A RESPONSE TO CRITICISM OF "THE BABY FACE OF HATE" June 26 2002
Friends,
Some readers have responded to my posting of David Tell's "The Baby Face of Hate" with warnings that such articles negatively stereotype people of Middle Eastern origin. They have a point, and I don't dismiss such criticism outright. However, I am very skeptical that these materials could directly or indirectly fuel prejudice. Bigots warmly identify with child abusers, so my hunch is they are looking elsewhere than Project NoSpank for their "intellectual" stimulation. Furthermore, I believe that my first obligation is to expose the truth about child abuse and its consequences. Because some people may misconstrue or unfairly apply this information is not a good enough reason to sanitize or censor it. Visitors to this Web site are grown-ups, and I respect their ability to evaluate this information fairly.
I do my best to give equal treatment to child abusers whether they are from the Middle East or from middle Ohio, whether they attempt to justify their bad behavior by one belief system or another. I recognize that "The Baby Face of Hate" may be especially unpleasant to readers who's cultural roots are shared by the subjects of the article. For the same reason, the facts about the overrunning of indigenous cultures, slavery, the KKK, the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII and McCarthyism are not the facts that make me swell with pride as an American.
The truth about abusive child rearing and all its ugly, dangerous social fallout needs to be reported frankly and unapologetically. I wish there were more honest and lively debate about these matters in the mosques, madrassahs, and mainstream Arabic media, but at this precarious moment in history the voices of dissent in the Muslim world are few and hushed, and the voices of moral outrage over human cruelty are mute. One listens it seems in vain for the sweet voice of reason.
Jordan Riak, Exec. Dir., PTAVE
- Childhood Origins of Tyranny, By Mitch Hall, September 2010
- Corporal punishment and political missions, By Alice Miller, April 2007
- Mutilating for God -- Some children are forced into bloody rite, By Scherezade Faramarzi, Associated Press Writer, FOXNews.com, January 30, 2007
- The Terrorist Psyche, Letter to the Editor of www.nashvillecitypaper.com By Tom Johnson, August 15, 2005
- Should children watch beheadings?, The Saudi Gazette, September 12, 2005
- I Want to Start a Kindergarten for Extremism, By Ali Salem, November 2001 (Source: The Middle East Media Research Institute -- MEMRI.org
- The Baby Face of Hate -- MEMRI releases an astonishing example of the "true Muslim" faith, By David Tell, June 12, 2002
- The Childhood Origins of Terrorism, by Lloyd deMause, November 2001
- The Wellsprings of Horror in the Cradle, By Alice Miller, October 2001
- The Psychoanalytic Roots of Islamic Terrorism, By Phyllis Chesler, FrontPageMagazine.com, May 3, 2004
- The Sexual Rage Behind Islamic Terror, By Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com, October 4, 2001
- Atta's Rage Rooted in Islam's Misogyny, By Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com, October 12, 2001
- Spare the Rod, By Riane Eisler
- The School for Violence -- A conversation with Riane Eisler, LA Weekly, September 28, 2001
- Yes, This Is About Islam, By Salman Rushdie, The New York Times, November 2, 2001
- Afghan Boy Gets Lesson in Manhood, By Philip Caputo, Excerpt from "20 Years of Training for War," The New York Times, October 4, 2001
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