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Muslim 7th Grader Fights To Keep Stereotypical Book Off Shelves
by Ayub Khan
WASHINGTON (IslamOnline) - It takes courage to speak out against injustice and falsehood, even more so at a young age. When a Muslim 7th grader from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, read Caroline B. Cooney's "The Terrorist", she couldn't believe the amount of disinformation and falsehood contained in the book.
In the book, 16-year-old Laura Williams attends the London International School. Her brother Billy accepts a package from a stranger and is killed by the bomb contained in it. In trying to uncover the killers of her brother, Laura finds out that her Muslim classmate is involved in the bombing and is trying to use Billy's passport to move to the United States.
It was at this point that 12-year-old straight “A” student Karima Wagdy from Franklin Middle School decided to take a stand and appealed to the school district's PTA Reconsideration Committee to take the book off the school shelves.
"I didn't like it at all. I felt I had to do something about it. I just couldn't leave it alone, " she said.
The committee rejected Wagdy's request 8-2 and retained the book. The district superintendent agreed with the committee’s decision.
Committee member Phyllis Cooper-Beson said, "If it was taken out from the library, what's to stop taking other books out [out of the library] - books that depict people from Africa, Nigeria, or Ireland, people from other religious groups who feel they are being stereotyped?"
Karima's father, Hisham Wagdy, in an interview with IslamOnline responded that any book containing falsehood and stereotypes must be removed whether it relates to Muslims or anyone else.
He said that for the same reason that we stop our children from consuming alcohol and drugs, we should also stop our children from reading these books that are poisoning their minds.
Two committee members who sided with Karima were high school senior Kate Doyle and Linda McGrew, a media specialist at Wright Elementary School.
McGrew said that the book did not live up to the school district's own book selection policy which says that all materials must be consistent with various principles including presentation of sexual, racial, religious, and ethnic groups in such a way as to build positive images, with mutual understanding and respect.
A Cedar Rapids Gazette editorial, while praising Karima's efforts, said, "If the 12-year-old student didn't succeed in putting ‘The Terrorist’ out of circulation, she at least inspired a fresh look at racial and ethnic stereotyping."
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