In his letter to the editor earlier this week (“Time to stop being politically correct,” Nov. 18, pg. 10), Joey Korenman insulted not only Muslims, but also the intelligence of all who read his article. Characterized by inaccurate statements and biased generalizations, Korenman’s response to political correctness is a flagrant display of ignorance. One of Korenman’s primary positions is that “all terrorists are Muslim.” While he refers to the Oklahoma City bombing as the sole exception, he has either chosen or forgotten to mention acts of terrorism by Theodore Kaczynski (the Unabomber) and the Irish Republican Army, neither of which are associated with Islam. While it is fair to acknowledge the atrocities of Muslim terrorists, Korenman goes too far in attributing the acts of extremists to the principles of Islam. Among Korenman’s many generalizations is his summary of the Koran: “kill all those who do not believe in Allah.” This is a selective and unfair interpretation of a document that contains more than one religious theme. I doubt Korenman would appreciate having his religious beliefs reduced to a single statement which was then used to judge him. However, he has no trouble saying that Islam itself promotes terrorism or that some people “don’t deserve the same rights as us.” Though he does not directly say that all Muslims deserve inferior rights, Korenman offers no other distinction between terrorists and the rest of the world. His implications amount to little more than uneducated prejudice, and it is a shame that he expressed his opinion before gaining a full understanding of the issues surrounding terrorism.
Nicholas McConnell CAS ’06
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