[2521] in peace2
May 12 / Taping of WBUR On Point program on "Islam & Democracy" (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Fri May 2 16:13:11 2003
Message-Id: <200305022012.QAA02263@quickstation-2.mit.edu>
To: peace-request@MIT.EDU
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Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 16:12:57 -0400
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
NPR and WBUR (On Point in particular) are extremely racist against
Arabs, Palestinians and Islam. The other night I tired to respond
to an analogy to US overwhelming military power to Israel's overwhelming
power not making it "secure" in the region with the point that if you
want to occupy and colonize people, they will continue to resist, no matter
how militarily strong you are. The screener initially had me in the queue,
then came back to say she was going to have to let me go. I asked if this
was a CAMERA issue, referring to the Zionist media watch group that has
been boycotting and protesting WBUR and NPR and the screener said "that
is part of it." When I tried to get her name, she would not give it.
When I called to speak with the show's producer, he denied that she said
this even though he never heard my side of the conversation and could not
have known what I said. It is possible that she mis-spoke or often lies to
get rid of people, but she was very clear in her reply.
Yesterday, on the connection, a guest said something like, "terrorists
are like mosquitos, the only way to get rid of the mosquitos is to drain
the swamp. The swamp, in this case, is the Arab-Islamic world."
I was not allowed to reply to this horrendously racist comment. The
screener said she simply would not allow it.
Many in CIS are not much better. I think it is really important to have
people who are against racism, against Islam-bashing and who are
against Xenophobia there in good numbers to pose thoughtful questions.
Sincerely,
Aimee
http://www.fair.org/extra/0103/not-stones.html
http://www.fair.org/extra/0111/npr-mideast.html
http://www.fair.org/activism/npr-calm-update.html
http://www.fair.org/activism/npr-israel-quiet.html
http://www.fair.org/activism/npr-retaliation.html
http://www.fair.org/extra/0111/www.fair.org/research/npr-israel.html
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 14:45:38 -0400
To: bacevich@bu.edu, jainyu@bu.edu, goldstee@bu.edu, rhefner@bu.edu,
jyip@wellesley.edu, wjoseph@wellesley.edu, mideast@fas.harvard.edu,
jflahive@wcfia.harvard.edu, rmilner@wcfia.harvard.edu, pugwash@mit.edu,
sci-tech-students@mit.edu, sci-tech-public@mit.edu
From: Amy Tarr <atarr@MIT.EDU>
Subject: May 12 / Taping of WBUR On Point program on "Islam & Democracy"
....Please feel free to forward this to friends, students and
colleagues who might be interested....
Dear colleagues:
Seats are still available for the taping of a special WBUR (90.9 FM)
On Point program at MIT on Monday, May 12. If you'd like to attend,
please say so in a return e-mail.
On Point host Tom Ashbrook will moderate a discussion on "Islam and
the Challenge of Democracy." (On Point airs on WBUR from 7:00-9:00
on weeknights; this event will be aired sometime during the week of
the 12th.)
The speakers will be Khaled Abou El Fadl, Omar and Azmeralda Alfi
Distinguished Fellow in Islamic Law at UCLA and author most recently
of The Place of Tolerance in Islam; and Fawaz Gerges, Christian A.
Johnson Chairholder in International Affairs and Middle Eastern
Studies at Sarah Lawrence College, and an ABC News consultant.
The event will run from 11:00am until 12:15pm----but members of the
audience must be seated no later than 10:45am.
The location will be MIT's Wong Auditorium (building E51), near
Kendall Square. For an on-line map, see:
http://whereis.mit.edu/bin/map?locate=wong
The jumping-off point for the discussion will be Professor El Fadl's
article in the April/May Boston Review, in which he argues that
democracy poses a formidable challenge for Islam, but also that
precepts compatible with democracy can be found in the Qur'an. The
on-link link is: http://bostonreview.net/NDF.nclk#Islam
The event's co-sponsors are MIT's Center for International Studies
and the Boston Review. We hope to see you there. (But please do
RSVP, just to be sure tickets are still available.)
Amy Tarr
Director, Public Programs
Center for International Studies (CIS)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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