The Hays Daily News
By WILL MANLY
Hays Daily News
Her very existence and her presence on the Fort Hays State
University campus defeats some of the notions that isolated
Midwesterners have about Islam, says Ruksana Kibria.
A visiting Fulbright Scholar in town for about a month, Kibria has
visited philosophy classes and will lecture to interested audiences.
The Fort Hays philosophy department drafted her to try and dispel
misconceptions about Muslims.
Much of what Americans hear about Islam comes from Iraq, Iran and
Saudi Arabia -- where terrorism and abuse of women catch the headlines.
But Islam is much more than the Arab world, much more than the plight
of women in Saudi Arabia, much more than Sunnis fighting Shiites in
Iraq, she said.
"There is a tendency to equate Islam with the Arab world and the
Arab world with Islam," Kibria said. "That is far from true. All
Muslims are not Arab, and all Arabs are not Muslims."
Kibria, for instance, is from Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation
just east of India. It's a part of the world where women have equal
opportunities, moderate Muslims rule the day, government works to
achieve stability and people generally prosper.
"It is a moderate Muslim country, and if this moderation could be
sustained. it could act as a model for other Muslim countries," Kibria
said.
Kibria's public speaking engagements include a community lecture at
7 p.m. Thursday at Hays Public Library. She will discuss perceptual
gaps between the West and the Muslim world. She also will lecture at a
Times Talk on campus at noon March 11 in the Memorial Union's Stouffer
Lounge. There, she will discuss U.S. interests in south Asia. And she
will discuss religion in democracy at 7 p.m. March 13 at the library.
That she is allowed to do so indicates how modern and open a Muslim country like Bangladesh can be, she said.
"Women are free to get employment in any service they want. Women
have equal opportunity in all government services, even the armed
forces. Two of our former prime ministers have been women," Kibria
said. "I'm a Muslim woman, but I'm teaching at a university. And I've
come to a western country, the United States, to talk about my country.
That says a lot about liberal political-social system of Bangladesh."
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