Editor, the Gauntlet,
[Re: “The Muslim,” letter, Dec. 7, 2006.]
Fact is evidently an unfamiliar concept to Allison Dube.
Mr. Dube criticizes my letter on Sarah Malik’s article series, “The Muslim,” for “faulting her for writing something she was not trying to write”–a “history of Islam.” In fact, the lead paragraph on the first instalment says, in big black letters, “Sarah Malik examines the history of Islam.”
The series is also presented as being “on the world’s most misunderstood religion [Islam].” In fact it offers very little on the Islamic religion. My criticism stands.
Mr. Dube attacks me for lacking “one ounce of charity,” for not giving “one acknowledgment of validity.” In fact I wrote, “at the end of part one Ms. Malik… gets to the crux of the matter.” I shared her concern that Westerners might regard every Muslim as a potential terrorist.
It is appaling that a university instructor cannot distinguish fact from fancy. But I wonder. Were these inadvertent errors or deliberate misrepresentations, in plain English, lies?
Robert Schmiel
professor emeritus
department of greek and roman studies