To the Editor:
This letter, on behalf of the Al-Nur executive board, is in a response to the op-ed titled "Preaching Hatred at Dartmouth" by Ilya Feoktistov '06 (The Dartmouth, June 29) and a letter to the editor titled "Stunned and Incredulous" by Ann Abramowitz and Alan Abramowitz (The Dartmouth, July 1). It is written with the hope of resolving the tensions that have surfaced and, more importantly, to apologize for the offensive material on the Al-Nur website. It is important to realize that with every religion, there are deviant communities out there, extremists in their beliefs and interpretations, and Islam is no different. It is unfortunate that voice has been lent to such a set of deviant interpretations inadvertently through Al-Nur's website. These interpretational passages ended up on the website without complete knowledge of the board in terms of the content of all the passages. Subsequently, the Al-Nur board wishes to apologize to the Jewish peoples and others offended by the material. The offensive views are resoundingly dissonant with the views held by Muslim students on this campus, and we urge people to exercise good judgment if they ever encounter hateful material under the umbrella of Islam, which unfortunately is not hard to run into.
We also feel it is incumbent on us to defend something that's larger, our faith, that's been put to scrutiny. Islam, like other religions, is a complicated set of beliefs. Central to understanding passages of the religious texts, is an understanding of the context. These texts consist of numerous passages which were revealed to the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, depending on the circumstances the Prophet had found himself in. To strip away from the passages their anecdotal context is to strip away the meaning from these passages. Islam is a religion that calls Jewish and Christian peoples "People of the Book." It establishes a lineage between Muslims with Christians and Jews, asking Muslims to venerate and respect them and also all the Biblical prophets that have carried God's message. Islam does not condone anti-Semitism. Neither do Muslim students at Dartmouth. It is sad and unfortunate that an oversight on the part of Al-Nur's officers have created sufficient grounds to cast aspersions with regard to the good will and respect that Muslim students harbor toward non-Muslim communities at Dartmouth. However, despite the disclaimers and edifications, the executive body of the Muslim Students' Association at Dartmouth wishes to apologize for the offensive material on the website and promises to be vigilant to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
