美国国家公共电台 NPR Father Argues Against Radicalism In 'Letters to a Young Muslim'

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: 

Omar Saif Ghobash is a Muslim. His two sons are Muslim. He says he worries they're being taught a hateful version of Islam, not an inclusive one. So he sat down and wrote to them, and the collection of writing is now a book called "Letters To A Young Muslim," his argument against radicalism². He says it started in the United Arab Emirates, where his family is from, one day when one of his sons came home from school.

OMAR SAIF GHOBASH: One particular day I asked him what he'd learned, and he told me, well, I was told that I should hate the Jews.

MCEVERS: Ghobash says that made him want to punch his son's teacher.

GHOBASH: For me personally, I think the kind of litmus test for our tolerance³ and acceptance of the modern world is how we deal with these kinds of statements. And so it's extremely important for me to say actually, this is where we need to stop and we need to think on what basis do we make these kinds of sweeping⁴ judgments⁵. What are the consequences for ourselves morally for making those kind of sweeping judgments? And in any case, we need to actually extract this whole idea of hatred⁶. And actually, I would like for us to begin to imagine teaching our children something else. So that's the day I wanted to go and punch the teacher.

MCEVERS: You talk about your son, you know, going through different phases of questioning what it means to be a Muslim. And it sounds like you yourself went through these phases too, as you said, when you were young.

GHOBASH: Yeah.

MCEVERS: And you write about how your own relatives went to fight in Afghanistan in the 1980s and how you cheered them on.

GHOBASH: Well, yes. I mean, when I was 12, you know, being a warrior⁷, it was like almost being like a superhero.

MCEVERS: How have you come to think about that now?

GHOBASH: Well, I think what's happening, for example, with ISIS, we can demonize all of these people and say, you know, they're absolute evil. But by demonizing them and saying they're absolute evil, it becomes much more difficult to understand what is actually going on. I actually think there are many of them who are just incredibly foolishly idealistic. I have no sympathy for them, but I can say that I understand where it's coming from.

MCEVERS: Yeah.

GHOBASH: It's a very simplistic reductive reading of our Islamic history. I mean, it gives purpose when it's so difficult these days to find purpose.

MCEVERS: Ghobash has been thinking about Islamic extremism all his life. His father was assassinated⁸ when he was 6 years old by a 19-year-old Palestinian man. The man was hired to kill the Syrian foreign minister at the airport in Abu Dhabi, but he shot Ghobash's father instead. The killer⁹ had grown up in a Palestinian refugee camp. Ghobash says he came to understand in some ways why the man did what he did.

GHOBASH: As the years passed, I realized that actually this poor young man had absolutely no opportunities. And in a sense, you know, I feel that my father's killer was himself a victim of the way we do politics in the Arab world.

MCEVERS: Which is to sort of answer grievances¹⁰ about, you know, feeling marginalized with violence.

GHOBASH: Well, that's one thing, giving yourself meaning through violence. But the other thing is what we're creating today with the huge number of refugees from Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan. You know, what is going to happen? How many of them are going to find that they've got, you know, worthwhile lives to lead?

MCEVERS: And how many of them where will turn to violence as a way to respond?

GHOBASH: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

MCEVERS: Do you worry about your son becoming radicalized, still hearing things from teachers that that you don't agree with?

GHOBASH: Yeah, there's a lot of worry actually. And I - you know, because it is - the radical¹ message is actually very, very seductive. And we don't have a real understanding of how we can repent¹² from, you know, past sins and be able to come back to a middle ground where you're actually allowed to build a life of full participation¹³ in the economy and society. There's almost a kind of an exploitation of those who sin. And a very quick pathway to ultimate repentance¹⁴ by going and sacrificing yourself or, really, committing suicide and taking a lot of people with you. A lot of people don't like to talk about these issues within the community because we fear that this will lead to Islamophobia.

MCEVERS: Exactly. I was going to say, I mean, do you also worry, I mean, I'm trying to imagine certain people here in the United States hearing what you're saying and saying, see, we told you they all believe in jihad. Everybody believes in violence.

GHOBASH: No, that...

MCEVERS: You know, I mean, there's, you know, there's obviously a lot of conversation about this here in this country right now...

GHOBASH: Of course.

MCEVERS: ...And it can sometimes tend toward Islamophobia.

GHOBASH: Absolutely. However, it doesn't mean that we should hide behind this fear of Islamophobia and not discuss the issues of extremism within our own societies. And there are some very, very brave people who are standing¹¹ up and saying there is extremism within our own societies. We do have a problem. We do need to face it. And there is no reason for us to be politically correct amongst ourselves because we all know what's going on.

And, you know, when ISIS first appeared on the scene, there were some very, very loud voices that posed the question, what have we created? In the sense that we've allowed these people who seemed harmless - aggressive, but foolish - to propagate a certain kind of view which was unhappy, frustrated¹⁵, focused on the war stories, focused on jihad as a way of, you know, spending your life, and we didn't really pay attention to them. But it seems that these people actually managed to create a certain momentum¹⁶, and so we need to separate out the Islamophobia. It exists and we have a problem with it, but what we can't do is hide behind that and not deal with the real issues that are going on within the faith.

MCEVERS: Omar Saif Ghobash is the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Russia. He also sponsors an Arabic literary translation prize and co-founded the international prize for Arabic fiction. Thank you so much for your time today.

GHOBASH: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF TUNE-YARDS SONG, "POWA")

1 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

2 radicalism   

n. 急进主义, 根本的改革主义

参考例句：

• His radicalism and refusal to compromise isolated him. 他的激进主义与拒绝妥协使他受到孤立。
• Education produced intellectual ferment and the temptations of radicalism. 教育带来知识界的骚动，促使激进主义具有了吸引力。

3 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

4 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

5 judgments   

判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判

参考例句：

• A peculiar austerity marked his judgments of modern life. 他对现代生活的批评带着一种特殊的苛刻。
• He is swift with his judgments. 他判断迅速。

6 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

7 warrior   

n.勇士，武士，斗士

参考例句：

• The young man is a bold warrior.这个年轻人是个很英勇的武士。
• A true warrior values glory and honor above life.一个真正的勇士珍视荣誉胜过生命。

8 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

9 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

10 grievances   

n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚

参考例句：

• The trade union leader spoke about the grievances of the workers. 工会领袖述说工人们的苦情。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• He gave air to his grievances. 他申诉了他的冤情。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

12 repent   

v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔

参考例句：

• He has nothing to repent of.他没有什么要懊悔的。
• Remission of sins is promised to those who repent.悔罪者可得到赦免。

13 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

14 repentance   

n.懊悔

参考例句：

• He shows no repentance for what he has done.他对他的所作所为一点也不懊悔。
• Christ is inviting sinners to repentance.基督正在敦请有罪的人悔悟。

15 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。