[Re: Elder George]

To the Editor:

I understand from the disclaimer published in every issue of TMO that you don’t actually read much of what you print here, but I would urge you to temporarily suspend that policy and glance through a column or two by the self-styled “Elder” George. Then you might ask yourself: why are we publishing pieces which are essentially advertising for a commentator whose views are thoroughly out of sync with the Muslim ethos upheld elsewhere in the newspaper? If you look at the man’s website—and every column that appears in TMO is simply a teaser for a longer piece there— you will find that his movement’s tenets either directly contradict those of Islam (advocating a return to tribalism and the primacy of the male gender as “contained in the Tao, the Bible, and in astrological and numerological sciences”) or reiterate all that is worst in our community’s “cultural” view of gender relations (“it is the masculine gender that sets standards… provides discipine… pioneers and creates”; “for a child, security is… hearing Mom in the kitchen”). If all you want is to publish an anti-feminist columnist, I would think you could find a more respectable one. And since every other page of TMO teems with smart, pious, socially-engaged women (not a “tyrant mother” among them), you might consider not carrying such a column at all!

Sincerely yours,
Rachel Harrell-Bilici
Ann Arbor, MI

10-16