Muslim speaker Nonie Darwish addressed an audience in the Graduate Life Center in Donaldson Brown.
Share
The Virginia Tech Friends of Israel brought Arab-American author and activist Nonie Darwish to campus to speak about her views on Islamic fundamentalism.
As a child, Darwish was raised Muslim and was taught to hate Jews in Israel as well as having contempt towards many other countries. After moving to the U.S. in 1978, she stopped attending mosques because she felt they shared a radical, anti-American message.
"We Arabs are fighting an imaginary Jew of our own imagination," Darwish said. ""No society is perfect but the way Jews are treated by my culture is a disgrace."
Darwish shared with the audience her thoughts on 9/11 and the war on terror. She experienced 9/11 firsthand, which led to her increased activism today.
"Before 9/11, I took my children to visit Egypt," Darwish said. "They had so many economical problems and yet, all I saw in the newspapers was their conflicts with America. Our plane arrived back in the U.S. late on Sept. 10, and in the morning I saw the first plane crash into the World Trade Center. After that, I knew it was my culture."
After living 30 years in Egypt and witnessing attacks from her own heritage, Darwish began speaking publicly about oppression in the Middle East and its wrongful treatment of women.
"I love my culture and that's why I speak, but it's in desperate need of reformation," Darwish said. "The more the United States tries to help stabilize the Middle East, the more they are despised by my people. America wants to leave and they can't because they have a moral obligation."
After Darwish made her final statements, she took questions from the audience. Many questioned her religion and how she can speak against her culture. She supported each answer and related each topic to the substantial need for peace in the Middle East.
Leave a comment 4 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
You say that when she supported each answer and related each topic to substantial need for peace in the Middle East....were you even there? Everytime she was asked a question, she went into a random tangent about something other than what was asked. She never once directly answered a question, constantly (and rudely) cutting people off. In fact, when she was asked about statistics for deaths of Palestinians vs. Israelis, she diverted from the question talking about the Arab nations in the Middle East and never once commented on PALESTINIAN deaths vs. ISRAELI deaths. Her demeanor was far from that of any sepaker that can be named "professional" on a college campus. She even admitted that she is no expert on Islam but she preaches about the "fundamentals" of the religion as one who has studied beyond any scholar.
Reply to this Top
She was full of it. I(one of the few) actually studied Islam and sharia law. She made statements that weren't even true. Murder in Islam, as in Judaism, is haram(forbidden) regardless of the crime, so a father IS NOT ALLOWED to kill his daughter if she commits adultery. Lying is also haram, be it to your spouse or your enemy. And, she constantly used arab, muslim, islamist, fundamentalist, saudi arabia and other terms interchangeably. All of which meant VERY different things. I think for a community such as ours, that has gone through such a horrendous, unifying tragedy, that this is innappropriate and plain unnacceptable. All she did was spread hate and lies about muslims in an obviously provacative manner to disgrace and try to break the unity that the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities have here after 4/16, and she did it on it's 6 month anniversary. Sadly she wasn't heard, the VT community is way too strong for that...or atleast I hope so.
Reply to this Top
I agree with the below that she dangerously interchanged terms such as Arab, Islam, Radical, etc. It made her credibility go straight down the drain.
Reply to this Top
I honestly have to question her motives as an activist. What does that term actually mean? She spoke of living in Egypt for 30 years and seeing first hand the abuse and violence towards women. Her only solution to this problem is to bash Islam? I don't think my puny mind can comprehend. I for one believe that if she were to see these things with her own eyes, she would have some sort of sympathy and empathy for these women - and she would be doing something more constructive than bashing an entire religion. Also - HOW THE HECK WAS SHE HELPING ISRAEL!?! She obviously did not care at all about the Israeli people. If she truly wants peace in the Middle East, she should be doing something else. She could care less. You cannot take two opposing peoples and bring them to peace if you cannot first teach them to be friends. Friendship requires an understanding of commonalities; it requires creating connections and developing bridges. She did nothing but separate Muslims and Jews, Israeli's and Arabs. She was the most ignorant person I have ever heard speak. And she herself even said, "I never claimed to be an expert on Islam." THEN WHY ARE YOU COMING TO OUR CAMPUS TALK ABOUT IT?!
Reply to this Top