Saturday, July 07, 2007

QOTD

Hammasa Kohistani, quoted in the August 31, 2006, Daily Mail:

The first Muslim to be crowned Miss England has warned that stereotyping members of her community is leading some towards extremism. . .

"Even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves. They think they might as well support it because they are stereotyped anyway. It will take a long time for communities to start mixing in more. . .

But after a busy year travelling around the world as an ambassador for England, Miss Kohistani said she feels Muslims are unfairly being branded as terrorists.

She added: "For a Muslim to represent England is asking for controversy at the moment. I feel after everything that's happened Muslims are being stereotyped negatively. The whole community has been labelled and, whether they are guilty of crime or not, they are getting penalised for it.

"I like being in the limelight because people can look at me and see I am a Muslim but good. Most of the people being pinpointed are judged by their outer appearances and people assume because they are Muslim and have a beard they have done something wrong."

She continued: "The bridge I have made is slowly being broken by more and more wars. Now the Iran situation is brought up and another Islamic country is under scrutiny - and the recent Heathrow scare. I guess I am needed even more now than last year to an extent because of what has happened.
As Powerline's John Hinderaker observes:
Easy to ridicule? Sure. Muslims are "turning to terrorism" because they're being stereotyped as terrorists. Sorry! I guess it was all a misunderstanding.

1 comment:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Gee, and here I thought it was Muslims stereotyping our community by killing civilians at random...

Y'know, moderate Muslims are saying this so much that it's getting to be a stereotype.