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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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Alert #142
"GLOBAL WAR ON CHRISTIANS" SMEARS ISLAM
Muslims asked to challenge one-sided Reader's Digest article
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 7/24/97) - An article, entitled "The Global War on
Christians" in the August issue of Reader's Digest, the world's most widely
read magazine (circ. 27 million in 19 languages), unfairly associates Islam
with a number of offensive practices. In a letter to Digest Editor-in-Chief
Christopher Willcox, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad wrote: "After
reading this article, one is left with the impression that Islam somehow
encourages or permits rape, kidnapping, torture, and forced conversion. The
writer and his editors must have known that Islam does not condone these
practices, but failed to offer any balancing information or even a cursory
disclaimer to that effect."
The letter went on to describe a pattern of unbalanced coverage established
by Reader's Digest in the recent past.
Awad quoted from the new book "Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American
Poplar Culture" by Dr. Jack Shaheen, Professor Emeritus of Communications at
Southern Illinois University:
(Call 202-687-8375 or e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for information
about the book.)
"Between 1994 and 1997, several Reader's Digest stories perpetuated the myth
that Arabs and Muslims hate civilized peoples, especially Americans and
Israelis. Says Ann Bardach in her January 1994 Digest essay, 'All in the
Name of Islam,' the 'fundamentalist extremists have found nesting sites
throughout the country [U.S.].' Bardach declares that American Muslims who
resent 'any kind of scrutiny or criticism of Islam' are censoring the press.
She alleges that the 'media, scrabbling to be politically correct...have
cranked out a plethora of feel-good features on Muslim culture.' Her article
contains no examples of censorship or 'feel-good' essays...The caption
reads: 'Women are being abused, even mutilated...All in the Name of
Islam....'
"Fergus M. Bodewich's, 'A Holy War Heads Our Way,' was published in the
January 1995 Digest. To emphasize that readers have reason to fear Islam...
"In the Digest's March 1996 issue, Brian Eads writes that 'Muslim
Arabs...300 men on foot, horseback and camels,' are assassins and slavers of
Sudanese Christians...Eads misleads readers by painting all Muslim Arabs
with the same disapproving brush...
"The July 1996 Digest features another essay by Bordewich, entitled 'Alarm
Bells in the Desert.'....Bordewich quotes one Saudi who tells him, 'Teachers
and students are taken up in an Islamic fervor bordering on madness.'...In
the Digest's February 1997 issue, New York Times columnist A.M.
Rosenthal...says that 'Almost all terrorism directed at the United States
originates in the Middle East.'"
ACTIONS REQUESTED: (Remember to be FIRM but POLITE. Hostility is
counterproductive.)
Read the article in question and then contact Reader's Digest to voice your
opinions. Ask that they offer their readers balanced articles on Islamic
culture.
Contact:
Mr. Christopher Willcox
Editor-in-Chief
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest Road
Pleasantville, NY, 10570
TOLL-FREE Customer Service: 1-800-934-0977, ext. 7507 or 5788
TEL: 914-238-1000
FAX: 914-238-5339
E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Use the subject line "Global War on
Christians" and ask in the body of the message that your comments be
forwarded to Christopher Willcox.)
WEB: http://www.readersdigest.com (Send copies of correspondence to CAIR.)
POINTS TO REMEMBER:
As we have seen in the past, every call, letter, fax, and e-mail message
counts in defending Islam. Muslims should not let these types of unbalanced
smears go unchallenged.
Reader's Digest is an international publication with great influence in
shaping public opinion. These types of articles spread hatred of Islam
worldwide.
The magazine has a history of offering one-sided presentations of "facts"
relating to Islam and Muslims.
The magazine needs to re-evaluate its editorial policy and bring it back
into line with the objective coverage it offered as early as the 1950s.
("Islam: The Misunderstood Religion," Reader's Digest, Sept. 1953)
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