What a powerful
article by journalist, writer and activist Nicholas Kristof. Also check out his book:
Half the Sky.
This my comment:
Dear Nicholas: thank you! Thank you for doing what so many of us should have done weeks (months and years ago) - speak up! And thank you for doing it so eloquently and succinctly and I want to join you in your apology to Muslims in America and Muslims around the world.
I wish I could have put my thoughts into words like yours, but I hope I put them well enough into images with a film called 'Abraham's Children' - www.abrahamschildrendoc.com - about Muslim children in the New York school system, where every 10th child is Muslim.
Muslim children in America (and NYC particularly I think) are robbed of a 'normal' childhood and find themselves having to defend their religion at an age where they should be busy figuring out 'teenage stuff'. They are - often unwilling - experts on their religion when they might not have the inclination, maturity and oratory finesse to be pulled into such a difficult and private discussion about one’s own faith. I certainly - even today - would not want to have to explain my believe system to strangers.
May we all have the strength to keep educating those in need of learning about bigotry, racism, hatred and just plain dumb generalizations - and on the latter I'll start with myself.
