美国国家公共电台 NPR--A Sunni Muslim is held in connection with the killings of Shia men in New Mexico

A Sunni Muslim is held in connection with the killings¹ of Shia men in New Mexico

Transcript²

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with leaders of New York University's Muslim community about Shia and Sunni responses to the killings of Muslim men in Albuquerque, N.M.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

A conversation Muslims typically have privately³ in the U.S. is bursting into the public view because of the killings of Muslim men in New Mexico. There are concerns within Muslim communities that those men may have been murdered because of sectarian hate towards Shia Muslims. Sunni and Shia leaders have united to denounce the killings. And Khalid Latif, a professor at New York University and the leader of NYU's Islamic Center, has urged other Sunni Muslims to root out discrimination. On Twitter, he cautioned against the marginalization of Shias by the majority Muslim sect⁴. It's why Imam Khalid Latif asked Shia scholar Sheikh Faiyaz Jaffer to join the center years ago because Shia students needed to feel welcomed and reflected in NYU's Muslim community.

FAIYAZ JAFFER: Most young Shia muslims in this country have experienced rhetoric⁵, language, even a casual microaggression targeting or mocking their religious beliefs, unfortunately.

FADEL: Yeah.

JAFFER: And so it doesn't come much of a surprise that that has the potential to reverberate⁶ into the tragedy that we just saw. It was much more of anger and stress that this takes place here in this country.

FADEL: Yeah, and that's why I was intrigued⁷, Imam Latif, when I saw your tweet thread. What made you feel compelled to put out these series of messages and ask people to reflect?

KHALID LATIF: There is an absence of recognition within the Sunni Muslim community on what is both the experiences of Shias day to day on a global level, as well as in the United States.

FADEL: Yeah.

LATIF: You know, even in my own social media posting, there were individuals who were empathetic, individuals who agreed about a need to be able to show support and solidarity⁸. But there were so many who also jumped to offer very qualified⁹ condolences. You know, we stand in condolence with those who lost their lives, but we also have to remember that Shia Muslims, theologically, legalistically, are so different from Sunni Muslims. It's like this is not the time or place to have an academic discussion. People literally¹⁰ lost their lives. Family members are in a state of grief and pain. You have a huge demographic that makes up 10% of a global Muslim community that, with each of these attacks, has triggered to realities that they face every single day.

FADEL: Let's talk about the NYU Islamic Center specifically and what you've created. And, Imam Khalid, I'd love to start with you. Is there a specific moment where you realized, OK, we need to bring on a Shia sheikh into the Islamic Center?

LATIF: My understanding of leadership within my religious tradition is it's more of a servant-based model of leadership. We're here to meet the needs of those that we serve and not kind of have that be the opposite where the leader is served. And we have a huge Shia demographic. There's two lawyers in our community - a social worker and a lawyer, rather - sorry - that had called me down to the lobby of our facility because they had a client with them who is an asylum-seeker from Pakistan who identified as Shia. And he was just scared. He wouldn't go through the turnstiles to come into the building. And I spoke¹² to him in Urdu, and he still was hesitant. And essentially¹³, he was an asylum-seeker because of his Shia identity. He had seen so many members of his family get killed because they were Shia. He had to go into various mosques¹⁴ pretending to be Sunni out of fear for his life. Not just so he could find community or socialize or just a place to belong, but his concern was literally he could be killed if the people knew that he was Shia.

Now he's standing¹¹ in the middle of Manhattan as an asylum-seeker, let alone everything else that he has to deal with in terms of an absence of social services and governmental support and how he's going to survive here in America. But he's petrified¹⁵ to come into the building. And so I called Sheikh Faiyaz down. I said, you know, can you speak to this young man and let him know that he doesn't have to be afraid here but not in a way that was dismissive of his fear? And there's no way that I could do for this man what Sheikh Faiyaz did for him. And that's something that's very important to understand.

FADEL: Sheikh Faiyaz Jaffer, are you the first Shia chaplain in the U.S.?

JAFFER: In an institution of higher education, yes. I started in August 2016, so about five or six years ago now.

FADEL: So that's very recent.

JAFFER: It is very recent, yeah.

FADEL: I want to pose the same question to you that I just posed to Imam Khalid Latif. What made you realize that this work needed to be done?

JAFFER: Because I experienced it as an undergrad. I wasn't able to pray in the Muslim prayer room in my college campus because students would mock me. And they told me that, you know, we don't want you around here. So for the first 2 1/2 years of my undergrad experience, I would go pray in a stairwell case in the library...

FADEL: Oh, my God.

JAFFER: ...Until I was able to muster¹⁶ up the courage and just feel confident in who I was and in my religious identity to go and pray in spite of what anyone would say to me. And so, you know, it was incredibly evident to me the need and the importance of it. And at the end of the day, we want to make sure that generation after generation and my children don't have to experience this.

FADEL: I don't know why it got me emotional thinking of you praying in a stairwell.

JAFFER: It's been decades' worth of poor language and, you know, rhetorical stances by many of those in privilege, even if they're sarcastic¹⁷ remarks...

FADEL: Right.

JAFFER: ...Over the last several years, microaggressions, so on and so forth¹⁸, that have created what took place in Albuquerque, N.M. I personally do not know of one Shia Muslim who has never experienced isolation¹⁹ or marginalization for their belief - be it physical, be it verbal or even be it a sarcastic remark. I have never experienced that once. So what does that demonstrate to me? It demonstrates to me that, you know, undoubtedly²⁰ that has the potential then to create and reverberate into something much larger and much more tragic²¹. This all stems, again, from those small remarks, those small statements, that lack of care, that creating or erasure²² of a religious identity.

FADEL: Sheikh Faiyaz Jaffer, Imam Khalid Latif, thank you so much for your time.

LATIF: Thank you.

JAFFER: Thank you so much for having us.

1 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

4 sect   

n.派别，宗教，学派，派系

参考例句：

• When he was sixteen he joined a religious sect.他16岁的时候加入了一个宗教教派。
• Each religious sect in the town had its own church.该城每一个宗教教派都有自己的教堂。

5 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

6 reverberate   

v.使回响，使反响

参考例句：

• The decision will reverberate and will jar the country.这项决定将引起反响并震撼这个国家。
• Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my hear.痛苦呼喊的一遍遍的在我的心中回响。

7 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

8 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

9 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

10 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

11 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

14 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

15 petrified   

adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• I'm petrified of snakes. 我特别怕蛇。
• The poor child was petrified with fear. 这可怜的孩子被吓呆了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 muster   

v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册

参考例句：

• Go and muster all the men you can find.去集合所有你能找到的人。
• I had to muster my courage up to ask him that question.我必须鼓起勇气向他问那个问题。

17 sarcastic   

adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的

参考例句：

• I squashed him with a sarcastic remark.我说了一句讽刺的话把他给镇住了。
• She poked fun at people's shortcomings with sarcastic remarks.她冷嘲热讽地拿别人的缺点开玩笑。

18 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

19 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

20 undoubtedly   

adv.确实地，无疑地

参考例句：

• It is undoubtedly she who has said that.这话明明是她说的。
• He is undoubtedly the pride of China.毫无疑问他是中国的骄傲。

21 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

22 erasure   

n.擦掉，删去；删掉的词；消音；抹音

参考例句：

• The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth. 过去给人擦拭个干净，擦拭的行为又忘了个干净，于是，谎言就变成了真理。 来自英汉文学
• The inspection, modification, replacement or erasure of part of file's contents. 检查、修改、代替或擦去文档内容一部分的过程。 来自互联网