Anti-Muslim Pamphlets Upset Tenn. Students
"This was a week to bring people together and a week to explore cultures and it wasn't supposed to have mention of politics that can drive people apart," Muslim student Merna El-Rifai told Fox 17 WZTV.
El-Rifai was one of the students who discovered the pamphlet at a booth run by the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
“Unfortunately Palestinian children are being taught hatred and violence in Mosques," the pamphlet reads.
Complaining about the message conveyed in the pamphlet, the Jewish Federation issued an apology saying the pamphlet should have never been made available to students.
"The Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee apologizes if we offended anyone yesterday at Ravenwood High School's Cultural Heritage Week,” said the Jewish Federation in a statement.
“Among the many materials offered at our table, there was one brochure we shouldn't have distributed.
“As a minority faith, we respect and understand the Muslim community's feeling of being targeted," the statement added.
Israel occupied the holy city of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the West Bank in the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community or UN resolutions.
Last June, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) issued a report accusing Israel of systematically torturing Palestinian children and using them as human shields over the past decade.
The CRC report said up to 7,000 Palestinian children aged 9 to 17 were arrested and interrogated by Israel and kept captive.
Not Enough
The apology did not denounce the content in the pamphlet, upsetting many Muslim students.
"That doesn't tell me you're against it," Muslim Activist Drost Kokoye said.
"Apologizing for having a pamphlet is not the same as apologizing for connotated Muslims with terrorists."
El-Rifai's parents, from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, met with school officials to address a formal complaint.
"I've experienced people coming up to me and yelling terrorist, people I don't know,” said El-Rifai.
“That was offensive to me because I felt like that was a continuation of that and nothing was changing," she added.
Source: On Islam
