THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 31, 1995 TAG: 9510310001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
So, Louis Farrakhan says Judaism is a ``gutter religion,'' eh? Big talk from a man who practices one of the most oppressive religions in the world.
I recently read a book written by a Saudi Arabian woman about what life is like for women in Islamic countries. The stories are horrifying: A teenage girl executed by her father as the family looked on (no legal repercussions), a 13-year-old girl stoned to death for the crime of having been gang-raped (she asked for it, they said), a woman walled up alive in a tiny room to slowly die in darkness, silence and solitude (she fell in love with an American), a 9-year-old girl starved for weeks by her father and brother (to teach her what her proper place was). All of these punishments were upheld with verses from the Koran.
On the front page of the Oct. 26 Virginian-Pilot, see the Palestinian boy with arms upraised in triumph over Israel's withdrawal from Jenin. Look at the crowd around him. Do you see any women? No, you don't. In the Islamic world, every day is a Million Man March, where the women are lucky if all they are is excluded.
I am neither Jewish nor Muslim, but if I could say anything to Louis Farrakhan it would be: Louie, old boy, if I had to choose, I'd rather be a Jewish beggar than a Muslim princess. And if Islam were the only way into heaven, I would gladly fry.
BETHANIE WARD
Norfolk, Oct. 26, 1995 by CNB