Professor Bennoune Comments on Syrian Crisis for FOX40
Professor Karima Bennoune offered commentary and analysis on the escalating crisis in Syria for a news report on Sacramento television station FOX40.
Professor Bennoune emphasized that many people of Muslim heritage in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere are taking great risks in opposing the rise of fundamentalist extremist groups, a theme she explored in depth in her acclaimed book, Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight against Muslim Fundamentalism, which recently won the 2014 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction. She also said that while military action may be necessary to combat the jihadist group calling itself the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" or ISIS, any lasting solution would depend upon a negotiated peace in the ongoing conflict in Syria.
"The use of force can be very important in countering ISIS, in helping to protect the civilians that it is targeting on the ground," said Bennoune. "But it cannot produce a long term solution. For that we need a negotiated resolution to this war in Syria that has claimed nearly 200,000 lives."
Karima Bennoune is an author, lecturer, teacher, and international law scholar as well as the first Arab-American to be honored with the Derrick A. Bell Award from the Section on Minority Groups of the Association of American Law Schools. She joined the King Hall faculty from Rutgers School of Law-Newark in 2012.