Bruin misrepresents protest’s
intention
I was appalled to find that in “Speaker overturns
misconceptions of Islamic jihad” (Jan. 29), Caitlin Roberson
attributes quotes to me which were not my own.
Furthermore, journalistic bias is evident even from the headline
for the article, which is a subjective opinion rather than
fact.
My reason for protest was the speaker at the event and his
organization, Council for American-Islamic Relations. I told the
reporter that Ayloush, the speaker, is a man who on the one hand,
claims to fight stereotypes of Muslims as supporting unjust
violence, but reinforces those very stereotypes through his
statements and actions. Ayloush claims Islam is a religion of peace
where use of violence is limited to defense against aggressors, but
he would not condemn homicide bombing of innocent Israeli women and
children. Also, Ayloush has reportedly referred to Israelis as
“Zionazis.”
I regard this to be blatant racism. Generalizations of this
ideology ““ and the fact that Ayloush’s organization,
CAIR, has been linked to various terrorist groups ““ is where
I focused my protest. I did not go on a tirade against the entire
religion of Islam as the reporter, and the the quote she used,
suggest.
A supposed correction published in The Bruin on Friday stated
only that the quote did not belong in the article, falsely implying
that I had in fact conveyed the quoted statement. On a college
campus where ideas are prized, The Bruin needs to be more accurate
in future articles.
David Lazar First-year, biology