Frederick Douglass

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them..." Frederick Douglass

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Islamophobia

Some months ago I got an e-mail from Sufyan bin Uzayr, editor of bravenewworld.in. He saw something I'd written and asked if he could reproduce it at his website. I gladly assented.

Today I found this in my inbox:

Howdy!

I saw the evil side of communal tensions few days back. Clearly a reflection of where our world is headed.

Happened that a Magazine with which I've been a writer for quite some time refused to publish my articles, unless I changed my name. Reason? "SUFYAN BIN UZAYR" seems way too extremist. To quote from the Editor, "...I'll be glad if you wrote under an Anglicized name."

About the mag I couldn't care less. Their loss, not mine. But this is indeed sad. I can only imagine how difficult it'd be for folks from Muslim-majority areas to get established in any given field.


Talk about bias!