Letters to Free Press and Detroit News about Tawfik Hamid

Response “ISLAM MUST CHANGE” article in Detroit Free Press

I was very disturbed to read your article “Islam must change, Muslim Activist Says” (March 14, 2007). Tawfik Hamid’s suggestion that “Islam must be reformed because [it] allows for hatred against other religions, terrorism and violence against women” not only shows his lack of knowledge of the religion of which he supposed to be an expert, but shows his hatred of it. Nowhere in Islam, which literally means “peace” is there anything that can be used to justify terrorism and the killing of innocents. What is most disturbing though is his message that Islam “threatens the civilized world and must be militarily and theologically defeated before it can be reformed.” Instead of calling for dialogue and understanding, his advice to the American people is that we need to bash someone into submission and then force change on them. His arguments that it will take violence to end violence will only serve to increase the instability in the Muslim world, and help extremism thrive and grow. As a Middle Easterner he knows more than anyone else that the root cause of violence in the Middle East is not religion, but politics. His blaming Islam however, leads one to question his motivation. His distortion of Islam will not serve to increase dialogue and understanding of the religion, his extremist views can only serve to increase the islamophobic environment that exists today. Tawfik Hamid does a disservice not only to the Muslim community but to American society as a whole. He does not serve to build bridges but destroy them.

Ruqaya

Response to “Talk on Islam under Fire” article in Detroit News

I was disturbed to read in your article titled “Talk on Islam under fire”, that people like Tawfik Hamid are invited to speak about Islam. Tawfik Hamid is not representative of the Muslim community in America. You would not invite a former Klu Klux Klan member to talk about Christianity, similarly why would you speak to a “former” extremist about Islam? The fact that he joined an extremist organization in the first place shows his lack of knowledge and understanding of Islam. Muslims have been saying over and over again that the actions of a few do not represent our religion. We have been trying to “take back” our religion from such “experts”. But it is very difficult to do so when people like Tawfik Hamid claim to speak for and misrepresent our community. Islam is a religion of peace, and the nowhere in the sacred Muslim text, the Qur’an, is there any justification for terrorism. If you want to understand Islam and Muslims speak to the average every day Moderate Muslim. Not a former “extremist” and now anti Muslim zealot. He does not represent us nor did he ever.

Ruqaya Ali