Editor’s note: The following letters are in response to Shavana Abruzzo’s column, “Time for an Islam convention” (A Britisher’s View, Sept. 29):
To the editor,
Outrageous and irresponsible hate-mongering!Mamoun Awan
Toronto, Canada
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To the editor,
I really don’t know where to begin when it comes to Muslim-hating Shavana Abruzzo, and her opinion, ‘Time for an Islam convention.’
As a British person living in the United States, the cacophony of ill grammar contained in what appears to be a hastily-put-together piece makes it hard for one to actually listen to what she has to say. That, and the fact that her opinion is little more than an attempt to stoke the fires of tension and discord. This is a hate speech, pure and simple, and by printing it, I wonder about your publication’s end goal? Care to enlighten me?
What active role are you intending to play in a community with a high concentration of Muslims? Are you really just a platform for divisive rhetoric? Abruzzo’s piece appears to provide “A Britisher’s View” of Islam and Muslims, and it couldn’t be further from the truth, especially if she, and your publication, by default, purport to represent the views of all British people living in the United States.
Abruzzo is offensive, ill-informed, and out of touch with reality. I would expect and support that the Fourth Estate have the right to free speech and independence, yet such yellow journalism surely sullies your craft? Opinion pieces, too, should be based on facts. This is not.
As a British person (have you noticed that I’m not using the term Britisher? It’s an old derogative term), I cringe when I read or hear hate speech, particularly one so shamelessly filled with incorrect grammar. I’ll start with the title. Is there such a thing as an ‘Islam convention’? Shouldn’t it read Convention on Islam? Why isn’t the title appropriately capitalized? Islamo-terror? Did Abruzzo make that up on the fly; what about editing and proofing? I could go on, but the negativity of Abruzzo’s writing and the potential of ensuing criminal acts fostered by her fear-filled, grandiloquence extinguish my appetite to continue this dialogue.
I do hope you consider the potential negative ramifications of allowing Abruzzo to continue to use your media vehicle. We Brits are proud of our multicultural heritage and country. We celebrate diversity. Of course, there are pockets of society with similar views to Abruzzo, but they are in no way the majority. To suggest otherwise is simply incorrect.Tereza Byrne Gorkin
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To the editor,
The article “Time for Islam convention” is outrageous and irresponsible. How can you allow that in your newspaper?
Please be careful not to offend anyone. How much does she know about my beautiful religion which means peace and nothing but submission to one true God? And we love Jesus, too, as we love our beloved prophet Mohammed, may peace be on them both. We believe he is the prophet of God who came to teach humanity, and how to love God and obey him.
Just stop the bigotry and hatred and spread love if you have means to do that.Nazneen Vadgama
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To the editor,
I am a Muslim and I am offended. Free speech — but with free speech comes responsibility. Shavana has offended me. Stating a bench of garbage statements about what few Muslims did, and make an absurd conclusion and target Muslims and Islam as an entire religion under my sight in my own country is unacceptable to Muslim Americans.
This “opinion” of yours is a dog whistle to a frightened, dwindling few among our neighbors. You call yourself a “community newspaper,” this is by the way from your website.
Through community, newspaper people tend to learn about their local community, and this is the best you can do as a contributor to a neighborhood full of Muslims?
I am trying to understand the purpose of her message that Muslims are targeted less times than the anti-Semitic incidents — seriously, do you proof read your material at least? You failed your community — you cannot be a journalist if you are biased period.N. Mazroua
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To the editor,
I am a proud British ex-pat who has lived in the United States since 1998, after meeting my American husband. I am opinionated, and will passionately argue my viewpoint. I also like to call people out for being bigots and disingenuous pillocks when appropriate.
Your article by Shavana Abruzzo appears to be written by someone who meets all of these criteria. No true Brit would use the term “Britisher” — ever, ever, ever.
Her ugly commentary is allowed in a free society, but it needs to be categorized into racist hate-speak. She does not speak for me, the vast majority of ex-pats living here or indeed the British population.
We recently voted into office Mayor Kahn (sic) in London by a landslide. Riz Ahmed, the British actor from the HBO series “The Night Of…” recently went on American television and proudly said, “This is what British looks like.” He’s right.
Abruzzo is inarticulate and inaccurate in her commentaries. She does not speak for me, and I do hope she learns to write using Oxford English soon.Lesley Handy
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To the editor,
I’m a strong advocate of freedom of speech and everyone’s rights that are protected by the American founding documents. Abruzzo has the right to hold and propagate any views she sees fit, and the Courier, as a private entity, has the right and discretion to publish or not publish any material the editors and owners see fit.
Having all that in mind, I believe free people have the responsibility to preserve that freedom. If indeed “all men are created equal,” and if liberty and justice are in fact for all, then targeting people simply because they belong to a certain group is not only immoral and nonsensical, it is a threat to liberty itself. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
The rhetoric Abruzzo used is blaming all Muslims for the acts of criminals who happen to be Muslim. She also conflates the teachings of Islam with criminal conduct. She asks why Muslims “permit” their fanatical fringe to commit crimes. An analogy could be made to illustrate how that is disingenuous by asking why Christians permitted the bombing of abortion clinics.
Aside from being overly alarmist and disrespectful, the use of terms such as “Franken-Muslims” and “Islamo-terror” is troubling and dangerous. These terms effectively dehumanize Muslims and make it easier to accept whatever happens to “them” because they become less than human in the mind of the reader. Such rhetoric is also dangerous because it can activate some individuals who would commit heinous acts of aggression against innocents who are or perceived to be Muslim.
Over the past few weeks, even before the recent bombings, we have seen a dangerous sharp rise in anti-Muslim attacks that is unprecedented. Whether the execution-style shooting of the imam and his assistant in Ozone Park, or the stabbing death of a 60-year-old Muslim aunt of an NYPD cop in Jamaica, or the shooting death of a Christian Arab man in Oklahoma, or the arson attack that destroyed a mosque in Florida on the holiest day for Muslims, these attacks on innocents can be traced back to such rhetoric that intensified during this election cycle.
It is the moral responsibility of the Courier not to allow such dehumanization of people to take place, not only from a principled stand, but also because of the demonstrated impact it has. Imagine if you will the words “Franken-Jews-Christians” or “Jewish-Christian-terror” the next time a person who is Jewish or Christian commits a crime of mass shooting or bombing of a clinic or a government building. If we won’t accept the collective blame and dehumanization of these groups, why would we accept it for others?
Bay Ridge is home to one of the largest Arab and Muslim populations in the U.S. Such rhetoric leads to marginalization and discrimination, and endangers their lives and livelihoods. Hesham El-Meligy
The writer is founder and president of the Islamic Civic Association.
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To the editor,
As an American citizen, I expect you to be more responsible with what information you allow in your papers. You should really be ashamed of yourselves for using the current Islamaphobia to try to sell your papers.
I am sure you know already, but this is in regard to the article written by Shavana. I am embarrassed for you. You should resign for inciting violence through your failure to properly screen the articles you allow in your papers. America suffers because of people like you. Please try to promote peace, not hate.Hythan Badr
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To the editor,
I am a white woman, and a reader of the Courier. I, along with hundreds of other residents in Bay Ridge, marched on Martin Luther King Day this year to unequivocally support our Muslim neighbors, in light of the hostile political climate, hateful rhetoric, and violence that had escalated towards Muslims since the start of the presidential campaigns.
Anyone who is concerned about the health and safety of all residents in the neighborhood would recognize that multiple attacks and instances of aggression have taken place on our own streets several times in the past year. Whatever alarms Abruzzo is trying to sound against Islam have clearly already been rung in certain circles of the neighborhood, and it’s my hope that the Courier would enact a stronger sense of judgement than to appeal and cater to those circles. The fact that the largest Arab community, and one of the largest Muslim communities, has its home in Bay Ridge, should be and is a source of pride, for many of us in the neighborhood. This is a time for unity and relationship building, and each time that someone like Abruzzo spews hateful, mindless, ill-founded drivel like this, it sets us two steps back, and makes our job of trust- and relationship-building cross-community even more difficult.
I have worked with your paper in the past, and have appreciated that you have given [Arab American Association of New York executive director] Linda Sarsour and others in the Arab community the space and the platform to state their views on and visions of the neighborhood. That aside, giving someone like Abruzzo that same platform is not a matter of journalistic integrity or promoting a balanced view. It is a sign of irrelevance, an indicator that the paper (or at least, this particular section) is unable to keep up with the present day.
All around me in Bay Ridge and in New York City, I have seen evidence of people rising up to support their Muslim neighbors, supporting them in the fight against violent rhetoric like that of Abruzzo’s. People of all backgrounds, political ideologies, classes, and religions. The fact that the Courier stacked this piece right on top of an opinion piece about “illegal immigrants” is to me a doubly sad and doubly unfortunate indicator that the paper may be losing its footing, and its touch with what I believe to be a complex, evolving, diverse neighborhood.
Allowing Shavana Abruzzo to regularly write about Islam and Muslims in Bay Ridge is proving to be irresponsible, destructive, and honestly, damaging to the civic health of our neighborhood. Please exercise some judgement the next time she submits a piece with “Islamo-” spattered throughout. I am certain that the leadership of this paper will look back on pieces like this in five years and be truly embarrassed about its xenophobic, outdated tone. Bay Ridge is trying to do better. You all should too.Kayla Santosuosso
Bay Ridge
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To the editor,
I’ve just moved to Bay Ridge and just now saw this article. It’s really disturbing that someone on your staff is exuding so much hate and nonsense. From what I’ve noticed thus far, everyone in Bay Ridge is so friendly! Apparently I just haven’t met Shavana Abruzzo.
I’m sure there are better outlets for her hate speech than your paper. Please help her find one of those outlets and let the paper be reflective of the entire community, and not a news source that stereotypes people based on events that they have nothing to do with.Noella
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To the editor,
I write as a local public school parent, college professor, and Bay Ridge neighbor with great concern over Shavana Abruzzo’s “A Britisher’s View” this month.
If Shavana would have written such a piece in my courses, they’d receive an F for her failure to use empirical evidence as means to guide one’s position, one equally riddled with a host of exceptional fallacies, circular reasoning, over-generalizations (without context), false equivalencies, and numerous, egregious, hateful claims that especially don’t belong in a local newspaper situated in a community with one of the largest Arab and Muslim populations in the country.
While I’m not surprised, given the content of the piece, that the author uses the term “Britisher” (which was once a pejorative term for South Indian colonizers, situated in colonialism), now used more in jest (how funny colonialism must be to the author!), I am more astounded that the editors would actually print this unprofessional wad of hate speech.
As a result, as a local citizen, I will remind all local immigrant-owned businesses I come across who either advertise in your newspaper, or make it available for consumption, that your newspaper prints less quality, thoughtful, critical local journalism and commentary, but instead incites hate and bigotry, with unabashed white supremacy. A boycott is more than justified. Our Muslim-Arab neighbors don’t deserve this.
Alan A. Aja
Bay Ridge
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To the editor,
I am a New Yorker who has frequently come into contact with your paper and was deeply, deeply troubled and disgusted by the vile, clueless, fear-mongering op-ed piece entitled “Time for an Islam convention.”
You must not be very concerned with what passes your desks and enters your papers; or perhaps you are looking for a bit of notoriety or perhaps you are just plain ignorant to allow this rubbish into your paper. What an absolute outrage. I will no longer be reading your paper, ever posting any links encouraging others to read it, and encouraging the businesses whom advertise with you to discontinue and take their business elsewhere.
Why on earth in such times would you let a piece of pure drivel, whose only apparent objective is to stir and condone hatred and encourage violence in doing so, be printed? We the members of your reading community are disgusted.
Not much of an editor, let alone human being who allows this. Careless, thoughtless.George Abud
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To the editor,
I am very distraught at this racist article in your newspaper. I expect better from this publication.Younis
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To the editor,
It is disconcerting to witness a local paper provide a platform for bigoted, hateful speech — as in the piece by Abruzzo. The role of an editor is a serious one, and I hope you will do better living up to this responsibility in the future.Anna Lise Jensen
Bay Ridge
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To the editor,
I’m horrified that you would publish such hate-mongering filth from Shavana Abruzzo. I have no issue whatsoever with reasonable critiques, but this is transparently a call to arms against Arab and Muslim neighbors, in a neighborhood with a large population of both! What are you playing at? Will you be happy when the racist violence against Arabs and Muslims sweeping the nation finally alights in Bay Ridge? Will you report it joyfully when one of our neighbors is set on fire? Is that what you are salivating for?
This is not a game. Innocent families live in Bay Ridge safely and happily, but you have made us into targets with this. We are diverse: with different cultural and religious backgrounds all living together peacefully. How many communities can say the same?
I am an artist and academic with an Arab-Christian background, and I am happily welcomed and accepted by my Muslim neighbors. This community is a model of productive, grateful, American small-business and home owners. Characterizing us as an anti-American powder keg on the verge of a stabbing spree is laughable, which is obvious to anyone who bothers to actually talk to us.
You are in a perfect position to explore the diverse, rich stories easily available in this neighborhood. And you would gain readership for it, I promise you. By choosing instead to give a platform to this Pamela Geller wannabe you have made it clear that you aren’t interested in Bay Ridge as it actually is — an amazing, vibrant, strong, peaceful community — because you would rather indulge in racist clickbait from an outsider. I pray that this dangerously irresponsible incitement to violence passes unnoticed. Do better.
Joseph Shahad
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To the editor,
I am writing to tell you of my shock and disappointment in your giving a platform to the hatemonger Shavana Abruzzo, who in her recent opinion piece maligned law-abiding American Muslims for the actions of a few criminals.
This is not merely an opinion. This piece is a suggestion that some Americans are not American. That some religious beliefs, no matter how peaceful their practitioners, cannot be abided. That human rights of one person are conditional on the behavior of another. Freedom of speech and freedom of opinion are sacred. However, when the opinion in question is essentially a call to arms against a vulnerable portion of society, you, sirs, bear the blame of the hatred and violence that will be enacted on people like myself and my family because of these ideas.
My wife is a loving and wonderful person, an educator and feminist, and also a Muslim woman who chooses to wear a head scarf. She is afraid to leave the house some days because of articles like this.
I hope that you will in the future consider the harm you cause by broadcasting these ideas.
Andy El-Zayaty
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To the editor,
I was saddened reading Shavana Abruzzo’s “A Britisher’s View.” Her piece was full of hate and racism. I will not be buying your newspaper and am encouraging all the people I know to do the same. We must stand united or we will fall.Frank Banchs
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To the editor,
“Time for an Islam convention” is disgraceful. There is a difference between allowing for free speech through your media and giving a platform to hatred and bigotry. There is already enough hatred being directed to Muslims. You should not engage more of it. It is extremely irresponsible. Shame on you.
Lobna Hewedi
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To the editor,
As a Arab-American former Bay Ridge resident, I was dismayed to learn of your decision to publish a “A Britisher’s View” (who cares what a Britisher thinks about U.S. affairs anyway?) that all Muslims are somehow at fault because some of their members are deranged. Actually far more mass killings have been committed by white male Americans, but white male Americans are hardly expected to take responsibility for the violent and insane among them.
Hate crimes against Muslims and harassment of Arabs and those who dress in a foreign way are rising fast (2014 statistics no longer being relevant), and I’d like for the Courier to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. When my Palestinian ex-husband discovered Bay Ridge, he was delighted to find a place so welcoming to Arabs. I hope it remains that kind of place. Please do your part.Katherine Metres Akbar
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To the editor,
I was extremely disappointed to read the op-ed piece “Time for an Islam convention.” I have lived in Bay Ridge all my life. My great grandfather settled here in the 1920s.
My whole life I have gone to school and work with the Muslim community.
As young people, we were all placed in overcrowded schools, we lacked decent public transportation, and resources for youth. When we were kids, we all looked at the sky and saw a pillar of black smoke rise from lower Manhattan, and when we looked towards our parents, instead of answers we found more fear. It is through this adversity that I have seen the courage, and kindness, and compassion of the Muslim community in Bay Ridge.
In moments of fear, people of the Muslim faith have stood by me. They stand by me now, when random acts of violence with no clear motivation plague our nation. They stand by me even as they face a fear that I can only imagine. The fear that they will be vilified for things outside of their control. The shrapnel and explosives that ripped through Chelsea would not have spared them, and so they live with the same fear that we all live with.
They must also live with the fear that they will be vilified, attacked, and condemned for the acts that individuals, not faiths, produce. This is the fear that you have perpetuated by publishing “Time for an Islam convention.”
In spreading fear and ignorance of a whole group of people, in ignoring the nuances of this issue and this community, in siding with those who would drive a wedge between the people of Bay Ridge you have lost my trust. The youth of Bay Ridge face too many problems that will kill us all to spend time fearing one another. So we will keep organizing. We will keep fighting to ensure that our homes are protected from climate change. We will keep fighting to create a community where our children can go to good schools without fear.
In the end, I only write to express my deep sadness that I cannot trust our local media in this fight. I write to say that in a moment where you could have shown courage, you have proven to be the kind of coward that I no longer have the time to indulge.
I wish you and your families peace and safety in the struggles to come. I hope you will come to find decency before the end. Joseph Loonam
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To the editor,
Why would you allow your newspaper to publish such poor writing as Shavana? She sounds like a bully from middle school.
Muhammad Imam
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To the editor,
I read the article you published on the alleged necessity of having a convention on Islam. I am absolutely disgusted by the hate and division you allowed to be exhibited in this paper. America is a nation of love and unity, not of divisiveness, ignorance, and backward racism.
I urge you to repeal the editorials with this article, and to more strongly screen your pieces for any hate speech and derogatory, despicable statements of the sort — especially when a predominant constituent of your audience is in itself Muslim!Essma Bengabsia
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To the editor,
As a self-published author who advertises his novels on multiple social media platforms, I have had the pleasure of reading a tremendous variety of truly awful fiction. Allow me to state unequivocally that your paper has recently raised (lowered?) the bar by giving voice to Shavana Abruzzo and her incoherent brand of fictitious poison.
As stated, the monotony of my experience as a reader would almost make me grateful for something so far off the already tedious norm. It would give me cause for gratitude were it not so irresponsible and dangerous. The thing with fiction is that it forms the base for our future narratives. We learn our phrasing from the stories we were told when most open to being changed. Stories of astronauts lead to scientists, stories of writers lead to — me. What then do stories of bigots lead to? Where do stories or fear lead us?
Your paper, I would assume, seeks to inform. What bigots and hatemongers get however is something far different. Hate leads to hate, and this is not simply if we choose it off the menu. The presence of intolerance is a challenge to us all. Take up arms, tell your friends how much you disagree, you’re still living in the toxic bubble.
You may claim freedom of speech, but this is about something far more. Freedom, the ability to live the life one chooses, is shattered by the toxic filth you are allowing on your pages. There is nothing free about the obligation to react, and there is no choice but to take a side when words that lead to fear and overreaction are invited into the narratives we use to form our own.
Shame on you for giving voice to such a destructive force. Hatred is like a toxic gas, if contained it does nothing, it hurts no one but the possessor. You have willingly allowed this hate the air it craves to become a poison. I hope you at least realize what you have done.
Stephen McGrath
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To the editor,
This is in response to the article “Time for an Islam convention” by Shavana Abruzzo. I am shocked at the ignorance and hatred that is clearly shown here, and directed towards a whole religious people. Your writers should educate themselves about a subject before publishing such strong opinions. This kind of writing does nothing but mislead and hurt people.
The acts of disturbed individuals like Ahmad Rahimi, or political groups like the Islamic State are not Islamic. And that is agreed upon by all Muslim scholars. How embarrassing! Poor job. Find better writers.
Dena Daas
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To the editor,
It is shocking that you would publish Shavana Abruzzo’s op-ed “Time for an Islam convention.” The op-ed represents hate speech, pure and simple, by essentializing Muslims as one uniform group based on a tiny slice of its supposed members.
Your choice to publish it represents bigotry and is a great disservice to the democratic role that Bay Ridge Courier aims to fulfill. In publishing it, you have legitimated hate and delegitimized your newspaper.
I suggest you print an editorial in the next issue that explains how you will not engage in such bigoted journalistic practices in the future.
Stephen Ruszczyk
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To the editor,
I am writing to express my disgust with the terrible irresponsibility demonstrated in your permitting Shavana Abruzzo’s vile hate speech to be published.
Few words need to be wasted in characterizing Abruzzo’s column. Hatred will be hatred. What is far more disturbing is that she was given a platform to distribute it. In publishing the column you have managed to support the rhetoric that is spurring on acts of violence and hatred that are spiking in general, and in your city in particular.
You seem to have deliberately failed in the responsibility you have to your community. Shame.
Ben Johnsrude
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To the editor,
I read Shavana Abruzzo’s latest Islamaphobic rant published in your newspaper. I wish I could say it shocked me, but I am sadly familiar with her writing on this topic.
I use the word sadly because it truly does sadden me that Shavana and people like her are so crippled by fear and ignorance that they see Muslims through such a small and clouded lens. It saddens me that their fear and ignorance flows right into anger and hate at an entire population.
While their behavior saddens me, the behavior of your editorial staff infuriates me. It is you who give this fear, ignorance, anger, and hate a platform. By giving it a platform, you endorse it. You normalize it. You make it acceptable.Teri
Bay Ridge
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To the editor,
It’s so nice to see that the Courier devoted a whole page to three excellent pro-U.S. articles by Stanley P. Gershbein (“It’s Only My Opinion), Joanna DelBuono (Not for Nuthin’), and Shavana Abruzzo (A Britisher’s View), who writes about America’s prime enemy — no, not liberals, but Islamic terrorists.
Post-WW II America has seen more than one hundred Islamic terrorist attacks — about 70 in the contiguous United States, and about 30 on American embassies and other interests around the world.
In 1945, President Harry Truman ordered the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which in effect ended WWII, and from then on, American presidents (including Truman) have been exceptionally weak in dealing with our enemies. As each subsequent individual walks into the Oval Office, matters deteriorate as each continues the same unsuccessful modus operandi against our enemies. Islamic terrorists cannot be defeated with talks and bribes, which serve only to embolden them and to appease the American clueless. Prior to Obama, America’s problem was incompetence, but Obama systematically helped Iran, a major supporter of terrorism and appeased a Russia that supported both Iran and the WMD-massacres in Syria.
While pre-Obama presidents did not provide a proper response due to incompetence, Obama did not provide one by design, thus allowing Islamic terrorism to flourish.
We’ve had enough conventions, Shavana Abruzzo; we need action. The current massacres will not end until our enemy is defeated. In ideological wars where the enemy lacks conscience and massacres at will, agreements are useless and unconditional surrenders are impossible. We need to strive for annihilation while promoting our own ideology and disproving that of our enemy.
The 9-11 attacks happened because our “leaders” mishandled the responses to the slew of pre-9-11 attacks. In order to win, we need a competent person who is pro-U.S., honest and not politically correct; we need substance in the White House. Unfortunately, we have no such person. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump is qualified to be president of the United States — Hillary because she is a proven crook and a failure, and Trump because he lacks relevant experience.
Our only hope is that at some point, Americans exert enough pressure on our elected officials to make them act in our behalf. Military experts, not politically correct buffoons, should make such important decisions. The way things stand now, voters might as well write in “Mickey Mouse.” After reading my own op-letter I’ve concluded that — as we say in Brooklyn — we are screwed.
Elio Valenti
