Responsible Research

Submitted by Mahmoud Khatib (United States), Mar 5, 2007 at 12:08

Mr. Pipes,

I find it humorous that you attempted to deflect your readers' attention from the baseless claims about our MSA by focusing on a Facebook group I made about Shariah Law and the Caliphate. If you disagree with the idea of a peaceful theocratic democracy based upon Islamic morals, you are quite welcome to join the Facebook group and debate us there.

However, the issue here is the Embry-Riddle MSA and its paintball trips. It is your responsibility to check the credibility of your sources. If Front Page Magazine didn't do its homework, you shouldn't use it as a source. ...

In college, most people are taught to use a number of sources in their research so they don't get skewed information. In this case, you could have easily contacted our MSA, the Embry-Riddle Campus Ministry, or Embry-Riddle's administration to check Front Page Magazine's claims about "Jihad paintball."

I have read Front Page Magazine's article and the only "proof" they offer is that we have a photograph of an MSA paintball trip on our old MSA website. Implying that we may be conducting terrorist training based upon a photograph of a paintball trip is a very far leap indeed. It certainly makes Front Page Magazine look like an Islamophobic source if Muslims who play paintball (like hundreds of thousands of other Americans) are automatically viewed with suspicion. Can Muslims join a Karate or Fencing class or are these more suspicious activities that the FBI should look into?

Mahmoud Khatib
Former Embry-Riddle MSA President

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