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Muslim Medical Professor Fights For Coptic Colleague, and
Other Big News
Sally BishaiBy
(03/02/2006)
This week has certainly been a busy one! For one, 12 well-known figures have put
their John Hancock on an anti-Islamist manifesto. (More on that in a minute,
though.)
In other news, Dr. Salem Ahmad Sallam, distinguished Egyptian and professor—and
Head of El Menya University’s Department of Pediatrics—has stood up for his
fellow Egyptians.
Professor Sallam—a Muslim—has resigned from his post at the university in
protest of the discrimination against Copts that’s practiced there.
So Dr. Sallam, in stepping down from his esteemed position, has stood up for
equality.
His resignation said:
"Dear Mr. President of the University,
I would like you to accept my resignation from heading the department of
pediatrics to protest the antagonistic practices by the medical teaching staff
against the resident Mira Maher Raouf (a Coptic female physician) in order to
prevent her from holding a teaching post solely because of her faith. In
addition, I'm protesting the university's negligence in addressing such grave
matter despite the abhorrent mistreatment and injustice against the (Coptic)
physician.
Upholding citizenship rights is of great importance in order to achieve a
comprehensive development of the Egyptian society in all aspects. There is no
citizenship rights without providing an equal opportunity to everyone regardless
of their religious affiliations."
Now that we’ve finished with the news that really hits home, we can move onto
this manifesto thing.
WARNING: I am not endorsing this, I am only sharing it because some Arab friends
of mine have claimed that no American paper will ever run this. I have news for
them, though...
“After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new
totalitarian global threat: Islamism.
We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious
totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular
values for all.
The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed
in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these
universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological
field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East
that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and
theocrats.
Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The
hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to
impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state:
nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism
and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and
secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of
domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the
others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or
discriminated people.
We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men and
women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and
secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to
renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an
unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with
stigmatisation of its believers.
We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical
spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.
We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should
be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.”
12 signatures
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq
(Visit Jyllands Posten at http://www.jp.dk/indland/artikel:aid=3585740/ for more
information on this.)
All in all, two seemingly positive developments for the week, hmm? May these
seeds take root and bring about more widespread—and positive—changes around the
world!
(Now, if only I can ace my statistics exam later today...)
______________________
Source:The American Daily |
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