International Conference on Islam in Madison

Posted By Uncle Jimbo

There is a big conference on Islam happening here in the Mad City in a couple of weeks. There was an article in our paper about it that I took some exception to (shocking) :

If I got paid for my media criticism of the Capital Times alone I could probably retire. One writer I have yet to have any complaints about is Rob Zaleski. I don't always agree with him, but I have had no issues with his writing which has always seemed fair. Today though he uncorked a whopper and I have to call him on it.

He was writing about the upcoming International Conference on Islam and interviewing one of the organizers. This was part of his intro for a local news, not opinion, piece:

"Mustafa Gokcek isn't about to deny the obvious.

Thanks mostly to the policies of the Bush administration, the great rift between the Muslim and Western worlds clearly has widened in the last year, acknowledges the 29-year-old Turkish native and UW-Madison grad student."

I would imagine it is true that the rift between Muslims & the West has widened, but it is outrageous to claim that this is mostly due to the policies of the Bush administration. I feel safe in assigning a reasonable  amount of the blame to the unfortunately large numbers of radical Imams preaching lies and hate in the mosques and a press worldwide that does an awful job of reporting on US foreign policy. This is even worse in Arab and Muslim countries where the press is often state owned or controlled. My Capital Times newspaper piece on this topic is here.

I sent an email to Mustafa Gokcek, the organizer of the conference to ask why the agenda showed no discussion of radical Islamism during two days of conferences.:

I read the piece in the Capital Times regarding the upcoming conference and look forward to attending. I am interested to hear what reasonable Muslims have to say and think on many issues.

I have some concerns about the lack of any focus on radical Islamism and the attendant terroism it engenders around the globe.

I posted a piece yesterday with my concerns about the Bush administration being named primarily responsible for the sour relations between Islam & the West. I also questioned whether significant, or any, focus was put on the problem of Islamism at your upcoming conference which for most Americans is their primary concern with the religion.

I appreciate any light you can shed on these concerns and will publish any comments you may have.

I will advise as to any response. The rest of my piece about the conference is here.

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Comments

International Conference on Islam in Madison

There is a big conference on Islam happening here in the Mad City in a couple of weeks. There was an article in our paper about it that I took some exception to (shocking) :

If I got paid for my media criticism of the Capital Times alone I could probably retire. One writer I have yet to have any complaints about is Rob Zaleski. I don't always agree with him, but I have had no issues with his writing which has always seemed fair. Today though he uncorked a whopper and I have to call him on it.

He was writing about the upcoming International Conference on Islam and interviewing one of the organizers. This was part of his intro for a local news, not opinion, piece:

"Mustafa Gokcek isn't about to deny the obvious.

Thanks mostly to the policies of the Bush administration, the great rift between the Muslim and Western worlds clearly has widened in the last year, acknowledges the 29-year-old Turkish native and UW-Madison grad student."

I would imagine it is true that the rift between Muslims & the West has widened, but it is outrageous to claim that this is mostly due to the policies of the Bush administration. I feel safe in assigning a reasonable  amount of the blame to the unfortunately large numbers of radical Imams preaching lies and hate in the mosques and a press worldwide that does an awful job of reporting on US foreign policy. This is even worse in Arab and Muslim countries where the press is often state owned or controlled. My Capital Times newspaper piece on this topic is here.

I sent an email to Mustafa Gokcek, the organizer of the conference to ask why the agenda showed no discussion of radical Islamism during two days of conferences.:

I read the piece in the Capital Times regarding the upcoming conference and look forward to attending. I am interested to hear what reasonable Muslims have to say and think on many issues.

I have some concerns about the lack of any focus on radical Islamism and the attendant terroism it engenders around the globe.

I posted a piece yesterday with my concerns about the Bush administration being named primarily responsible for the sour relations between Islam & the West. I also questioned whether significant, or any, focus was put on the problem of Islamism at your upcoming conference which for most Americans is their primary concern with the religion.

I appreciate any light you can shed on these concerns and will publish any comments you may have.

I will advise as to any response. The rest of my piece about the conference is here.

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