Earlier this week, I watched a show called 30 Days. The show is made by someone named Morgan Spurlock. He put himself or other people, in an unfamiliar situation for 30 days to experience life from a difference perspective. The show that I saw was called Muslim for 30 days where a christian family man went to live with a Muslim family. Before he left for the airport, he had to dress like a Muslim man and follow every aspect of the culture including growing a beard and studying the Koran daily. He experienced discrimination starting at the airport where he was stopped and searched and had to endure constant stares during the whole experiment.
while watching this show, I realized that Americans have a lot of misconceptions about the Muslim culture. Some Americans have this preconceived notion that all Muslims are violent and hateful but that is far from the truth. In fact, the Muslim faith is based on five pillars which are: Faith, Prayer, Fasting, Pilgrim to Mecca and Charity. The terrorists that they are often associated with are only a small percentage of Muslims whose actions are not at all condoned by the majority.
I think it is both sad and wrong that it has somehow become ok in this country, for people of Middle Eastern decent to be prosecuted. Some Americans justify this behavior by using the unfortunate events of 9/11. Hitler along with his Army, persecuted Jews and killed hundreds of thousands of them. African Americans were used as slaved, lynched and discriminated against by White people for many years. Jews and African Americans realized that the unspeakable acts of the few are not a reflection of the race as a whole so why can't Americans do the same?
The aspect of religion has also been brought into the picture because the terrorist claim to do it in the name of Allah. There have been several people in the United States in the past that have killed supposedly in the name of religion. Saying that god told them to do it. In those instances, people saw the perpetrators as crazy and would never think to persecute all Christians because of it.
The fact of the matter is that we don't choose where we are born or what people from our country do. People should think a little more for themselves and think about how their actions effect others.
Great blog, i agree with you this mass stereotype is unacceptable and wouldn't be tolerated in any other people. We should see each person and individuals and judge them as such. Each person should be held accountable for there actions. Do we label all Catholics as pedophile because several priest took advantage of their children. No, same should apply for others.
ReplyDeleteiam kind of used to this type of discriminations. everytime i walked into the ariport, i always got the random security checks. one time i was searched 3 times while i was at the airport. the funny thing is that i didnt even have a beard. but i guess i looked suspicious somehow. from the 9/11 attack, the world see's all middle easterns as terrorists, and from that time i've been called terrorist by other kids at school, so i guess you get used to it, i know i did.
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