The importance of self-criticism: Imams and NFL referees

Hiking in the Rocky Mountains in the state of Montana with my wife and her two sisters, all of whom are from Saudi Arabia, I decided to bring up an interesting topic for discussion. My wife is exposed to new ideas and new types of people everyday, and so she is open-minded toward many subjects. Her sister is more traditional, in the sense that her cultural inclinations are influenced more by Saudi Arabia than America. Often when I discuss an idea that I have with my wife, she listens calmly, and either agrees or disagrees, but seldom does she get mad. Her sister, though, gets mad.

At this time, the American Football season was about to start. Because of labor disputes between the NFL and the referees, it had been decided that replacement officials would work the games until the labor dispute was resolved. Now, no sport is more significant to Americans than American Football, especially the NFL. Numerous radio and television stations are devoted only to sports, and NFL football consumes the bulk of the attention. So, the big argument across the country at this time was why the players in the NFL, who are the best in the country, should have to play with replacement referees. What were the qualifications of these referees? What experience did they have? How would they affect the integrity of the game? Believe me, this subject caused many excited debates throughout the country for several months.

So, liking to pose controversial questions for the sake of starting intelligent and impassioned debates, I turned to my wife’s sister and said, “isn’t it interesting that in America, for a game, the credentials and qualifications of a few replacement referees causes such concern. Every single detail of these referees’ qualifications and past experiences has been searched out, and discussed and debated publicly for months. But, in the Middle East, there are religious scholars, most of whom have never left their country, or even their home region, but you listen to them and follow their words and ideas. What are their qualifications for speaking about the World when they have never even visited the West, or seen first-hand many of the topics about which they deliver such firm rulings. And what makes their interpretation of Islam legitimate? Who are they to say Islam is this or Islam is that? Can’t you read from the Qur’an yourself, and make up your own ideas? In America, we have replacement officials for a football game, and their qualifications are fervently debated for months before the first game has even started. But in the Middle East, you have religious scholars who you listen to, but about whom you never question their rulings or their qualifications. Why?”

Expectedly, her sister  got mad at me. But then my wife stood up and said to her sister, “look, just because something exists doesn’t mean we need to defend it. Sometimes the truth is what it is, and it isn’t always right.”

The purpose of this website and blog, as I see it, is to initiate complicated dialogues in order to better understand each other’s worldviews. The purpose is not to prove that you’re smarter or more right than anyone else. Talk about what you believe, while accepting what someone else believes. But do it without insulting or denigrating anybody with a different viewpoint.

So, without getting mad, what is your opinion about the question I raised to my wife and her sister? Do you find it offensive, truthful, or both? There is no right or wrong answer. But what your answer will do is help fulfill the purpose of this blog, which is to introduce different worldviews, while always remembering that none of us is right or wrong. We just are who we are.

About the author

Ethan Lazuk

Born in Montana in 1989, I attended high school in Phoenix, Arizona, and college at Northern Arizona University and The University of Connecticut, before finally coming to The University of Montana, from which I recently earned a Bachelor's degree in Central and Southwest Asian Studies. I currently live in Washington D.C.


Although American English is my first language, I also have an intermediate/advanced knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic, with some Lebanese and Gulf vocabulary, as well as a basic knowledge of Farsi-Persian. My academic areas of interest include Cultural Anthropology, Islamic Studies, and Environmental and Human Geography. While my research interests include pre-Islamic religions and socio-political structures from the Middle Eastern and Central Asian regions; the formative years of Islam and the subsequent developments of alternative interpretations, or madhabs; intra-communal and inter-religious relationships in a pre-colonial context; the effects of colonial encounters on indigenous community structures and socio-religious ideologies; Orientalist versus indigenous historical narratives and interpretations; and political Islam and modern-day social movements, especially in response to Western foreign policy. In 2010, I was a summer intern with the Department of Defense, working on Ft. McNair Army Base in the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. Additionally, I have traveled in Istanbul, Turkey, and lived for three months in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.


I am a third-generation American of Polish descent. My great-grandparents fled Eastern Europe during the Bolshevik Revolution and entered the United States through Ellis Island. Today, my parents and sister live in Colorado, where they are surrounded by the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I am also happily married to the love of my life named Dania. Originally from al-Madinah, Saudi Arabia, she came to the United States two years ago as an exchange student. She is a practicing Muslim. But I am a searcher who finds beauty in all religions, and therefore I do not belong to any one religion in particular. But her and I having different religious beliefs has not negatively affected our marriage. In fact, it has brought us closer together. We respectfully embrace our differences, while cherishing our infinite similarities. If being in an inter-faith marriage has taught me one thing, it is that religious differences are not a cause for division, but for collaboration.

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