BY AILYA VAJID

In print | November 1, 2007

With the end of Islamo-Fascism Week, I’m so thrilled to know that our campus was above that. There was no hatred shown towards Muslims, and neither David Horowitz nor Nonie Darwish, who have both been traveling around the country giving talks on “Islamo-Fascism”, was present. They have both made appearances on our campus before, one through his jihad ad, and the latter during her talk last spring, and though I can’t speak for other Muslims on campus, I must say that this year I’m feeling much more comfortable as a Muslim student at Swarthmore. In fact, this week, instead of attending events for Islamo-Fascism Week, I was called by my old hallmate informing me of events of an Islam Awareness Week at the University of Pennsylvania, one of which I was able to attend, I was also contacted about inter-faith dialogue.

These occurrences alone give me so much hope for this country’s (maybe slowly) growing acceptance or at least understanding of Islam, even though throughout the country this week’s goal was to spread propaganda against Muslims. I don’t deny anyone’s right to free speech, but I think creating a week like this is not based around discussing issues and determining even the beginnings of solutions. Instead it is based on singling out one religious group and projecting the actions of the minority – fundamentalists and others – who commit actions that, though maybe in the name of the religion, do not at all adhere to the religion’s principles.

I don’t feel that my words can adequately express the many problems with this week, so here is a link to an article written by a Rabbi Arthur Waskow on his views of the week and what it truly means. It was sent to the Muslim Students Association listserv by Humzah Soofi ‘10, and I hope that you’ll take time to give it a quick read.

Most importantly I really want to thank the campus for being so much more open-minded than all the universities that hosted events for Islamo-Fascism Week. I was so worried because my brother who is just a freshman had to experience the agony of it at the University of California, Los Angeles this year. I think it’s also Muslims’ responsibility to help increase understanding and satiate this newfound curiosity about Islam, and hopefully next semester we’ll be able to bring our own awareness week to Swarthmore.

« RETURN TO OPINIONS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »