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Forum
for learning
Yesterday I attended the Forum for Learning: Media
and Muslims It had been organized by Raheel Raza,
media consultant and freelance writer The last one I had
gone to was about Women in Islam.
To
every one I know on this mailing list who resides in the
GTA, I humbly urge
you to make a greater effort to attend these very
enlightening and useful forums
These forums bring into focus the top issues and
concerns which are of interest to all muslims.
The divides and differences that we have regarding
religion does
not mean that we cannot find common ground to get a
better understanding of the challenges that all
of us as muslims face in the world in which we live
in today. I know for a fact that many of you are dynamic
and knowledgeable, and your input/opinions/questions
will be really appreciated
I never got around to asking a question myself.
Just when I wrote my question down, which was a
little bit late into the questions and answers segment,
that period had come to an end. But what I wanted
to ask was about the war.
Hasn't the length of the war proved that the so
called disarmament of Iraq, for which the US govt.
insisted there was no time to waste, could have also
been accomplished by the weapons inspectors in the same
length of time without this
bloodshed?
There were four guest speakers at this forum
GUEST
SPEAKER: Colleen Beaumier Member of Parliament
for Brampton West Mississauga. Ms. Beaumier is concerned
about Human Rights issues and has a special interest in
Palestine and Iraq (just visited Iraq
MEDIA
PANEL
Sadia
Zaman award
winning producer for Vision T.V
Tarek
Fatah Host
of The Muslim Chronicle
Libby
Stephens Editor,
Religion Page - The Toronto Star
To give
you a gist of what the above speakers said
Ms.
Beaumier spoke about her recent visit to Iraq.
Her experiences there, one can plainly see have
touched her deeply, and at one point she was visibly
moved to tears when speaking about the innocence of the
children in Iraq and Iraqis in general that she'd met,
who bear no malice in their hearts against the people in
the US in spite of the sanctions imposed on their
country. She
is obviously against the war, and feels like the PM of
Canada, that more time should have been given to disarm
Iraq. She addressed the audience saying that we
muslims have a tough course ahead, but that she and
people like her understand this and care, and are here
to help. She also spoke about how the media has
caused so much stress in the life of Caroline Parrish,
because of what she'd said about the Americans.
Mr. Tareq Fatah, spoke about how there are very few
voices in the media from the muslim community. He said
that as long as the muslims feel that they alone are
special and superior and think of Westerners as the
"Other", we will be clamouring to be heard or
understood in vain.
Sadia
Zaman spoke about her experiences in the field of
journalism, and at
CBC as well where she's also worked, being a
media outlet which is unbiased and fair.
She said that journalists have to tell it like it
is and be prepared to take the heat for this from the
audience.
Libby
Stephens, spoke about the special problems she
encounters as the religions page Editor at The Star.
Some times people or groups want to use the star
to air their grievances she said.
She spoke about the Star’s goal though to be
unbiased and speak
for all people.
There
was an article there I picked up regarding aljazeera and
presenting the war from aljazeera's perspective as
opposed to what we are receiving from the usual media
outlets which is worth reading.
Click on the link, and if that
doesn’t work copy and paste the URL address
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,924469,00.html
Last
but not the least, please email the info about the
forums to your friends muslim or non-muslim, and inform
the organizers if you are coming. Thank you.
Habibeh
Alikhan
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