Ever since Sept. 11, the pendulum has swung. For the Muslim and Arab communities, it has become "guilty until proven innocent," with many casualties along the way. In recent years, the entire Muslim and Arab communities have been blamed because of the acts committed by just a small group of individuals.
The increased hate crimes toward members of these communities is an unsettling indication of the fear and mistrust that has been specifically directed. Why do members of these communities have to live with the fear of being harassed or ostracized?
The media adamantly points out the religion or race of any criminal if he happens to be Muslim or Arab. They have acquired such a flair for vilifying Muslims and Arabs that they can take any related event and present it in a negative light. This has led to the creation of the image of Muslims and Arabs as hateful and "backward" groups of people, many of whom have been labeled as "terrorists."
All of a sudden one's religion or ethnicity is perceived as the cause of one's criminal actions. The one-sidedness and lack of completeness in media coverage is a large contributor to the growing misperceptions of Islam.
If many members of these communities within the United States are citizens, why are they not protected by this privilege? In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, members of the white community at large were not watched, held under constant suspicion and ostracized to the outer reaches of society. Why is there such a contradiction?
The lack of distinction between Muslims and Arabs is perhaps one of the largest misconceptions that exists. For whatever reasons, the two have been dubbed as one and the same. This is far from accurate; most Muslims are in fact not of Arab origin, and in addition to this, many Arabs are not Muslim, but Christian or Jewish.
Nonetheless, the forging of this connection in peoples' minds forces the stereotyping of both those of the Islamic faith and those of Arab ethnicity.
People who are perceived as being Muslim or Arab have been affected by the stereotypes as well. Sikhs, who practice a separate religion that involves the wearing of turbans, have also been forced to deal with targeting and the stereotypical assumption that they are involved in a terrorist activity. This wrongful targeting further indicates that these are victims of fear and not perpetrators of any actual crime.
In addition, society's
tendency to focus on the few who portray a distorted and corrupted version of Islam adds to the lack of understanding the nature of the true religion as separate from the actions of a few individuals. The majority of Muslims are rather moderate, and many strive for positive contributions to society. Just like any other religion, Islam preaches peace, tolerance, understanding and compassion, both among Muslims and between Muslims and people of other faiths. Hatred, prejudice, ignorance and indifference were never part of the Islamic doctrine.
Religious extremism exists in all religions, as evidenced by witch hunts, the Inquisition and the Crusades. Within Islam, religion is distorted to such an extent that it affects the entire community, the majority of those whom believe in peace. It is unfortunate that there are people who commit horrendous acts in the name of Islam. However, assuming that the rest of the Muslim population is the same only blackens the image of Muslims across the globe.
This is not the first time in American history that a community within the United States has suffered from misperceptions and fear. During World War II, over 120,000 Japanese-Americans, close to 60 percent of whom were U.S. citizens, were rounded up and placed into internment camps for the duration of the war. An official acknowledgement of a mistake was not made by the government until 1988, over 40 years later. Should fear be allowed to justify the violation of civil rights?
There are many parallels that can be drawn between Japanese internment and post-Sept. 11 targeting, in terms of community-wide suspicion as a justification for attacks toward the communities through a variety of subtle and overt means. For example, should suspicion of Muslim extremism warrant the right to detain individuals without actual evidence, as in the case of Guantanamo Bay?
Guantanamo Muslim Chaplain James Yee was accused of spying, espionage and aiding terrorists resulting in his imprisonment for 76 days. Months of investigation resulted in the full acquittal of all charges and his release.
Are we truly to believe that there was no inherent bias within his case as only an example of many more?
In terms of freedom, why do some have the privilege of living lives free from the fear of harassment while many do not? Should what some consider to be exercising rights and freedoms be just if they take away the freedom of others to live without being held under constant suspicion?
This leads to the question of whether offensive material should be printed if it is used to silence, wound and degrade entire communities. The most recent example is that of the Danish cartoons that have opened up the door to even greater controversy. Many fail to understand that the depiction of the Prophet is strictly prohibited in Islam out of reverence for him. Thus when the cartoons were printed, not only was it offensive because it depicted the Prophet, but more so because it depicted him in such a negative way.
We challenge everyone to increase their consciousness of these crucial issues along with their historical contexts, the constructions of race and the repercussions of religious stereotyping.
