How Courageous?
Courageous indeed, to defy the convention and conviction of your own countrymen, your own religion, your own traditional beliefs and customs, and to speak out in support of a universal truth; the recognition of good in the world and the deliberation to act on that history-beatified dictum to act unto others as you would have them do to you.Last week there was a conference held in Montreal at the Delta Hotel that showcased the courage and dedication of a group of Arab women who have decried the traditional enmity that the Muslim world has evinced against those not sharing their vision of Islam, and who have pledged themselves to work instintingly toward helping to create a better world of understanding between what is rapidly becoming an irreconcilably-hostile division between the world of Islam and that of the secular democratic West.
These women, raised in traditional Islamic households in the Middle East, and taught from childhood that infidels were less worthy as human beings than Muslims, each in their own way experienced their own epiphanies which were instrumental in turning them away from distrust and separation and toward openness and searching for a workable median.
- Nazanin Afshin-Jam (www.nazanin.ca), a Canadian of Iranian birth, has a degree in political science and international relations. As a Muslim she has also pioneered a definitely un-Muslim way of life, having been a Royal Canadian Air Cadets officer, and a former Miss Canada, runner-up in the 2003 Miss World pageant. She uses her experience to advance her commitment to international activism for women's rights in Iran and in the Muslim world at large. She has become a hate target for Muslim fundamentalists for her outspoken criticisms and activism.
- Nonie Darwish, raised in Gaza and of Egyptian derivation, is a writer and activist. Her father was the chief of intelligence under Abdel Gamel Nasser and had the distinction of being the subject of Israel's first targeted assassination. She was raised in a Jew-hating environment, but points the finger of blame at fundamentalist Islam, not at Israel for the unsettled conditions in the Middle East. Examples of her work can be seen at www.ArabsforIsrael.com.
- Brigitte Gabriel is a Lebanese Christian, creator of the anti-terror, anti-fundamentalist-Islam web site www.americancongressfortruth.com. She is the author of Because they Hate. As a child she and her family lived for seven years under constant siege by Muslim Palestinians. She considers Israel to be a living symbol of liberation and democracy. She uses public lectures, campus discussions and media interviews to fight Islamism. She lives with the daily threat of death.
- Wafa Sultan, a psychologist born in Syria and known in Arab-speaking communities for her denunciation of Koranic violence, misogyny and anti-Semitism was raised as an infidel-hating Muslim. Her Syrian family has disowned her and she receives constant death threats but she remains firmly dedicated to her crusade to reform Islam's social and political doctrines.
"The weakness of the West attracts the aggression of radical Islam," Darwish warns. "Don't let your civilized ways become your worst enemy," adminishes Sultan. They decry the West's propensity toward appeasing radicalism as though to do so would disarm those who seek to do harm to the West. Tolerance has its place, but not in these dire circumstances.
"We are discouraged because the West is scared," says Darwish.
With thanks to Barbara Kay/National Post.
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, November 01, 2006
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