Dear Lactnetters,

I have been nomail for several months but a fellow Leader made me aware
of the story, which I found was also posted here on LACTNET, in which
U2's Bono claims that a group of what he describes as Muslim women
allegedly stoned an foreign aid worker for breastfeeding her baby on a
horse in the street.  

Arly Helm was certainly correct in stating that the story is being
filtered through a lens. I'd like to bring to everyone's attention the
following link to a blog entry which deconstructs the story in detail:

http://islamicparenting.blogspot.com/2005/07/public-breastfeeding.html

An opinion was expressed to me recently that this story has implications
for Leaders and other lactation counselors helping multicultural clients
and my reply was "absolutely not" for the reasons given in the above
link.  I think most everyone is aware of the need to check out stories
and their authenticity before passing judgement on the claims made in
them.  Furthermore I hope everyone is aware of the huge amount of
anti-Islam hate speech in the English-speaking world today that is
circulating completely unchecked.  Completely false and unsubstantiated
claims regarding the religion of Islam itself, as well as false doctored
translations of verses from the Qur'an are all over the place, even in
mainstream media.  I would hope that everyone working in health care or
counseling should understand the necessity for extreme caution and
skepticism when confronted with such shocking stories or other claims and
the necessity to abandon unexamined and unsubstantiated stereotypes. 

Tasneem Jennifer Crooker
LLL Leader, Norman, OK, USA
LLLI Global Publications:  Arabic
Translations Coordinator: Middle East
http://www.arabicbreastfeeding.info

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