Combating Muslim stereotypes
Friday, April 26, 2013
Here’s how to combat Muslim stereotyping
From page A11 | April 25, 2013 | 2 Comments
Heather Ah San’s articles in the Daily Republic this week about the Solano County Islamic Center’s Al-Iman Islamic School and the school’s students’ reactions to the Boston Marathon bombings garnered some predictable responses on the paper’s website.
One respondent questioned the need for an Islamic school in the United States, while another compared it to a wasp’s nest that, presumably, should be destroyed.
While those responses may seem extreme, I’ve no doubt they probably speak for a large number of Solano County residents and Americans as a whole. After all, according to a poll last year by the Arab American Institute, Americans have a 41 percent favorable view of Muslims and a 40 percent unfavorable view.
I’ve always had a positive view of Islam, having come across the religion reading Alex Haley’s “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” It helped that my cousin Mustafa Ali was an Imam. Mustafa and I went to see Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” movie and throughout the Mecca scenes, he was explaining various parts of the religion to me. Shortly after that I had the pleasure of meeting and briefly chatting with Malcolm X’s widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz, at Solano College. So Islam has always been a wonderful, positive religion to me.
But I know for many, if not most, Americans their unfortunate introduction to Islam was through terrorism.
And it’s an odd juxtaposition that every time there is a violent act by a radicalized Islamic terrorist, it’s almost always followed by some U.S. government official proclaiming that Islam is a religion of peace. No wonder Americans are split on this.
For attitudes to really change on Islam and Muslims, two things have to happen. First, moderate Muslims need to become more vocal. The loudest Muslim voices need to be voices that condemn the radical minority.
One of the best things that happened in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings was the bombing suspects’ uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, giving a press conference condemning the bombings, while calling out his own nephews as “losers,” unable to settle themselves and love their adopted country as he did. That kind of full-throated denunciation is what Americans want to hear from the silent majority of Muslims, who disagree with their religion being misused in this way.
Local Muslim student Abdul Hassan was quoted as saying, “I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain myself. (The bombers) are not my people (just) because they are Muslim.”
As a black man, I understand that sentiment. When I was younger, I had to deal with people assuming that my friends and I were up to no good. I didn’t feel that I should have to prove I wasn’t a gangster or thug, but the reality is if I wanted people to not see me as a stereotype I had to show them something different.
A new Arizona State University study in the journal Psychological Science shows that stigmatized groups generally go out of their way to counteract stereotypes. It’s sad that we have to do that, but it helps to break down those attitudes.
That brings us to the second thing that has to happen.
We need to have more Muslim friends. The fastest way to change racial attitudes has been interracial friendships. The same is true of gays. The more people interact with folks who are different than they are, the more tolerant people become.
When a majority of folks have Islamic friends or relatives then the stereotypes will fade away. Peace.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES: I see a lot of people on Facebook posting something like, "Muslims view 'Islamic' terrorists the way Christians view the Westboro Baptist Church." Polls like the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project bear out that in Muslim countries Al-Qaeda is viewed negatively by an overwhelming majority of the populations. 55% negative in Pakistan. 71% unfavorable in Egypt. 77% in Jordan. In Lebanon it's 98%.
That's not to say that these countries like the U.S. But most Muslims do not condone violence. Unfortunately for most Americans, we're only familiar with Islam through terrorism. That will change the more rank and file Muslims speak out against terror and the more Islam becomes mainstream. The more we know people who practice the religion and see that they're no different than you or I, the more we may be willing to see that these terrorists are using the religion to justify their actions.
For me personally, it doesn't matter why evil people do evil things. When the Boston bombings happened, I saw a lot of people speculating whether it was foreign or domestic. The victims certainly don't give a shit. Humans have always used whatever they could to justify their actions. Whether it was religion, a political ideology, greed, or whatever.
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