The definition of a Muslim is an individual in a “state of peace” and/or “a state of submission to Allah” and it is not necessary for an Arab to be a Muslim or a Muslim to be an Arab. As Edward Said has said, America has little experience with Muslims, unlike Europeans who have had colonies in Muslim countries and large Muslim populations in their cities. The lack of exposure of real and peaceful Islam to America has caused Americans to be largely ignorant of Islam. Most of the exposure that westerners get of Muslims and Arabs lies within Hollywood films, where there is no classification or representation of the diversity of the middle east. Arabs and Muslims are seen as the same thing, and films often neglect to show the Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Atheists Arabs that have lived peacefully side by side with Muslims for decades, and if they …show more content…
Although the documentary of “Reel Bad Arabs” does a phenomenal job of pointing out how the western silver screen has dehumanized and villainized Arabs and Muslims, it has failed to show that within the Arab and Muslim world there exists a world just as modern as the Western and European countries. It’s often forgotten that we do have some of the world’s largest shopping malls, tallest buildings, beaches, five star restaurants and hotels, High speed Internet, nice homes, and everything that you could find in a western
Argo, a movie about the Iran-American conflict of 1979, is primarily set in the Middle East where all the inhabitants are wrongly depicted as full of mindless rage, screaming, irrational, and reasonless mobs. In 1891, French economist and journalist, Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, stated about the colonies of the Orient “a great part of the world is inhabited by barbarian tribes or savages, some given over to wars without end and to brutal customs, and others knowing so little of the arts and being so little accustomed to work and to invention that they do not know how to exploit their land and its natural riches. They live in little groups, impoverished and scattered.” Argo having strikingly similar depictions of Eastern people over a hundred years later raises the question “has the Western perspective of the East changed?”
Race and religion are two concepts in American culture that can really tie people together, or clearly separate them apart. A group forged by strong common roots in both race and religion can be a powerful societal force, if it wants to be. The Nation of Islam is a small but growing religion in America that has become somewhat of a social movement because of its strong and radical ideas on race. In this paper, I will try to explore the beliefs of the Nation of Islam, and the ramifications it could and has had on racial relations in America. The Nation of Islam, or NOI, is a relatively new religion. The first temple of Islam was established in Detroit by Master Fard Muhammed in 1930. Much of the theology was based on the simple facts that: "Allah is god, the white man is the devil, and the so-called Negroes are the Asiatic black people, the cream of the earth."(1) And, in accordance with their bizarre view of creation, involving a mad scientist creating the white race from the black race, the twentieth century represents the time for black people to regain their rightful position as god¹s chosen people. (1) The Nation of Islam was spawned from Orthodox Islam, an age-old religion. However, Orthodox Islam has openly denounced the NOI as a heretic sect for three main reasons: the NOI¹s rejection of the belief in an afterlife, its tendency to view human leaders as deified figures, and its strong racist attitudes. (2) For a brief time, during the seventies, Wallace Deen Muhammed became the leader of the NOI and tried to take it in a new direction, more conforming to "true Islamic beliefs." This group is now called the American Muslim Mission and still exists in small numbers today. (1) ...
This study examines stereotyping of Arab Muslims in the New York Times for the past forty years. Theorists suggest that stereotyping of a minority group effects the public's opinion of that group. Other communication media theorists say that only under extreme conditions will the negative stereotypes reflect the publics' opinions of the portrayed minority group. The parallel theory between propaganda and stereotyping by the mass media is examined. Theorists including Thomson, (1977) & Myers, (1992), related to mass media effects strongly agree claiming that repetitive and non-contradictive images in the media are an effective form of propaganda. The research samples are random article reviews of the New York Times for the past forty years. Using every fifth year and 2 random numbers ranging from 1 to 12 is used to select an article search date. Islam was the search term. The Gudykunst & Kim( ? ) method of analyzing a stereotype is used to evaluate the 8 New York Times articles. The results indicate 95% of the articles were "vague," labeling entire group rather than individual. Out of the total 100%, 70% of the article used unfavorable trait characteristic labeling.
According to Amin Maalouf, “It seems clear that the Arab East still sees the West as a natural enemy. Against that enemy, any hostile action-be it political, military, or based on oil-is considered no more than legitimate vengeance. And there can be no doubt that the schism between these two worlds dates from the Crusades, deeply felt by the Arabs, even today, as an act of rape” (Amin Maalouf). When reflecting on The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, this quote always sticks out as the most powerful piece of Maalouf’s work. As a growing college student this quote brings harsh reality to the world I live in. I believe as you grow through life, you become more and more aware of the world around you through education. In order to be aware you must be educated; The Crusades Through Arab Eyes has done just that by opening my eyes to a world and viewpoint I have never before considered.
Through our readings of the Mexicans in the U.S. and the African-American experience modules, we begin to understand the formation of identity through the hardships minorities faced from discrimination. In this paper, I am going to compare and contrast the ideas of identity shown through the readings. These two modules exemplify the theme of identity. We see how Blacks and Latinos tried to find their identity both personally and as a culture through the forced lifestyles they had to live.
Shaheen, Jack. “The Media’s Image of Arabs.” Writing on the River. 3rd ed. Boston: McGraw,
“To say pan-Arabism is ‘dead’ would be inaccurate- because it was never ‘alive,’ in any meaningful sense, in the first place.” Assess viewpoints for and against this argument, with special reference to at least one appropriate country.
Propaganda produced in the Arab world against the United States and the Western world, alongside the incitement and propaganda aimed against Israel, the Zionist movement and the Jewish people. Among those participating in the anti-American incitement and propaganda are Arab regimes, as well as the media and the education systems throughout the various Arab countries. This mechanism of incitement and propaganda reflects to a large extent the actual "mood" of hostility towards the United States and the entire Western world, prevalent within the Arab and Muslim society. Feelings of hostility are cultivated by terrorism-supporting countries with explicitly anti-American policies, such as Syria and Iran, as well as by Islamic movements, left-wing organizations and various "popular fronts". The more Western-oriented Arab countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan generally tolerate the existence of the incitement and propaganda system, though they at times attempt to limit its impact, lest it should affect their relations with the United States (Ayubi, Nazih, 1999). With the emergence of Islam in the seventh century, conflict immediately emerged between Muslims and Christians. Both religions had periods where its followers were inspired with a mood of hatred and violence (Spencer, H, 1998). Therefore, this hatred led to the rejection of Western civilization, since the West was evil and Westerners were enemies of God. God had enemies and needed human help in order to overthrow them. This was the dualism, which was inherent in Islam. Most people in the United States and more generally in the Western world find it impossible to understand the motives and purposes that drove the perpetrators of these crimes, those who sent them and ...
The United States of America: once a small colony, now one of the world’s most powerful nations; a nation that has been fraught with wars, protests and continuous conflicts between religion and state. This essay will investigate the relationship between the religion and state, discuss the states declaration’s about this relationship and the practice of these declarations. Americans, after the September 11 attacks, have marginalised the Muslim community, which is largely due to their Christian origins and misinterpretations of Islam.
There is little need to reiterate the long history of U.S. governments going wherever they have wanted and doing whatever they have wanted. The question is how Muslims navigate through the political and economic architectures that ensue. Certainly, Islam has long valued extending itself throughout the world. Travel is primarily a modality for accumulating knowledge, acting on the desire to know, and then, only secondarily, is that knowledge used as a means of imbricating the "presentation" of Islam within heterogeneous settings. The historical challenge for Islamic missions, armies, scholars, traders, and sojourners was how to maintain the coherence of the faith in foreign spaces simultaneously considered within and outside of the Islamic world.
The media has been known to portray or show many “Muslims” as terrorists, and several times they fail to show the peaceful Muslims. Furthermore, the media affects the perception of many Americans, and when they portray Muslims as scary and dangerous people, this causes many stereotypes to form. This in turn, makes it common for people to accept and believe in the various stereotypes of Muslims. Also, countless Muslims are ethnically profiled based on their religious appearance. To be more specific, numerous Muslims are stereotyped due to their long beards and cultural robes. Stereotypes, such as these, are affected by the descriptions of other notorious terrorists, such as Osama Bin Laden, who was well known for his long beard. Additionally, a number of people have become irrational and unreasonable when it comes to preventing Muslims to affect America, such as many protests “to ban Sharia law in any American court” (Azlan). Sharia is basically the law of an Islamic government, and the protest is illogical, since Sharia law has never been practiced in any American court and there is no indication, that there will be (Azlan). Many of these labels are unfair, and the media unjustly portrays and connects innocent American Muslims to terrorists which is
The omnipresence of the American and European culture in the countries of the Middle East is a universally recognized phenomenon. The culture, thoughts and status quo of the people have been and continually are being changed and challenged due the mass spread of American goods and ideas. The American national culture largely revolves around the wants, needs and goals of the individual. As the one of the greatest superpowers of the time, its influence on the global community towards the focus on the individual is nothing short of inevitable. The movies, clothing and new age mentality of America are sending all people regardless of age, upbringing and locale, into a grand scale social transition. The Arabs and Muslims beliefs, traditions and entire state of being are no longer as they were 20 or 30 years ago. The women of the novels, Nadia, Fatima, Umm Saad, Maha, Asya, and Su’ad, each living in various Arab countries with unique situations of their own, all are united on the common ground of American introduced idea and concepts of individualism through such venues as feminism, capitalism, sexism and consumerism which adversely affect their society.
Orientalism as termed by Edward Said is meant to create awareness of a constellation of assumptions that are flawed and underlying Western attitudes towards the Muslim societies. Evidence from his 1978 book “Orientalism”, states that the culture has been of influence and marred with controversy in post colonial studies and other fields of study. Moreover, the scholarship is surrounded by somehow persistent and otherwise subtle prejudice of Eurocentric nature, which is against Islam religion and culture (Windschuttle, 1999). In his book, Said illustrates through arguments, that the long tradition in existence containing romanticized images of Islamic stronghold regions i.e. Middle East, and the Western culture have for a long time served as implicit justifications for the European and American Imperial ambitions. In light of this, Said denounced the practice of influential Arabs who contributed to the internalization of Arabic culture ideas by US and British orientalists. Thus, his hypothesis that Western scholarship on Muslim was historically flawed and essentially continues to misrepresent the reality of Muslim people. In lieu to this, Said quotes that, “So far as the United States seems to be concerned, it is only a slight overstatement to say that Muslims and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential terrorists. Therefore, very few details such as human density, the passion of Arab-Muslim life has entered the awareness of even the people whose profession revolve around reporting of the Arab world. Due to this, we have instead a series of crude, essentialized caricatures of the Islamic world presented in such a way as to make that world vulnerable to military aggression” (Said, 1980).
The two largest religions in the world, Christianity and Islam, were implemented by two of religions most powerful leaders, Jesus and Muhammad. Without question, both Jesus and Muhammad have affected humanity powerfully. As religious leaders both men laid down the principles upon which Christianity and Islam are founded yet today. However, while Jesus performed miracles and arose from the dead, thus proving to his followers he was God, Muhammad performed no such feats, and made no such claims. In fact, Muhammad’s only claim was that he was the last prophet sent from God.
The rise of terrorism and extremism in the Middle East during the time this piece was composed prompted Mohi-Ud Din to engage in a passionate argument about how these terrorists have ruined the image of Muslims. He explicitly highlights the main points of his argument by using transitional words such as firstly, secondly, and thirdly. He initiates his argument by proposing that the media’s one-sided focus on Muslim extremists prevent the viewers from recognizing that the majority of Muslims are not violent. Next, he debunks the stereotypes Americans have about Muslims and then he shifts his concern to how America’s political and military actions have exploited Muslim countries. He concludes his argument by explaining why Islam is not a threat to