Muslim woman and her marathon training

Since this is the Marathon Pundit blog, I couldn't let this article pass unnoticed.

I'm still catching up from my little excursion in Michigan (see my previous posts), so I didn't initially notice this op-ed by Fatina Abdrabboh from late July that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor.

As I did with John Kerry's daughter, I salute Ms. Abdrobbah for making the commitment to train for and run a marathon. Fatina is training for the "big one" of marathons, Boston, the runners' Valhalla.

Abdrobbah wears a hijab, and in my many years of running 5Ks, 10ks and marathons, I've never seen a runner wear a hijab. I view that as a unique feature to Fatina, not as a problem.

But since she wears a hijab, Abdrobbah has to endure stares, dirty looks and brush-offs from ordinary people she encounters day to day as she goes about her routine activities in the Boston area. Is that right? No.

Abdrobbah writes:

Why is my stance on terrorism my only defining feature? Casual conversations at the grocery store, the gym, the dry cleaner all seem laser-guided, by the way I look, to Islam and terrorism - and never to those everyday conversations that might revolve around other aspects of my life like how I like my Harvard classes, my training for the Boston Marathon, or my recent obsession with my stock portfolio.

I desperately try to shrug these incidents off as I focus on school and training for the marathon. But these incidents don't seem to be isolated - and, indeed, have intensified just since the July 7 suicide bombings in London and last week's attempted bombings there. Columnists in many of our nation's most influential newspapers focused on the Arab and Muslim response to the attacks. They castigated Arab and Muslim Americans for not publicly condemning terrorism - as if, in addition to the condemnations Muslim groups have indeed issued in days since 7/7, we're expected to march in the streets of New York, Washington, and Boston and chant, "We hate Bin Laden, too."

But I wonder if - given the fearful environment - that would be enough of an "unequivocal" condemnation.

Sorry, but as I posted here last week in regards the American Muslim anti-terror fatwa, it's not enough. A second Marathon Pundit post from the same day draws heavily from a 2003 Daniel Pipes article, I'll excerpt (again) a bit from that piece.

Pipes comments that such questions posed in suitable situations as "Is Islam a religion of peace?" and "Do you condemn terrorism?"— have little value, for they depend on definitions (of peace, of terrorism, etc.).

Here's a good series of questions--in my opinion--straight from Pipes, that are a perfect follow up to those Muslims who "condemn terrorism"

Do you condone or condemn the Palestinians, Chechens, and Kashmiris who give up their lives to kill enemy civilians? Will you condemn by name as terrorist groups such organizations as Abu Sayyaf, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, Groupe Islamique Arm e, Hamas, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, and Al Qaeda?

Ms. Abdrobbah, Muslims need to make condemnations like this to be viewed as credible when denouncing terrorism. Is this fair? Perhaps not to you personally, but we're at war with extremists who call themselves Muslims.

Good luck in the Boston Marathon, Fatina, all the same. And watch out for the hills in Newton, they're quad-killers. They hills start at mile 16.

Update 10PM CDT: It has come to my attention that Fatina is a professional "victim." She's a past winner of Ankle Biting Pundits' coveted "Buffoon of the Week" award.

From the ABP's "salute" to Fatina:

And as you will see below, there's very compelling evidence that she is also may be someone who seemingly shows up in many newspaper stories complaining about how she, as an Arab American, is a victim of American ignorance and racism. As you will see below, we can't say for certain she is the same person who appears in the stories below. But no matter, if there is more than one Fatina Abdrobboh, then they can all share the award, as they would be equally as buffoonish.

Michelle Malkin blogged about her today, OH, NO, NOT HER AGAIN, although, she took a different approach to her dismissal of Ms. Abdrobbah's whining.

Back to running. Fatina, your body absorbs an enormous amount of unneeded heat by dressing in black and wearing hijab. You're a candidate for a heat stroke, Boston is having a hot summer. Try a white hijab.