{"id":14423,"date":"2016-11-21T12:06:20","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T17:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=14423"},"modified":"2023-04-10T19:54:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T23:54:22","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2016\/11\/21\/letter-to-the-editor-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"

We the undersigned, employees and staff at Sinclair, were disturbed by the article titled \u201cIslamahomophobia\u201d published in the Tartan Opinion section of The Clarion, written by the Executive Editor on November 1, 2016. The article perpetuated twisted claims and false accusations about Islam and Muslims.  <\/span>We wish to correct the false arguments presented in the article and also promote the positive values of \u201cinclusion, free speech, and a peaceful community of interacting ideas\u201d recently expressed in a message to the Sinclair community by President Steven Johnson.  <\/span>We applaud Dr. Johnson\u2019s stance on a respectful and inclusive Sinclair climate, and wish to call attention to the article\u2019s negative rhetoric propagating hatred, bigotry and possibly igniting violence against Sinclair Muslim employees and students. <\/p>\n

Contrary to how it is portrayed in the popular media, Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance advocating for justice, equality, liberty, freedom, strengthening the family and community, modesty, integrity, and honor.  <\/span>Islam does not condone and forbids violence. Thus, organizations that promote violence, such as ISIS, do not truly represent what Islam actually teaches. Islam also forbids racism, discrimination, oppression, slavery, adultery, illegal drugs, gambling, and alcohol and pork consumption.   <\/span>Islam calls for protecting individual and property rights and free enterprise.  <\/span>Islam advocated for women\u2019s rights 1400 years before western societies did.  <\/span>Muslims were the first pioneers who contributed to the fields of math, astronomy, chemistry, medicine and the arts.<\/p>\n

There are commonalities between the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and Islamic teachings such as liberty, freedom, justice and individual liberty and integrity.  <\/span>Generations of American Muslims who were born and raised in America are assimilated and are an integral part of the American fabric.  <\/span>Immigrant American Muslims have assimilated into American society; they are teachers, college and university professors, engineers, farmers, members of the law enforcement community, attorneys, entrepreneurs, business owners and managers, physicians, artists, government employees and members of the military.  <\/span>(Professor Daoud has one son serving in the Marines and another son serving in the Columbus police department.) In recent years, but mostly since Donald Trump began his campaign, some American Muslims were attacked, some killed, others injured. Some Muslim centers and mosques were attacked and vandalized.  <\/span>Cases of discrimination against Muslims and violations of their civil rights are on the rise.  <\/span>Muslims are being harassed and bullied in schools and in places of work, including colleges and universities, are on the rise.<\/p>\n

We want to remind the writer and everyone that America was built by the hard work of immigrants. America is strong because of the diversity and contributions immigrants from around the world have brought, and this will continue to be the case. On a local level, we need to stress the reality that Sinclair is located, served by and serving a community that rejects and will not sustain or tolerate \u201cdiscrimination of, or harm to, people based on their race, their religion, their community, their national origin, or their status within society.\u201d  <\/span>(letter to community by Dr. Steven Johnson)<\/p>\n

There are many innuendos and indirect and direct arguments made by the author to make his claim that Islam advocated violence.   <\/span>Among the most egregious are the following:<\/p>\n

\u2022That All Muslims (even those who are peaceful) contribute to the destructive nature of Islam in many areas of the Middle east<\/p>\n

\u2022That only Islam  <\/span>– not other religions – has resorted to violence<\/p>\n

\u2022That there is not separation of church and state in predominately Muslim countries<\/p>\n

\u2022That predominantly Muslim countries oppress non-Muslims<\/p>\n

\u2022That 90% of all terrorism comes from political and social Islam<\/p>\n

\u2022That Islam is not compatible with Western or American society<\/p>\n

These statements are not true.  <\/span>We would like to encourage dialogue and a forum in which these and other misunderstandings of Islam can be addressed in a mutually respectful way.  <\/span>We would invite the author to reach out and meet Muslims who are part of and contributing to the Sinclair community.<\/p>\n

Ribhi Daoud<\/p>\n

Deborah Gavlik<\/p>\n

Faheem Curtis \u2013 Khidr<\/p>\n

Angela Griffin<\/p>\n

Derek Petrey<\/p>\n

Jerry Eddy<\/p>\n

Larry Lindstrom<\/p>\n

Rukhi Jan<\/p>\n

Sheranita Hemphill<\/p>\n

Vonya Lewis<\/p>\n

Dona Fletcher\"Letters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We the undersigned, employees and staff at Sinclair, were disturbed by the article titled \u201cIslamahomophobia\u201d published in the Tartan Opinion section of The Clarion, written by the Executive Editor on November 1, 2016. The article perpetuated twisted claims and false accusations about Islam and Muslims.  We wish to correct the false arguments presented in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2212,3],"tags":[1653,1384],"class_list":["post-14423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","category-tartan-news","tag-letter-to-the-editor","tag-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-3KD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14423"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36455,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14423\/revisions\/36455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}