Media Watch

Dear Editors,
Re: “Muslim students targeted in racist incidents” (Journal, Sept. 26, 2008)

We write to report an extremely distressing experience that happened to a Queen’s faculty person on Friday morning, September 26. She was walking at 9 a.m. on Queen Street. At the Goodlife Fitness parking lot, a man attempted to speak to her in Spanish. When she told him that she didn’t understand him, he asked her where she was from, in English. She clarified that she was Indian (South Asian). He wanted more information. Refusing to oblige, she started walking away. He called out, “So you’re a Paki, then?” The man continued to shout, calling her a “towel-head” and a “terrorist.”

We all know this is not an isolated incident. The Journal has recently reported incidents of religious intolerance. Apparently, even six days after those incidents against Muslim students, the University administration has not publicly condemned the acts. We write to the Journal to publicize Friday’s incident, to express our anger and to emphasize that experiences faced by Muslim students on-campus and by the faculty person off-campus should concern the Queen’s community and administration. The power to stop a person of colour or one with visible religious affiliation on the street, ask them where they are from, and then proceed to racially abuse them epitomizes white, Christian supremacy. It relies on an institutional apparatus including university administrations that do too little to condemn or punish perpetrators of such violence. Further, the University Human Rights Office addresses human rights violations on campus, which excludes the event last Friday. Yet, this university is committed in rhetoric to internationalization, to engaging the world and being a world-class institution. Hesitation to make immediate, visible efforts against reactionary responses to the ethnic composition of this university and town reinforces a caricatured reputation of both as bastions of old-guard whiteness. Moreover, as students’ lives have been threatened, the administration’s silence does little to guarantee student safety. Student articles and faculty letters are not enough. The administration should recognize the daily costs of ‘internationalization’ and ‘diversity’ and take steps to address them as acts of violence.

Alex Da Costa
Kingston Resident
Dia Da Costa
Queen’s Faculty
Ishita Pande
Queen’s Faculty
Read Full Article here.

In the past week, Queen’s has been hit with multiple reported incidents of anti-Islamic crimes. Within the span of two days, the Queen’s University Muslim Students Association (QUMSA) has been the target of a break-in to their club space and a vandalized poster in the JDUC.

UMSA Co-Chair Isra Rafiq, ArtSci ’09, said the break in occurred between 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 20. “That was also the time QUMSAarranged for a bus to go to the mosque in Kingston. Once the bus returned, Saad [Baig, QUMSA co-chair] found the door was broken,” she said. “It was basically a wooden panel on the door because the whole door is made out of wood. It also happened to be the same panel that was replaced in the last break-in. This isn’t the only time we’ve had a break-in. I believe the last one was a year and a half ago. The JDUC had replaced it, so it might have been someone recognized that the panel was different.”

The next day, between the hours of 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 21 and 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 22, a poster indicating the location of QUMSA’s club space was vandalized in the JDUC. “There’s a little bulletin board, and we had made signs earlier that said ‘Queen’s University Muslim Students Association, room 232, JDUC,’ and then an arrow,” QUMSA External Liasion Safiah Chowdhury said. “Someone had come along and written ‘should die’ beside ‘Muslim.’ The sign after that read ‘Queen’s University Muslims should die.’” Chowdhury, ArtSci ’11, said this isn’t the first time she’s been subjected to anti-Islamic comments. Chowdhury said she and Rafiq have both been targeted with derogatory comments within the last week. Read Full story here

Last week, the Queen’s University Muslim Students Association (QUMSA) reported anti-Islamic crimes on campus.

QUMSA’s office space was broken into, money was stolen from their charitable fund and a poster was defaced to read, “Queen’s University Muslims should die.” Some female students have also endured racist and sexist taunts shouted at them from car windows.

The University should be ashamed that such contemptible acts were allowed to occur among a group of supposedly enlightened and progressive minds.

Community outcry is sincere after such blatant incidents but too often falls short of enacting real change and racism is soon overshadowed by other issues.

What is most disturbing is the cyclical nature of Islamophobia on campus; in 2006, QUMSA faced similar problems when one of its banners was set on fire and several students received anti-Islamic hate e-mail in their Qlink accounts.

The University constantly emphasizes maintaining Queen’s reputation and an important aspect of that should involve creating a community of acceptance.

Unfortunately, Queen’s is quick to congratulate itself for simply enrolling more ethnic minority students, while ignoring the systemic problems that create a culture of exclusion on campus for the newly-admitted students.

It’s unpleasant to admit the University has issues surrounding racism, but Queen’s could actually have a better reputation if it was shown to deal with incidents promptly. Read Full Article here

Recent incidents of Islamophobia deserve discussion, demonstrate there is work to be done. Within a week of this new school year, fellow Muslim friends and I had already experienced a couple instances of Islamophobia. Both were derogatory slurs yelled from a moving vehicle, ensuring anonymity and suggesting cowardice.

support from the Queen’s community has been subpar, largely due to the problem of Islamophobia, which is prejudice or discrimination against Muslims and Islam. Many of my Muslim friends can relay stories of name-calling and crude looks—and from fellow members of the Queen’s community too. Yet there is a Muslim ethos of making excuses, so these stories rarely make it out of friend circles. And although most of the cases of Islamophobia on campus have been petty, it’s important these things are acknowledged and discussed, especially if it’s going to persist.

We can pretend discrimination doesn’t exist, especially at an institution of higher learning. Surely everyone knows better than to associate anyone who wears a headscarf with the Taliban. Islamophobia, just like all other types of discrimination, is a thing of the past, at least for the more civilized amongst us. Unfortunate as it is though, these are real views that a minority of people on campus do indeed hold.

Take for example last year’s Islamic Awareness Week. A table was set up asking people to write their immediate thoughts about Islam. While the exercise yielded many encouraging comments, it was eventually annexed by anti-Islamic propaganda. Fortunately, the setup of the table allowed for some quasi-discussion to occur as people were able to write responses to the anti-Islamic sentiments. Read Full story here.

Recently some members of the Queen’s Muslim community have been subjected to intimidating, harassing and hurtful anti-Islamic behaviour. As Principal, I want to condemn such reprehensible behaviour in the strongest possible terms. It is totally incompatible with the values of Queen’s University. At this time, on behalf of all members of the University, I stand in support of members of the Queen’s Muslim community.
Read Full Statement here.

Dear Editors,
Re: “Muslim students targeted in racist incidents” (Journal, Sept. 26, 2008)

Upon hearing about recent incidents targeting Muslim students, my first thought was that history tends to repeat itself. The “drive-by” insults and death threats against Muslims are reminiscent of my undergraduate days during the first Gulf War. In one case, in a downtown café, an intoxicated man grabbed my friend by her hijab, dragging her off her chair while uttering insults. To my understanding, these types of incidents stimulated the formation of the InterFaith Council, a group which “assists the university in promoting and enhancing an environment of religious tolerance, diversity and freedom.” Its efforts in raising awareness appeared to improve things on campus.

Unfortunately, due to the transient nature of a university population, events tend to repeat themselves. This can be quite frustrating for those of us who witness this “cycling.” It is also distressing for me as a Muslim who has been part of the Queen’s community since birth. The Muslim community in Kingston has quite a close relationship with the university as, up until the construction of the mosque in 1996, most of our activities centred around campus. Many of our “founding members,” including my father, were faculty or students at Queen’s during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Personally speaking, my experience growing up in Kingston and at Queen’s has generally been positive, supportive and accommodating of my faith.

My father once said, “Ignorance leads to distrust, which can lead to fear, prejudice and hatred.” Indeed, one’s perspectives are usually shaped by one’s own experiences and observations, or lack thereof. Thus, we can minimize racist behaviour through gaining familiarity. There is a poignant quote in the Qur’an in which God says, “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other…” (49:13). Each year, new members of our community come from all over the country and the world, bringing with them their own perspectives and prejudices. In a university setting, we have a unique opportunity to dispel ignorance by training ourselves to open our minds, and making the effort to get to know each other. Acting on prejudice and hatred, as seen in recent weeks, is not acceptable and should not be tolerated.

Mona Rahman,
ArtSci ’93, PhD ’01
QUMSA Chair 1993-1994
InterFaith Council 1994-2000
Read Article here.

Read the un-Edited Version here.

Listen to the interview here Choose: 2008 – September – 23 – 23:00. The interview starts at minute 27:00.