My compliments again to the Advocate for giving fair comment and journalist freedom a strong presence on your Comment pages. Bill Greenwood’s column Sept. 16 on the “ugly side of Islam” is certainly fair comment and my compliments to him personally — I am always impressed with his well-researched and pointedly expressive column.
But it brings to mind another rather journalistic omission during the period of January 2010 with a startling column from the pen of Michelle Stirling-Anosh that was published in the Advocate. Michelle’s research discovered the huge threat that the Arab Muslim world poised to world peace.
She stated that 80 million jobs are needed for the youth of the Arab Muslim countries by the year 2020! This is shocking news for the peace-loving world, as these unemployed youth provide a virtually an unlimited supply of suicide-bombers. And can you believe it — not a single response was published in the Advocate.
The “ugly side of Islam” needs to be declared and debated in the public arena. As Bill Greenwood stated, “we are a free society. We are free to question and free to criticize our governments and our institutions, including our religions. All of them. All of them.”
Jim Swan
Red Deer