on hate-speech and ad-hominem attacks that you get from misinformed websites, then I'll take you seriously enough to respond to the number of lies and straight up false statements you've made. (Continued…)
Arif
posted 12/09/09 @ 11:38 PM CST
Great to see a cool-minded response to a bigoted attack. I hope others will follow in the steps of the Chicago flame and publish the concerns and views of others that may run contrary to the racist editors of theirs. (Continued…)
Mueze
posted 12/10/09 @ 12:31 AM CST
This is an excellent response from Mr. Murphy, thank you for being straight forward and actually taking time to answer an obvious hate-based editorial. (Continued…)
MTiger
posted 12/10/09 @ 12:48 AM CST
AbdelRehman, I appreciate your cool, collected, and intellectual response to obvious hate speech. The same form of hate speech that brought about the rise of the Nazis in Europe. (Continued…)
Romo9
posted 12/10/09 @ 12:14 PM CST
great article.
Ayman Alsharbini
posted 12/10/09 @ 11:09 PM CST
This article was a great response. Thank you for putting in the time and the effort to help people understand Islam better.
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posted 12/11/09 @ 12:38 AM CST
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Mahmoud Alsharbini
posted 12/11/09 @ 10:33 AM CST
Thanks alot Abdul Rahman Murphy for this great article. Just to let everyone new, I speak everyone when I say that the purpose of this article is not only to defend islam and muslims, however, it is to fight back against people (like skeet) that are trying to spread hate by writing biased articles, and providing false information. (Continued…)
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