How not to write an article

[moe.ron]

I was reading this article and I found so many factual mistake, it's not even funny. So, here is the article and let see if you can find factual errors.

Playwright's writings of despair in Muslim world elicit threats

By Elizabeth Bryant
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE

PARIS

The letter arrived just a week after Aziz Chouaki spoke about his writing on a French Jewish radio show.

"Aren't you ashamed of speaking to Jewish people?" asked the chilling missive, which threatened to unleash an "Islamic revolution" against Chouaki, a 53-year-old playwright. "Are you with the Jews?"

Sent to his Paris-area office a few years ago, the warning counts among a handful of death threats - along with mountains of praise - that Chouaki has received for writings that explore depravity, despair and Muslim radicalism coursing through gritty French housing projects and through his native Algeria.

Chouaki, who grew up listening to the music of Jimi Hendrix and to the call to prayer in a sun-washed, increasingly intolerant Algiers, is no stranger to the clash between religion and art. But the horrific killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh has stirred a fresh debate among Muslim writers like Chouaki over the limits to free expression in Europe as well.

At the heart of the controversy is van Gogh's documentary Submission about violence against women in Muslim societies. The 11-minute movie stirred furor in the Netherlands, and may have triggered the Nov. 2 slaying of the Dutch movie producer by an alleged Islamic extremist.

Yet it was not van Gogh, but Ayaan Hirshi Ali, a 34-year-old Somalian immigrant, who penned the inflammatory film, which shows images of battered women with Koranic verses traced on their bodies.

An ex-Muslim and member of the Dutch Parliament, Ali once described the prophet Mohammed as a "lecherous tyrant," and Islam as a "backward" faith. Like van Gogh, she has received several death threats. Today, she lives under 24-hour police protection.

Still, Ali presents only one face of Europe's new generation of Muslim playwrights, poets and novelists who are changing the continent's artistic landscape. They include devout believers and unapologetic agnostics, exiled political dissidents and second-generation immigrants.

They write about sexual awakening, political oppression and racism. Many generate applause rather than death threats, as they break cultural and religious stereotypes.

They include 74-year-old Paris resident Adonis, considered the Arab world's greatest living poet, and Iranian novelist Chahdortt Djavann, whose latest book, "What Does Allah Think of Europe?" skewers Muslim radicals preying on disaffected immigrant youth. And they include many writers like Aziz Chouaki who refuse to be viewed through a religious prism.

"I don't hate Islam, I'm just not interested in religion," said Chouaki, one of a half-dozen ethnic Muslim writers interviewed for this story. "But I have a very sincere respect for the Islamic civilization. It's given so many things to the world - in sciences, philosophy, poetry."

A compact man with a shock of gray hair, Chouaki spoke at a theater in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where his latest play, Une Viree - or An Excursion - recently opened to critical acclaim.

An atheist, Chouaki argues that his play could be as easily based in the South Bronx as in downtown Algiers. Yet the starkly written tale of three wine-sodden drifters, who speak a rough mix of street Arabic and French, teems with references to faith and fanaticism. "If I was president," one of Chouaki's characters says, "I would destroy all the mosques, and replace them with bordellos."

Chuckles ripple through the audience packing the theater one recent week night. It is the reaction Chouaki hopes for, and usually gets.

Chouaki's own story is less amusing. He fled Algeria in 1991, just before Islamist fundamentalists launched a bloody insurgency against the military government that killed more than 100,000 people. Government critics denounce him for betraying his country. But that is not his main concern.

"I'm afraid of self-censorship," he said. "Even if I don't see physical threats, I imagine them. Many writers do."

Few people outside the Netherlands have seen Submission, but the documentary has nonetheless generated strong feelings among European Muslims.

"Of course it's inadmissible to know that in the 21st century there are women beaten for adultery," said Loubna Melian, a French-Moroccan writer and anti-discrimination activist.

Last year Meliane, 26, published her first book. Her autobiography, Living Free, is about breaking away from the strictures of France's immigrant North African community. She eats pork, drinks wine and considers herself a French citizen first, and a Muslim second. Still, she has reservations about Submission, and about Ayaan Hirshi Ali, whom she read about in a magazine.

Others, like Bangladeshi novelist Taslima Nasrin, believe there are few barriers when it comes to criticizing Islam.

Like Iranian writer Salman Rushdie, Nasrin lives in exile, with a fatwa on her head for once stating - she claims she was misquoted - that the Koran "should be revised thoroughly."

"The Koran was written 1,400 years ago, we don't need to reform it," said Nasrin, a staunch atheist, who lives in Stockholm. "Why do we need to follow a book that was written 1,400 years ago? It's out of place, out of time."

[_Opi_]

"If I was president," one of Chouaki's characters says, "I would destroy all the mosques, and replace them with bordellos."

[moe.ron]

Come on people, the factual errors are so obvious. I'm thinking about writing a letter to the paper and tell them that they have written a dummy. Of course, the letter will be more diplomatic.

[enlightenment06]

That's the first time I've ever heard the term "ethinically Muslim"- which of course, makes absolutely no sense

[moe.ron]

Another one, Salman Rushdie is an Indian. He was born in Bombay, India. He left India because he critized the Nehru-Gandhi legacy and the mobs were gunning for him.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by enlightenment06
That's the first time I've ever heard the term "ethinically Muslim"- which of course, makes absolutely no sense

Where does it say that?

-Rudey

[moe.ron]

Originally posted by Rudey
Where does it say that?

-Rudey

"I don't hate Islam, I'm just not interested in religion," said Chouaki, one of a half-dozen ethnic Muslim writers interviewed for this story. "But I have a very sincere respect for the Islamic civilization. It's given so many things to the world - in sciences, philosophy, poetry."

[Rudey]

Originally posted by moe.ron

Yeah the article says "ethnic Muslims" and not ethnically Muslims or even "ethinically Muslim".

eth·nic ( P ) Pronunciation Key (thnk)
adj.

Of or relating to a sizable group of people sharing a common and distinctive racial, national, religious, linguistic, or cultural heritage.
Being a member of a particular ethnic group, especially belonging to a national group by heritage or culture but residing outside its national boundaries: ethnic Hungarians living in northern Serbia.
Of, relating to, or distinctive of members of such a group: ethnic restaurants; ethnic art.
Relating to a people not Christian or Jewish; heathen.

n.
A member of a particular ethnic group, especially one who maintains the language or customs of the group.

-Rudey

[moe.ron]

Well, the writer also said that the individual is an atheist. There is no way one can be an atheist and also a Muslims.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by moe.ron
Well, the writer also said that the individual is an atheist. There is no way one can be an atheist and also a Muslims.

Seems like a small thing but I'm sure he meant people who are born Muslim. I don't know if "ethnic Muslim" wouldn't apply as a phrase to describe that and if it didn't what would?

-Rudey

[moe.ron]

Originally posted by Rudey
Seems like a small thing but I'm sure he meant people who are born Muslim. I don't know if "ethnic Muslim" wouldn't apply as a phrase to describe that and if it didn't what would?

-Rudey

I disagree. She is talking about the different Muslim playwriters and then she used this individual, who is an atheist. Wouldn't this playwriter ethnic be atheist, instead of Muslim?

I assume this one is a mistake in line of thinking, the writer wrote that "Ali presents only one face of Europe's new generation of Muslim playwrights, poets and novelists who are changing the continent's artistic landscape." Yet, she describe Ali as a member of the Dutch parliment. Prior to talking about Ali, she was talking about the playwriter Chouaki. I guess Chouaki and Ali is pretty similar in some world.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by moe.ron
I disagree. She is talking about the different Muslim playwriters and then she used this individual, who is an atheist. Wouldn't this playwriter ethnic be atheist, instead of Muslim?

I assume this one is a mistake in line of thinking, the writer wrote that "Ali presents only one face of Europe's new generation of Muslim playwrights, poets and novelists who are changing the continent's artistic landscape." Yet, she describe Ali as a member of the Dutch parliment. Prior to talking about Ali, she was talking about the playwriter Chouaki. I guess Chouaki and Ali is pretty similar in some world.

If your father is a Muslim, aren't you technically a Muslim? No matter what I think she was referring to people who were Muslim at one point and this guy has become atheist, which he can do if he wants but still was born Muslim and some might still consider him Muslim.

Ali helped write the movie, so she would be a playwright or whatever people are who write those things.

-Rudey

[moe.ron]

Originally posted by Rudey
If your father is a Muslim, aren't you technically a Muslim?

Being a Muslim is not about lineage. It's about faith. One can easily have Muslims family and not be a Muslim. For instance, one of my cousin is Christian even though his father is a Muslim.

[_Opi_]

Originally posted by Rudey
If your father is a Muslim, aren't you technically a Muslim?

no.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by _Opi_
no.

I was speaking to moe.ron, not you and he replied but thank you for your deep thoughts.

-Rudey