Here is a story about an interesting experiment. A professor took a few of his students on a journey across the United States in order to better understand how people react to Muslims, members of the world's second largest religious group.
"Muslim in America: A Voyage of Discovery"
A couple of things stand out from this story.
First, even in small towns the film crew dressed as Muslims were largely treated with detached respect or perhaps benign indifference. According to survey data, many people they encountered had negative thoughts about Muslims, but they didn't seem to let on that they held antipathy toward them.
"Recent national polls find that four in ten Americans have an unfavorable view of Islam, five in ten believe Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence, and six in ten believe Islam is very different from their own religion. All this despite the fact that seven in ten admit they know very little about Islam. And yet Americans rank Muslims second only to atheists as a group that doesn’t share their vision of American society."
Second, for as much as Islam is in the news these days, and has been in the news for the past eight years, people don't seem to know much about the religion. Nobody should be surprised by this--and yet I continue to feel my head shake back and forth in wonderment. (Keep in mind that half of all Americans cannot name the U.S. Vice President at any one moment because, as one might imagine, it's not an easy thing to keep track of between episodes of the Real World and American Idol...and searching out good deals at Wal*Mart.) Nevertheless, I'd like to think that people would put a modicum of attention into some basic elements of a religion that is followed by nearly a quarter of the world's population.
So what do you think about both this project and how they were treated?
Click HERE to watch an interesting video of the crew visiting in Arab, Alabama.
89 comments:
First and foremost, I would like to commend Professor Akbar Ahmed and his young team for the bravery and courage it required to embark on such an important and enlightening, yet equally dangerous and potentially harmful, journey through America’s heartland. Perhaps I am pessimistic or I am realistic, perhaps I have little faith in Americans (in general) or I have simply heard and read too many horror stories about racial discrimination and hate crimes (in particular), but the findings from this groundbreaking social experiment were incredibly startling to me and – I am fairly certain – many others with a similar background. To someone from a big city or a bustling suburb just outside of a city, it may be difficult to predict the outcome of this experiment because you are used to living amongst people of different races. However, I was born and lived my entire life in central Pennsylvania, which is whiter than a glass of milk on a paper plate in a snow storm (as my dad often says). I mean, I live in an area where we refer to the Amish when we talk about diversity. To me, I could not fathom the idea of Muslims infiltrating my community’s “white bubble” or “white comfort zone” without some rough patches, which is sad but honest. Having said that, I, honestly, thought this story was going to be riddled with a laundry list of anecdotal evidence pointing to the ugly, yet nevertheless real and undeniable, truth that Americans hold nothing but contempt and hostility toward other racial groups, especially Muslims. I (and, once again, many others I am sure) was fully expecting to read about instances of an overwhelming and persistent unwillingness to accept those from a different race, as well as verbal abuse and – God forbid – physical abuse. After all, it is not as if Professor Ahmed and his students were heading to New York City or San Francisco – or any other “melting pot” cities known for diversity and inhabited by people who are accustom to seeing, meeting, living, and working with people of all types of different backgrounds and religions and races – in search of racial acceptance. That type of experiment would have been both predictable and unnecessary. No, Professor Ahmed traipsed into the Red States, where acceptance and diversity are not often associated with each other (or at least they were not in the past). As Hailey Woldt, one of his students, put it when she entered a restaurant, “I thought I wouldn’t even be served.” I thought that was going to be the least of her problems. Yet, both Hailey and I were pleasantly surprised to find perceived animosity replaced by actual acceptance. Now, the results of this experiment are encouraging in any context. But when you consider both how Muslims have been portrayed by the media and how Muslims have been viewed by the public since September 11, the results are almost unbelievable. I am not naïve enough to believe that Muslims are accepted throughout the country. Yet, I imagine – and hope – that acceptance can be more widespread in the future if the media took a proactive approach to educating Americans about Muslims, as well as other topics so prevalent in the news but so misunderstood the majority of the country.
It is unfortunate, but a large portion of the United States populace lives in ignorance of political and cultural events. What causes this? Many simply believe that the issues do not apply directly to them. For instance, the Vice President may seem detached and figurehead-esque to many poor individuals, so why should they care what his name is? I consider myself an educated person, or at least a person in the process of being educated, however my politician and worldly knowledge is decidedly lacking. I too feel that I have more personal matters that need attending to, matters that trump being up-to-date on political news.
In response to the recent blog, I applaud the attempts being made by Akbar Ahmed. Equality comes through knowing another. One cannot be on equal footing if the other has not come to know their culture firsthand. All too often foreign cultures are dismissed without an individual taking the time to actually get to know it!
As we all know, the Islamic world has been under quite a bit of fire lately. However, Akbar and his students are doing their part to bridge the gap. Knowledge is key; men and women of the Islamic faith must present information to skeptics in order to assuage their doubts on the culture’s people. There will certainly be some degree of animosity, but that is to be expected on the path to change. To be honest, I did not find the reactions by the citizens to be surprising. They many have not exhibited it openly, but I feel that there is a fair amount of dissention still present towards the Muslim race. For example, take the completely ignorant question that a woman asked regarding a Muslim’s love for their child. The question alone paints the Muslim into a negative light? With people like that still out there, the work of Ahmed must continue.
Having had family in New York City during 9/11, I viewed Muslims with a fair amount of trepidation for quite some time. It is very easy for a sixth grader to lump a culture into one category, which in this case were terrorists. I had a skewed view, and with so much media propaganda espousing information on these terrorists, it was easy to continue. As I grew older and entered High School my view began to change…through knowledge. As I came to learn about the Muslim Faith and Arab people as a whole, it became obvious that the majority were peace-loving people, who indeed loved their children! Unfortunately, many individuals remain within the “uneducated” mindset. I use that term not to connote intelligence but the inability to educate oneself to other cultures. One must learn first prior to making judgment, and Ahmed Akbar and his students are accomplishing that for many people, one person at a time.
I believe what Akbar Ahmed and his students did was not only a great experiment, but also a great service to the people of the United States. How else are we to see how we act as a nation? I couldn’t imagine taking such a trip. Traveling across the country and pretending to be Muslim would be like traveling across the country in someone else’s skin. Traveling to new places can be challenging enough without expecting to be unwelcomed when you get there. I applaud Ahmed for his bold idea and his audacity to implement it. I also applaud the students for their commitment and courage required to take this journey.
That said, I did not expect the outcome that I later came across. Many of these posts have been shocking to me, but in a negative way. I always seem to underestimate the human ability to hate and discriminate. However, this time, I underestimated the human ability to accept. I assumed these students would run into hateful words, angry glances, and possibly threats of violence. Instead, I hear that they run into what I am accustomed to seeing – fair treatment. Although I have never seen a Muslim treated unfairly, I acknowledge that I am from a very sheltered area and have not seen much of what goes on in the world. But in this case, apparently, what I have seen is mostly what goes on – good news. I am aware that certain people have certain beliefs, but I am glad they did not voice such opinions if they had them.
So why do I believe so many people have skewed opinions of Muslims? First off, I believe that earlier generations were not educated very well on different groups of people all over the world. Years ago, we were not such a globalized world and learning about other cultures was not such a pressing issue. Second, this is a relatively new war that we have entered. Most people only receive their news on this war and the people involved in it, through the media. When I was in middle school, I used to get my news only through the media. I saw a people full of hate, uneducated and violent. I did not know what the newscasters meant when they said Muslim or Islam; I just knew those were the people who were trying to harm us. I did not think the people in the United States who dressed like Muslims were actually Muslim because they were educated and they weren’t violent – a child’s view of matters. It did not help matters that the news seemed to go over my head. With talks of the countries and ethnic groups that I had never heard of, I did not understand their purpose or problems, I just associated the names with the negative connotation that the media gave them.
However, when I went to high school I learned what the words Islam, Muslim and Arab meant. I watched videos on the peoples of the Middle East and saw people not so different from me. In college I attended lectures and have made friends with students from the Middle East. One day, not too long ago my grandfather said to me, “You know it’s only a small majority of them that are like that (violent). I just watched a program on it.” He was so proud of himself, as if he finally knew the truth. It was then that I realized that most people didn’t know what I did. They weren’t going back to school or attending lectures or watching videos on the truth about Muslims. They were rushing around trying to get things done and watching the news every now and again in order to find out what is going on around the world. The news media – not the best place to get all your information, but it can be the quickest way. If everyone took the time out (and had the time) to understand, find and see both sides of the stories we hear, maybe we would not have some of the ill thoughts that we harbor today.
The honest truth is that the majority of the United States is very ignorant to other cultures and its own political events. By not knowing about other cultures we let stereotypes run free in out minds and pass them on to others around us. Grandparents passed it on to our parents who passed it on to us. Hopefully other experiments like Akbar Ahmed’s will continue to try and open up the eyes of Americans. It was very brave of Professor Ahmed and his team to embark on such a journey.
Experiments like this is really the best way to open peoples eyes to what they are missing. During my high school years, I lived very close to New York City. Therefore, I have always been very used to people of many different backgrounds. In my early childhood I lived in Atlanta, GA and many towns in Texas. I was too young to see the ignorance people had down there to other cultures, but upon visiting old friends it becomes all too clear.
In a lot of cases its not even like the people are racist toward groups like Muslims. They simply have no education on the subject and they let they superficial views overpower any common knowledge they have. For example, the lady that asked if Muslims loved their children, that is just crazy to me. She asked with teary eyes and truly had no idea. To me that is sad. Many Americans, when they don’t know about a group immediately become hostile toward them, especially Muslims.
When I first started reading this article, I thought for sure that more violence (physical and verbal) was going to be an inevitable outcome. They were venturing not into the diverse New York City, but into Alabama. In these not so diverse states acceptance of others is not often a commonplace. One of the students, Hailey Woldt, didn’t even think the people they were around would have the decency to serve her. That is not something that people should be okay with.
Through experiments like this, Americans are having their eyes necessarily opened, but I do not think that it will affect as many people as it should. There are many misunderstandings that we have about them and they have about us and I for one think it is important that we get along with ¼ of the worlds population! After September 11 I will admit to have had a skewed view on Muslims, I was in 7th grade and I let what others were saying affect me. Upon growing up I learned a lot and my views greatly changed. I didn’t have an “awakening” moment I just did the research I felt needed to be done.
Making assumptions about people and places before you have taken the time investigate is silly and ignorant. If we want to make progress with out foreign affairs we all need to do a little understanding of others lifestyles. Majority of people don’t know the basics that they should, and its not like they are jumping off their couch to go get educated on the information. Most of the information they know they got from watching the nightly news, which is a very biased way to get your information. If people would take a few extra minutes then many of the stereotypes embedded into our minds would start to lift.
I suppose I don’t fully understand the project that Professor Ahmed and his students undertook because I don’t really see the point. What were they trying to accomplish exactly, or what were they expecting to find? I would think that traveling to a small town such as Arab, Alabama they wouldn’t find many people who showed any outward aggression or resentment towards Muslims. That’s not to say that they didn’t feel unease, I am almost certain that at least a handful of people felt a grip of fear upon seeing the young woman dressed in traditional Muslim attire, but that only speaks to the ignorance of millions of Americans have towards the Muslim religion that Sam mentioned in the blog. After 9/11 whatever suspicions people may have had towards people of Middle Eastern descent increased 100 fold and those who had no previous misgivings very quickly developed them. As someone who doesn’t know much about the Muslim religion myself, I can say that although I would love to learn more about it, I don’t even know where to start, and I think a lot of people can relate to that. Another reason for people’s prolonged ignorance, despite the increasing population of Muslims, is rooted in fear. After 9/11 it makes sense to me that a large number of people are still paralyzed with fear and are not willing to step into the shows of anyone who has connection to terrorism, even if on the surface. After being in lecture, I can say that my eyes have been opened to the similarities that Muslims share with Christians and Jews alike, despite religion. However, had I not been in lecture, I probably wouldn’t have come to that realization for a long time, simply because it’s not something that’s talked about in our culture. It is part of human nature to judge someone on appearance first and foremost simply because it is what we have been trained to notice first, how could we not? So although I may be able to separate ‘terrorists’ from ‘Muslims’, a lot of people can’t simply because of the blinders that they have on and are too afraid to take off.
So back to the project, it does not surprise me at all to find out that they weren’t beaten or even cussed out because although people may have these fears, most of them would never speak of them. Is it because of fear? I don’t know but as Sam mentioned in class, for the most part, we do get along pretty well in this country despite the racism that is so deeply rooted in our psyches. Even if professor Ahmed were to take these students into a more urban environment, where hostility is more of a natural (though certainly not ‘normal’) tendency, I can’t imagine they would be face much outward aggression. That’s not to say that there aren’t those individuals who may, every group has their extremists, but the vast majority would not speak of their suspicions, fears, anger, etc. But hey this is just me sitting here with my own blinders on…
The “Muslim in America,” piece was very interesting. The first thing that stood out was that the crew was not treated negatively, but was ignored. I think this is fascinating and can be compared to when we talk about whites reactions to blacks when discussing racism. Whites saying things like the fact that they don’t see color and racism no longer takes place when in fact we know this is not true, we are human and it is in fact ignorant to think that we ignore color. If we see a person of color and are asked later what color were they? You don’t say, I didn’t notice. It’s natural to notice. But whites don’t want to notice because they feel that they will appear racist if in fact they do notice. I think this parallels the “Muslims in America” piece and a point that the crew was trying to make. I think the reason why the crew was ignored was because of the ignorance of most Americas of the Muslim religion. Muslims on a basic level are attached to a negative stereotype in the minds of Americans because the attacks that drew attention to the area and the religion. With time we think that perceptions of Arabs and Muslims have settled and most Americans now know that it is not the Arabs in general that were responsible for the events, but deep down I still think they hold that connection even though they know they shouldn’t. So instead of reacting and seeming to be racist they ignore in hopes not to look like one when in fact this is a reaction in itself. Ignoring the crew shows that they are more threatened by them then okay with them. The antidote about the woman whose mouth dropped after seeing Hailey Woldt in a traditional Muslim scarf that then after smiled was interesting. Hailey then felt better. But I see the fact that the lady then smiled as an over-reaction in the other way. Feeling the need to accept the woman even though she had not done so at first. I am torn with whether this is racist or not. Her jaw dropping reaction was racist, but then she changed her reaction. Is this because her thoughts changed or because she felt she needed to change her reactions as to not appear racist? Or does it even matter? Does the intention to change a reaction overcompensate for initial thoughts? I don’t know. Overall, I do agree with the fact that our country knows so much useless information over educational content. For instance, I love reality TV and watch it when I get the chance rather then the news. Why is this? Again I am not sure. Why is it as Americans we don’t feel the need to learn about other countries and practices? I know my general knowledge about the middle-east is lacking and isn’t the easiest way to combat the uneasiness about other countries and religions to become educated on them?
Muslim in America is truly an interesting idea for a documentary. Reading the article and watching the short video clip from Arab, Alabama reminded me once again that most Americans are uneducated when it comes to the Islam religion. Personally, I know very little about the religion, just as I know very little about the religion that I am confirmed in: Catholicism. Although I find religion to be interesting, it has never been something that I have been curious enough about to look into it and study the differences amongst religions.
This project further proves that Americans may not necessarily be hostile or prejudiced towards other people from differing backgrounds, but simply curious about their upbringing. I think that religion is something that should be taught at a basic level to elementary or middle school students so that they learn a basic understanding for the differences amongst the main religions from a young age before there has been too much instilled from others.
It’s interesting because my family is Christian, but after my brother’s drug addiction, he decided that he liked the discipline and the values behind Islam better. So since he has become sober, he has started practicing Islam. This did not come as an outright shock to me because he always seems to be willing to try something different, and anything that helps him through his addiction is a good thing in my family’s eyes. My parents have been supportive of his decision but unfortunately I do not see him often, so I have never actually seen him practice Islam like my parents have. I’m not sure how much research he did into Islam and other religions before deciding to practice Islam, but it seems to be helping him through this difficult time for him.
I would hope that all Americans would be supportive to one another in the religion that they choose to follow. Religion is not the only thing that makes up a person, so to think that Islam is a dangerous and violent religion is absurd. As Sam demonstrated when we had the lecture on ethnocentrism, Americans could be viewed as crazy Christians who are out to steal oil from other countries without any right to it. Everything needs to be put into perspective and people everywhere need to learn to be more open and choose to educate themselves instead of jumping to conclusions based on stereotypes.
I think that this project is a phenomenal idea and should be widely publicized throughout American cities, towns and colleges. I also think that it would be beneficial if the same type of study was done with other religions so that people could compare and better understand how Americans really react to different types of people.
I am responding to the article about Muslims. I found the clip and the article interesting, but not surprising. I feel that, coming from a small town myself; a group of Arabs would be treated the same way in my town. I do not think people are consciously trying to be racist, but what they see is so different that they don’t know how to respond. For instance, I went to a high school with 700 people. I knew one Muslim girl, and she was one of my friends. Even so, I did not understand her culture very well. Technically, she was not supposed to wear any clothes that revealed much skin. Still, she played sports, so she was obligated to wear shorts as a uniform. I still do not understand why Muslims must cover up their bodies with wraps, but that is exactly Sam’s point. Why don’t we know more about the religion of Islam? We are quick to point our fingers and identify which people are Muslim and which people are anti-Christ, but we do not even understand the religion. If we did, the anti-Christ sentiment would calm down since we worship the same God in Christianity and Islam. I do not think that this trend will change though. Americans tend to complain about things that they are really not educated about. If they were educated, they would probably complain less. The fact about most Americans not being able to name the Vice President is amusing and scary. People are too busy arguing about whether or not abortion should be legal, how to bail out the car companies, and why Sarah Palin’s daughter is a whore to even realize that the Vice President is Joe Biden. Perhaps it is part of American culture to be news crazy and blind to the realities of our society. Whatever the cause, our anti- Muslim sentiment is no exception.
Another important thing to discuss is how many Americans have an unfavorable view of Islam, and how many associate Islam with violence. Obviously, terrorists attacked America on September 11, but these Muslims are not representative of the whole population. Even so, they are different from us and are easy targets. Airports take advantage of this and check Muslim looking people much more extensively than blonde, blue-eyed, light skinned people. Fair or not, this is a reality. We do not know how to separate that horrible image of a Muslim terrorist from the ordinary Muslim man just trying to get a flight. I believe that this view has extended into daily life. We see it in the media that airports are “increasing security measures” and that we are losing innocent soldiers in Iraq. Of course we are going to hate these people, even if we are over- generalizing. Therefore, this experiment is not surprising to me. It is sad, but until 9-11 is years in the past, people will associate the Islamic religion with negative images and thoughts.
I think the project Akbar Ahmed and his students did was an educational experience, but more so for his students rather than the random people they met in restaurants or on the streets. It reminded me a lot of the lecture Sam did about putting ourselves in other’s shoes and vice versa. Although Sam didn’t necessarily change my views on anything, the lecture did open my eyes and made me think. It was an educational experience. I learned something new. I’m sure Ahmed’s students learned what it felt like to be “Muslim” in America. It’s like when Tyra Banks was put in a “fat” suit. She “walked” a mile in someone else’s shoes and learned what an overweight person had to deal with in public. Maybe Tyra hasn’t changed her perception of those who are battling with obesity, but at least she had that one experience to expose her to that life since Lord knows she is one of the most revered supermodels of all time. It took her out of her comfort zone, even if for a day. One anonymous blogger stated that traveling to new places can be a challenge. New places can mean a lot of things. It can mean a new school in the same city or a new school in a different city. It can mean a new state or maybe even a new country. Anytime one is taken out of their “comfortable” environment, it is going to be difficult to adjust. Likewise, anytime someone “different” comes into YOUR “comfortable” environment, it is going to be an adjustment. It doesn’t just pertain to religions, it pertains to us all in every aspect, expect to probably Sam. If I went to Arab, Alabama, I would have even felt out of place. I felt out of place when I went to places like Philadelphia and LA, and it had nothing to do with my race or my religion! Those environments aren’t what I am used to, and I am sure it was reflective in my attitude. I understand the situation is a bit different for someone of the Muslim faith, but the concept of being the “odd man out” extends to each and every one of us at some point in our lives.
I admit, I am not a cultural person, and I doubt that I ever will be. I don’t know much about other races and religions. It really bothers me though that many bloggers credit this type of behavior because of ignorance and being uneducated. I don’t consider my friends or family uneducated just because we might not be as worldly as people like Ahmed or Sam. I am NOT uneducated. I know how to read, write, add, subtract, and I acquire the basic fundamental skills that are necessary to get me through the one life that I got. The one life that just like Sam, I want to live happily and treat others with the same respect they give me. I think the lack of opportunity is the problem. I will most likely never have the opportunity to travel the world like I wish I could or do half of the things that Sam or other cultural people have done. I don’t have the opportunity to interact with many Muslims. Maybe it is because I am watching too much American Idol, Lost, or Dancing with the Stars? No, I doubt it. I was taught about the Muslim religion in a World Cultures class back in high school. It was over five years ago, and quite frankly, I just memorizing for the exam. Regardless, I was “taught” and “educated” in the subject matter; however, we can book teach people all we want. But, until they actually have to apply that knowledge, they really aren’t learning. I can read and get lectured on the Muslim religion all I want, but until I have to actually communicate with one on a long-term basis, I’m not really learning about their culture. I am hoping that I will have that opportunity to become acquainted with a Muslim who can teach me a little about their own beliefs. Until then, I will wait until the opportunity comes knocking at my door.
I think, in fact I know, there are many Americans that discriminate or are rude to people who are different then what we believe to be the “norm.” No doubt do Muslims get discriminated against, especially more so because of 9/11. The day’s events were frightening. How could we not think the way we did. It is a natural human instinct. It reminds me a lot of Greek life though at Penn State. Many people label all sorority girls as “sluts” and/or “coke heads.” But, in fact, much like the Muslims, many of them are not the “bad” people they are believed to be. It is sad that all we as human beings focus on are the negative things maybe one or two people do and forget about all the millions of other “good” people out there. We all need to stop stereotyping an entire race/religion/culture by the actions of few. Can we as world do it? Only the future will tell.
I believe that the trip/ experiment the students embarked on happened to be one requiring a lot of bravery and courage. I applaud each one of them. They really did “take a walk in someone else’s shoes”!
What I found interesting in the article was the part about the woman’s reaction to the girl posing as a Muslim. Her initial reaction was one of shock, as her jaw dropped. However, once it registered to her that her reaction was somewhat negative or perhaps racist she immediately smiled, I think, in order to cover up or to avoid being judged for her first response. There is clearly racism occurring here. Had she seen another woman of her kind she may not have smiled or frowned.
Perhaps we have to lower our expectation a little bit more if we actually think that people are going to care about others at least half as much as they care about their own kind. For example, if the Muslim religion does not affect them directly then it is only natural for them to remain unquestioning and uninterested in their practices. And as they are repeatatively portrayed negatively in the media, we have no choice but the stereotype each one of them and judge their ways, if they happen to be different than our own.
It is also fair to assume that some Muslims also choose to not concern themselves with other religions. I do not believe it is fair to only denounce American’s in this case, because it is probably true that everyone shares the common lack of knowledge of other races and religions besides their own.
I grew up in a small, yet well-off town where a large portion of the population practices the same religion and most students live very sheltered lives. There only purpose for venturing into Philadelphia is to buy an expensive prom dress or eat at an ritzy restaurant. So their lack of exposure to families different than their own is quite limited. However, my bicultural reality has allowed me to travel to different parts of the world and explore different cultures than my own.
It is sad but true, that Britney Spears’ latest boyfriend is more easily recognizable than the next Vice President, for most teens. The media has consumed the minds of maturing young adults. Unfortunately watching the newest episode of Gossip Girl happens to be higher on a list of things to do than the President’s latest speech on the economic situation. If we read the newspaper as much as we read People Magazine, we would be a lot more knowledgeable of the world around us.
Since we are so consumed with the media, so ignorant and insecure, we will believe anything they market. If we educated ourselves with reliable sources and became more active with people different than ourselves, perhaps we would not be so gullible to the false information the media feeds us daily.
I was deciding which of the current blogs to respond to this week and this one caught my eye because the professor’s project sounded very interesting. I wish I had some enthusiastic teachers that were as devoted as this professor to their subject area. I think it is really amazing that the professor put together a cross-country experiment and got his students involved to travel and experiment with him.
I think it is also very interesting how in America, little is often known about Muslims, which according to the blog is the world’s second largest religious groups. I know that I have forgotten a lot of what I once knew about Muslims. I do remember that Muslims believe in one god who they call Allah and that they believe in the messenger Muhammad. Then I remember things like mosques, the religious buildings, the pilgrimage and the Quran. But other than those few titles and statements I really do not know much about Muslims. I have one friend who is Muslim and I did not even know until I had to do a race study project for a class last semester.
I found it interesting that the group of students and film crew came across many people with negative thoughts about Muslims but these people tried to not make their true feelings apparent. But that is how most people are in most circumstances. For example, if there was someone (race and religion not important) that was a little annoying, I would never tell them and do anything to let them know that I thought that about them. I cannot imagine someone going up to the students dressed as Muslims and being rude or telling them to leave. However, it was very interesting to read the comments on the website containing the video of the professor’s stop in Arab, Alabama. Many of the local people responded that they found the project disturbing. I would think it was a neat idea to get a candid view of how people in the United States feel about Muslims. However, the video showed a couple that were very nice and helpful to the “Muslim” student.
I found the statistics about some American views of Islam to be a little shocking. Especially since seven in ten responded they did not much about Islam but responded with negative assumptions to other questions. People answered questions using their opinion because they did not have an actual knowledge base of Islam and that is why many people are prejudice towards other religions and racial groups. The comment about how many Americans know little about Muslims and sometimes cannot name the vice president was funny but sadly true. Younger generations today seem to care less about news and care more about TV and celebrities.
Overall I think this project seems really neat and I hope they are successful in compiling their videos and findings.
“Embracing Muslim in the Heartland” was definitely an eye opening lesson for me. I guess I never really thought too much into the Muslim religion or how much they were affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I think what Professor Akbar Ahmed is doing is very important and can really help further the race relations in the United States. It is clear from the article that we as Americans do not know much about the Muslim religion, but many of us are quick to stereotype them as violent. The article really made me take a look at myself and see what I really think about the Muslim religion and how much I know about it.
In all honesty, I thought that there was going to be a lot more prevalent racism in the South because most people in the South are characterized as racist hicks who still believe in slavery. Although, there may be some people who do believe that, there are also people all over the United States who feel the same way. Overall, from the article the people from Arab, Alabama did not seem to have an outright issue with the woman who dressed in traditional Arab women clothing. It was obvious that those people have not been around many Muslims, and simply did not know how to interact with a person from a culture that they knew nothing about. On the other hand, it did show that Americans are not as diverse as we like to think we are. Most of us are unwilling to learn about other religions and races because it makes us uncomfortable. Everyone wants to be comfortable, which is why people stick to whom and what they know best.
I had no idea that the Muslim world population was about 1.4 billion, which makes them ¼ of the world’s population. With such a significant number how do most people not know about the Muslim world, and why are there so many negative stereotypes regarding them? I agree with the article that if America is such a major power house in the world, wouldn’t we want to get a long with a group of people that make up ¼ of the population of this planet. To me it seems common sense.
These undercover journeys by Professor Akbar Ahmed and his group of student researchers puts into the spotlight the fact that we have room for improvement in this country when it comes to tolerance. Although, the towns in the experiments were not outright racist to the women dressed as an Arab woman, they were not eager to invite her to sit with them. There are different ways to be racist, and not all acts of racism are that extreme. These people were not comfortable with an Arab woman, and simply ignored that she was there. As a diverse country, we really need to learn about different cultures and religions. The experiment showed that our country has come a long way in how we treat people who are different then us, but there is definitely room for improvement.
Overall, I really enjoyed the article and thought that the experiment was a great idea. Until we can identify the problems that exist in this country we will never be able to improve them.
After reading the accounts of the students dressing as traditional Muslims and traveling to different parts of the United States I felt sad as an American. We in America pride ourselves by being the best of the best, the biggest of the big, and the newest of the new, yet we are the first people to shun, ostracize and stereotype others that are different from us. It would be naïve of us to think that September 11th did not play a big role in the changing views of Americans to the Muslim people, but in the same respect did our views change of white males after Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, or did our views change of single white women after “Octo-Mom,” Nadya Suleman had fourteen children with no income and no place to call her own home? To us in America, these people are the outcasts, the crazies and the ones that are so far out of it that they could not be generalized to the entire population. So why is it that this same group of crazies in the Muslim community are forming a stereotype for the entire population? I think that this is the question that we as Americans need to ask ourselves..why is it okay for us to stereotype but not okay for others to do the same to us?
I think that the” Journey into America” project lead by Akbar Ahmed is revolutionary. This type of experiment really puts into perspective how these “outsiders” are being treated and will give people like Hailey Woldt a better understanding of how to change the current situation. The only thing that I find to be flawed with this experiment is that it is clear that the people participating are not the people whose views need to be changed. If you were to put someone in this situation that was racist or held these outlandish views then I think a real sense of change would occur. I think that the sad truth in this country is that with freedom of speech come freedom to hate, and publicly do so. As long as there are no threats or violence, people can actively voice their dislike for a certain group of people and get others to go along with them, especially hatred towards Muslims after September 11th. I also think that the government is definitely adding fuel to the fire by using different forms of racial profiling in public places like airports. There are many people that will think that if someone of power is racist, it is also okay for them to act the same way. If we want to change the way this country thinks, it has to start big and trickle down to the individuals.
It’s very interesting that Professor Akbar Ahmed came up with the idea of having his students participate in such a project. I do believe that a lot of Americans believe that the majority of Muslims are terrorist. Now I am not saying that they are extremely wrong, because the media portrays Muslims as people who believe in violence and committing suicide in order to kill others. However, the people who live in the Middle East think that Americans are money hungry and enjoy starting wars. So this is basically ethnocentrism (which we learned in class), which is thinking that “your” country’s beliefs are better than another countries belief system. Professor Ahmed had a great idea when he thought of dressing one of his students as a Muslim, so they could view the reaction of the Americans. For example, when they went to Arab, Alabama they mentioned that the people were nice to them, however, that could just be a “cover up”. Also, after September 11th many people had a different view of the Muslim world. For instance, I was in 9th grade when the attack happened and when I saw Middle Eastern people on the street I would get scared. Also when I went on a trip to Florida the month after 9/11 I saw two Middle Eastern people on my plane and I made sure I carried my bible in my hand luggage. Now being blind sighted to their religion I had presumed that they were terrorist because of their racial background. Now I know I shouldn’t have jump into conclusions but the way that America’s media was portraying the Muslims, you would’ve thought that they were all associated with terrorism.
I feel bad for the younger Muslims growing up in America, who are just trying to “fit in” with the system. In the article, one of the guys mentioned that it was hard for him in high school (even though high school is already hard enough) for him to be accepted among his peers, because of his race. I can’t even imagine the turmoil Muslims get when people react a certain way around them. Another example is not too long ago when a Muslim family was on a plane and the parents were reviewing exiting strategies with their children. The airline saw that as a threat and kicked them off the plane. Now if it was a white family I doubt they would act that way. Therefore, Americans need to be more open about the various religions here, and learn more about the religion before criticizing it. I can’t really say I know how it feels to be looked upon as a killer just because of my race but I do know that people like to pre-judge someone who is not of their kind. For instance, as a black female, I might be judged as an inner city youth from a lower class family. Therefore, judgments should not be used in knowing and understanding other backgrounds.
The project "Muslim in America: A Voyage of Discovery" surprised me and showed me a side of America I had never seen. Before I read the article and watched the video, I assumed that the general gist of the documentary was to show how racist and ignorant people could be. However, I was surprised at the level of friendliness some people were towards Muslims. Sure there are racist ignorant people who have a prejudice against Muslims, but it was nice to see an America that was more open and friendly get highlighted. The video of the couple in rural Alabama goes to show you that there are people in this country who have a willingness to understand a different culture other than there own. Not everybody shares this same idea, but seeing that short video clip of the friendly Alabama couple leads me to believe that prejudice towards Muslims can be eliminated in the future. I commend this crew of college students and scholars for putting together such a large project. I believe that more of these independent studies and projects should be done if we have any chance of eliminating prejudice of any kind. The American people need to see another side to Islam and these projects are helping accomplish that goal. The mass media should be a channel in which to inform people. Television and newspapers today are doing more harm than good when it comes to informing Americans about Islam. I find it interesting that major media outlets tend to not focus on anything positive about the Islamic faith. Instead of building bridges between our religions, they tend to highlight the negative aspects about the Muslim culture. I was not shocked by the statistics of the people who dismissed Islam as a religion and didn’t know anything about it. Since our mass media as a whole doesn’t focus on repairing relations between America and the Islamic world, the job then falls on to students and scholars. By putting projects together like this, it is one step closer to bridging similar religions together. I firmly believe that the American people would be more open to the religion of Islam as a whole, if they knew more about the religion. It is disheartening to see and hear about people who are so ignorant towards the religion of Islam. If the world is comprised of 1.4 billion Muslims, shouldn’t we know more about them? I think that many media outlets don’t want to talk about the issue of being Muslim in America because they don’t want to be seen talking about such a controversial topic. By doing this nations-wide study of Muslims in America, the U.S. is slowly learning that Muslims and Christians are not that different after all.
I loved how this article and the project that was spoken about, did not point the finger at anyone. Instead it showed that we all have things to learn about each other, and in the end learning about one another helps us identify ourselves. In America we have to learn to co-exist, because we are the melting pot we have to learn to accept people for who they are and respect their religious decisions. At the same time it is not enough to just co-exist or tolerate different people; instead we need to educate ourselves on these different religious groups. Though no violence occurred, the Muslims were paid no attention, just because people are different from you does not mean that they or their religion is less than you or your religion. I myself am a Christian; my family is broken into two parts: Christians and Moorish American Muslims. Even though I have family that is Muslim, I still ask them questions about their religion, and they are regular people they do what everyone else does. We still do family events and hang out like any other family despite our difference in religion. I find it sad that after 9/11 Muslims were viewed as “bad” people, when they are just like you and I. It’s a shame that throughout American history we find ourselves prejudice against religious and racial groups, based on a small portion of their group. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, we put Japanese who were already established in this country in concentration camps, and ruined their lives. Just because black people looked different they were considered as the lesser people. I find it so absurd and ironic that America is the “melting pot,” yet many different racial and religious groups come here with big dreams, only to find little acceptance and in many ways are forced to conform to the cultural norm. My family has always been open and supportive of whatever I do, and if I decided to become a Muslim or some other religion, they would understand and they would want to educate themselves to that particular religion. In this fashion I feel extremely lucky to have a family like mine. This project has the potential to open up the most conservative groups of people, and I think that more people should be aware of it. One of the keys to ending prejudice based on religion and race is education. Who people are ignorant to a particular thing, they tend to easily conform to what society views as right. I hope that America can move past racism in regards to groups that they feel have done them wrong, we cannot base our views on just one fact we have to look at the group as a whole before we take one incident to make up our minds about that particular group or subject.
It’s amazing to me the courage that some people have, such as Professor Akbar Ahmed in this story. His project “Journey into America” is something I wish we would hear more about. If more people had the courage to take part in projects such as these, perhaps society would be more influenced and would hear about it in the news more often. It actually reminds me of a project that my friend did back when we were in high school; he filmed himself pretending to be a disabled citizen in a wheelchair and wanted to analyze how others treated him in different situations.
Although we did not get a full synopsis of the results for Akbar Ahmed’s project, the story of the trip to Arab, Alabama was not very much a surprise for me. Because it is such a small town, I expected that they wouldn’t find much hostility. I would be interested to find out how they were treated in other, larger towns or cities. I find it very interesting that the girl in the project dressed as a Muslim and expected that “[she] wouldn’t even be served.” I was relieved to find out that this was not the case.
On another note, I found the description of the chaos at October’s Muslim Day Parade in New York to be very disturbing. It’s sad to me the ways in which we are so unfamiliar with those living right beside us. Needless to say, I know that I am not very educated in the world of Islam. I wish I knew more about it – but as someone else stated earlier, “I don’t even know where to start.” There is so much negativity already built in connotation around this religion that it is hard to find an unbiased place to begin researching. That is one of the reasons that I enjoy going to Dr. Richard’s class. He gives us a way of finding out the meaning behind things that we don’t normally think about. Especially after the events of September 11th, it is hard for many of us to see those worshipping Islam in a positive light. But it is wrong for us to stereotype the entire community. It is because of events like this that gives us even more reason to focus on changing public perception. This becomes even more apparent after we read such facts like the one posted under the blog for this date. It’s amazing that “Americans rank Muslims second only to atheists as a group that doesn’t share their vision of American society” and yet “seven in ten admit they know very little about Islam.” How can people feel comfortable making such statements when they don’t even know the background of these people?
I think the project that Akbar Ahmed led is very interesting and a great idea. It is amazing to see how many people react when they think about Islam. It is such a huge religion in the world, and most Americans don’t bother to understand it. While many people do not want to show hate or distrust on the outside, if you talk to them you learn of their ignorance. It is important to teach the rest of the United States about Islam and all religions in general in order to make people more understanding of other cultures. Having an understanding will make living together much easier.
When I studied abroad in England, one of my fellow students wore traditional Muslim garb. She was a 20 year old from California whom was born in Afghanistan. Having not been around many Muslims before I asked her many questions (although I am happy to say I didn’t ask any questions as ignorant as do Muslim’s love their children). What I learned was that she was just like me in many ways. Yeah she dressed differently, was more respectful to others (a trait I hoped to pick up from her), and didn’t drink when she visited the pubs with us because it was against her religion, but she still liked to hang out, talk about boys, and fool around. In fact, we had a very similar personality. When a group of us got lost in Scotland and didn’t know how to get back to the University of Glasgow dorms in which we were staying, the two of us were the only ones to keep our cool and work it out so that the whole group made it back okay.
I brought up religion a few times when I talked to this girl. Being Jewish and having visited Israel for a short time I was curious how she thought about Jews. I had only heard about negative attitudes in the past and I felt comfortable enough with her to see how she felt. What she taught me was a very important lesson to me. She didn’t care if I was black, white, red, purple, blue, Jewish, Christian, atheist….to her I was just a person. She had no hate. She told me that most Muslims were just like her and what we hear about in the media is only a select group of people. Her family disagrees with those people and thinks they give Islam a bad name.
All in all, it is interesting traveling around and learning how many Americans view different cultures and religions. The work that Akbar Ahmed and his group are doing is very important. Education is very important and the faster Americans learn about other religions and cultures, the faster the country will be able to progress.
This is a very interesting topic to me, and one I admit I know almost nothing about. A good friend of mine is taking a world religions class here at Penn State and I know she is learning all about the Muslim, Islam, and Buddhist religions that can be found all over the world. The last I can ever remember learning about such religions was sophomore year of high school, and it was not any more than one chapter. The reality of it all is that Americans who are catholic, or any religion other than Muslim, do not know much about it, and how could they? Personally, I am open to learning about other religions besides my own (which I most of the time do not even know if I can call myself catholic), but I know that many are scared of things different than their own practices in their everyday lives. Muslim is not a religion we see a lot here in America, and those people we do notice to look “different” than us, the fact is, we do not understand.
After 9/11, these people who simply looked different compared to most others, turned from just being different, to dangerous and hated, for no real reason. These individuals who are in our homeroom classes, or sit next to us on the train to go to work, they themselves did not plan or commit these awful acts that hurt all of us Americans. You cannot group bad people with others simply because they practice the same religion. That is absurd! Unfortunately, many who misunderstood (stand) decided to hate these people. I am interested to see what other types of findings Akbar Ahmed and his students found in their trip across the country in places like Arab Alabama. I thought it was interesting how the students like Hailey Woldt, who dressed in the typical concealing garb that practicing Muslims wear, were scared as to how people would react, but ended up getting friendly smiles from passerbies. But even afterwards, when these strangers were asked about these Muslim people, they admitted that they still had some sort of negative view on the person, for no real reason, while their glances told otherwise.
This past summer I watched a documentary on the September 11th attacks from the standpoint of seven or eight New Yorkers who just happened to catch the whole day on tape. At times square people were saying that they think the United States should just fly over to Afghanistan and Iraq and just bomb them all and kill them like they did us. It has been eight years since that day, and tempers and emotions sure have gone down, but it is not completely gone.
All in all, I do feel awful for the views people have towards these Muslim people, just because they are different. I commend Akbar Ahmed and his group members who are pushing to find where our country stands, and attempts to find why this racism still exists, and the ways we can overcome it as a country.
The project that Professor Ahmed and his group are embarking on is very interesting. I truly believe that there is no better teacher in life than experience itself. Hearing people’s life stories and struggles in very informative and interesting, but nothing can ever make the issues at hand hit home better than living through the experience itself. So by choosing to “change” their identities and appear Muslim in order to better understand the Arab experiences are 9/11 is a genius idea.
When I started reading the article I was expecting one of two outcomes. Either people would show some kind of hostility towards the group or do what they did, show some interest in the beginning then after you see what the people are all about you just ignore them. I’m glad to see that no overt hostilities were shown and that people pretty much ignored the students, but at the same time I wonder how many of these people were doing this just for the sake of political correctness. In the privacy of their homes if someone was to bring that up at the dinner table would it just be a passing conversation of “Oh yeah there was an Arab at the diner but whatever.” Or would it turn into a discussion of what kind of people they are and comments like, “Omg there was totally an Arab in the diner today and I was so scared…etc.” Racism is still a huge problem here in the United States today no matter what people want to believe. It is this fake façade of ignorance or putting on an act of “I really don’t mind or care about being around other people of different ethnicities that are not like mine.” That falsely lead people into thinking that racism is on the decline or dead.
Things are now a lot more different because people are no longer as obviously hostile to different people like they were back in the 60’s. But that does not mean those feelings are not there. It’s just that these days you can get sued or end up in jail for putting such thoughts into action. So I think that this project is a good way to really test if face of racism is really changing in this country. Just as Sam said in lecture you have to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and position before you can make a judgment about them or “their people.” It’s glaringly obvious that American know very little to nothing of the Muslim religion yet they are so quick to condemn it. And I’m sure there are Muslim who feel the same way about Christians. This is definitely a fault of the failed media and educational system to bring the American public the truth, knowledge and the tools they need to understand world and race relations.
I think the project that was done by the professor with his students across the United States was a very interesting one. It allowed the experimenters to see how people of the Muslim religion are looked and/or portrayed based on what they are wearing. It allows people of America to see how quickly others make judgments and assumptions about others. I know I cannot, and most people cannot say they do not make judgments of other people.
I also thought it was kind of interesting to read how the experiment team hung out with other Muslims of different races such as blacks and Latinos. This allowed us to see that Muslims are not just a religion for one race, but is a religion for many races.
The comment that stood out most to me was, “They (the Muslims coming to the United States) will have the same dreams of their neighbors.” I think that is a very strong statement that I can agree with. Just because someone does not follow the same religion as you or you do not understand their religion, it does not mean they do not have the same goals and dreams as you. Everyone wants to succeed and everyone has dreams. One religion does not have more or less dreams/goals than another.
Another comment that stuck out was one made by Sam in his blog, “For as much as Islam is in the news these days, and has been in the news for the past eight years, people don't seem to know much about the religion.” This is another telling statement, people are quick to make judgments because of the way they are dressed, but how can they make judgments about a person if they do not know the religion and what the religion is about? It is so easy for people to make judgments and place blame, but it is very hard for people to learn another’s side of the story. I am just as guilty of this. When I believe in my mind that I am right and another is wrong, I do not want to hear the other side’s story or I am unwilling to learn of the reasons from the other side.
I would also have to agree with Sam’s statement that people are too caught up with TV shows, which is why they are not really interested in learning about other things. TV is a form of entertainment and relaxation, who really wants to learn about a religion after a long day of work when you can just relax in front of the TV? Then again, some people take learning religion as a form of relaxation, but the large majority of Americans would probably choose TV as a form of relaxation over learning a religion. Once again, I am guilty of this. When I have down time, I would rather relax that learn about a religion.
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This project that was done by Akbar Ahmed is one that really pushes this country to finally take a look in the mirror at how they act when someone they don’t understand enters the room. The study itself seems like a good idea and really is interesting to see how people react in these very white dominated towns. The thing that makes me unsure of it though is that many people will just put on a show about the world they interact with. As the article says many people were nice and not mean, also in the video the people were well responsive and kind. This could all just be the natural notion of people to be polite and maybe they went away from that bashing Islam and no one would ever know. I mean the statistics are pretty over whelming that four in ten Americans look badly on Islam. That would mean that 40% of America looks badly on 25% of the world. Those numbers are staggering in and of themselves. But on the other hand what if people really are starting to understand that Islam and by understanding they are choosing to accept it. That would be great if people would just take the time to understand the religions before they ever judged them. If that were the case we would be able to have more respect for each other and people would not be jumping to conclusions whenever something happened they didn’t understand. I really do think that most of the problems with today world stems for the fact that no one really takes much time to even understand the people they hate. They just use blind hate and it makes me wonder what if people judged them like that. I think most people who hate Islam for no reason would agree they would not want to be judged for being a Christian. If that is not being a hypocrite then I don’t know what is. I think Akbar’s project should be more publicized this way people can see just how naive they are being. It could be one of those moments that forces people to look at themselves in true light. I feel it can be an eye opening experience for everyone. Will this ever become a reality though? No, it never would stand a chance in this country everyone is just too quick to take the easy way out. It is so easy to hate something, where as looking up facts and doing research is just so much work that we do not need in our extremely busy lives. I really think this is a load of bull anyone who is taking the easy way out is really depriving people of what they deserve and that is common decency.
The results of Akbar Ahmed and his students’ experiment completely took me by surprise. Ever since 9/11 the media on numerous occasions has displayed Muslim’s as a violent and rebellious religious group. So many Americans, as I sadly must admit I was at one time, are so ignorant and naïve as to what the religion is really about. I have heard so many horror stories and instances where Muslim’s were referred to as “terrorists” that I find it amazing that these people acted so kindly to the student. In my race relations project I went to, one of the proctors brought up this topic. He had asked how many of us would be worried if we were on a plane with a Muslim and if the thought would cross our minds that they might be a terrorist. A few of the students said that even though they do not think all Muslims are terrorists, the thought would probably cross their mind that they might be a terrorist or be a little worried if they saw him or her get up and go to the bathroom. At the time I was taken aback by these comments, but when I actually thought about it I realized many people just have no clue about the Islam religion. As Sam has said in his lecture before, all religions have fanatics that could do the same thing that was done on 9/11 at any time. I think each one of us can say that even just walking downtown there are religious fanatics saying things such as, “Jesus is our savior!” or “You’re all going to hell if you don’t believe in Jesus!” It’s amazing that Muslims are a part of the world’s second largest religious group, yet we have so many negative and wrong perceptions of the religion. I know that when someone makes an accusation or assumption about my religion, which happens to be Catholicism, it offends me greatly because most of the time it’s from someone who has no clue what they are talking about. How would we feel if this happened to us on a normal basis and we were actually shunned for it? I think it’s terrible that Americans are so misinformed about Muslims and yet still discriminate against them. I found it disturbing that the one woman in the article had said she never met a Muslim before. How much of that is her own fault and misperceptions of a Muslim? I can guarantee she has chosen not to go out of her way to meet one because of the negative stereotypes that coincide with the religion and 9/11 attacks. I hope that we each can take it upon ourselves to become more informed before we pass judgments and discriminate against those religions we know little about. These hateful crimes and acts done against innocent people cannot be stopped unless we put ourselves in the others shoes and truly see how these people are just like us.
It is a very interesting experiment that Professor Abkar Ahmed is doing throughout the country. He is really able to see everyone’s immediate reactions when they see someone out of the ordinary, someone who is different then themselves. In fact his project was dangerous as well not knowing how people in these unknown towns will react to seeing a young Arab girl. I guess you could say I did not feel that this project would be a success because I thought I already knew how people would react. I first thought that many Americans would be very arrogant towards someone who was dressed as a Muslim. I felt that many racist things were going to be said towards her and I was also afraid that someone would try and physically harm her.
I was pleasantly surprised with the results we saw from the video. I thought going to Alabama would have an even greater effect that going into a large city. Some people in Alabama may have never even seen someone dressed like the way the young girl was. However, it seemed as the people in the restaurant barely even looked over to look at the girl like she was something out of the ordinary. They treated her like she was a normal person and the clothes she wore has absolutely no effect on the people in the restaurant. I feel that if this occurred in most towns, people would look over and inadvertently stare her. People would most likely say stuff behind her back. I really don’t treat cases like this as racism but as just human nature. When someone sees something that they are not familiar with they look at it. They are trying to see what makes them different and why they look that way.
I was also very surprised as well as confused when Professor Abkar Ahmed was interviewing the two young people outside of the restaurant. I wasn’t sure if they had no problem with seeing someone dressed as a Muslim or whether they were naïve about the entire situation. I thought that they did not realize what has actually been going on. Maybe the people of Arab, Alabama just are nice, good people. They aren’t racist and they may actually judge people by who they are and not by what someone looks like.
I would also like to see these results compared with videos of the project occurring in a large city in the United States. In towns, like NYC, where there are a lot more Muslims I feel that people would be more likely to stare or give a second look at the girl. I am interested in seeing more of the results and would be very intrigued to see this experiment be taken international.
With having the first black president, I think that people are getting better at hiding their true feelings about people. Maybe not everyone likes black people, but they are probably more courteous around them then say 30 years ago. I feel like this has the same affect on Muslims and Islam. On September 11th we learned that 13 MUSLIMS ran two airplanes into the twin towers. Ask anyone on the street who ran into the twin towers. They will say Muslims. Islam is not a dangerous religion, but most of America believes that it is. There are crazy Christians, that go on killing sprees and they claim that God told them too. There are messed up people in every religion. The problem with Islam is that we only know the messed up part of their religion. Also it is hard to change views on something. It is much easier to continue believing what we do then actually taking the time to learn about others. If this wasn’t the case, we would probably have a very small racial problem, because quite frankly, the only reason there are even classifications of different races is because we don’t know about the “other people” so we label them. That’s it. This is exactly what happened with the Muslims. In the movie Menace to Society, one of the main characters converted to Muslim. He was the best acting person there. He never swore, or fought, or anything. This is what 99% of Muslims are like, its just that we only can relate to the 1% that is for violence. Now September 11th was like 8 years ago, and people are starting to get over it. That is why people are acting kinder towards Muslims, and I think towards blacks too. This doesn’t mean the problem is solved, but it is hiding in the right direction. When people can put down their guards and truly get to meet people from other religions and from other races, then the boundaries will begin to fall between the different groups.
In all honesty, if in high schools around the country they created the same race relations groups that we are going to, there would be very few problems in the school racially. In State College where I grew up it was a bubble. Most of the kids are smarter then average, and everyone could handle different races fairly well. There were problems though. A few times there were racial slurs written in bathrooms, and the Russians and the Blacks at the school did not get along and fought a lot. Would all of these problems be fixed from having race relation’s classes? I honestly think that 90% of them would disappear, because in those groups the Russians and the Blacks would need to talk, and they would find out more about the other group. We are slowly accepting Muslims back into our society, but with these race relations classes I truly feel like they would have never left society in the first place.
I highly question the real motives of Akbar Ahmed to conduct this social experiment he did with his American University students. In the article, Ahmed explains that after 9/11, he couldn't just sit and watch the way Muslims in America were being treated based on their religion, and that he wanted his students to know the true American Muslim experience in a post-9/11 world. I got the vibe from Ahmed that he wanted his students to have an increased understanding of what American Muslims now experiment in terms of public treatment, and while that may be true, I also think that Ahmed has another reason for wanting to conduct this experiment with his students.
In the world post-9/11, it would be safe to say, based on the facts presented in the blog/article, that many people, Americans in particular, have a negative view of Muslims and the Islam religion; considering them more violent than other religions, etc. Therefore, I really think Ahmed's motive behind this social experiment was to show that Americans are racist and prejudiced people in attempt to put them at the same level as the jihadists, the people who were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and those who supported them and what they did. In other words, I think Ahmed thinks that by making his students subject to some of the off-color treatment that Muslims receive in America by dressing them up in Islamic attire, he is saying that Americans are no better than the Muslims who call for the elimination of all Christians and Jews.
However, what Mr. Ahmed should know is that no matter how hard he tries to paint Americans as racist and prejudiced, no dirty look or weird expression given a Muslim by a non-Muslim in America will ever match or excuse what happened on 9/11, and the hate and jihad broadcast throughout a religion that will one day be 1/4 of the world's population. Mr. Ahmed is trying to turn the table and make his students think that Muslims are victims of dirty looks and poor treatment, when Christians and Jews physically attacked by Muslims everyday in the Middle East. Christians and Jews in the Middle East would be lucky to just receive a dirty look from a Muslim nowadays; I am sure they'd much rather a dirty look than a rocket-propelled grenade absolutely destroying their entire house, possibly killing innocent children.
I think this is a great idea for a project, and it is not only something that can be applied to Muslims. It has a universal ability to help Americans to understand the racism that is still very prevalent in our country. This small amount of insight that an experiment like this provides, could be a building block to decreasing the amount of racism in the United States and around the globe. It should be done with all types of racial and cultural groups, if you really want it to hit home. If someone could feel what it was like, truly experience the stares and slurs that some of these minority groups face, people might be more apt to change the way they act and think.
I think that America is full of ignorant people. America’s citizens complain like they really know everything about everything, but the little that they do know is astounding. For example, I was watching some news program (I think it might have been 20/20, but don’t quote me on that) and they were doing a random survey of questions to people just walking down the street. American citizens knew the names of the judges on American Idol, but they did not know how many people were on the Supreme Court. People are too ignorant. It seems like individuals are only paying attention to topics such as reality television and trashy magazines, and have lost the motivation to really keep in touch with the news, current events, etc. It all boils down to who wants to really put in the time to make a change. People are constantly saying that they do not have any extra time, yet they all make the time to plop down in front of the television to catch their favorite weekly television show. Why are they not willing to put in the time to change racism in America? Why do we constantly put the most important issues on the back burner, simply letting them sit for future generations to deal with?
This project exemplifies the fact that we have a long way to go. People need to take responsibility and be aware of their actions. I’m sure many would say that they do not even realize they are doing anything wrong, but that is one of the largest problems with racism. They don’t think they are doing anything inappropriate, so they are quick to write off their actions as normal and acceptable. People need to open their eyes to these issues and truly reflect on whether they are some of the primary offenders. Sacrifice some of that time lazily camped out in front of your television, and reflect upon your daily actions, and consider the fact that you need to make some changes to what you think may be acceptable and average behavior.
Upon reading the CNN article “Muslim in America: A Voyage of Discovery”, I first thought about the title and what it meant. I recognize that ever since 9/11 terrorism has been on the rise, and many have pointed their fingers at Muslim Americans who are only guilty by ethnic association. Many Americans group Muslims and terrorists in one positively correlated category: if you’re a Muslim, you must some how be associated with terrorism, which is not at all the case. Americans are scared and feel like if they have someone to blame then they are one step closer to bringing down terrorism, but what they are really doing is creating a whole other issue in our country that is centered around prejudice and stereotypes, negatively affecting our society.
Ambassador Akbar Ahmed has a similar understanding and therefore initiated the “Journey into America Project” which encompasses a 6-month journey through various US cities to observe the behaviors of Americans when surrounded by Islamic culture. I watched the video that coincided with the article and was interested to see that people in smaller towns were less likely to react to Hailey Woldt, a student involved in the project, and her traditional Arab clothing, though, when polled, people did in fact have negative thoughts towards her. People are under horrible assumptions that all Muslims are bad, yet “seven in ten [Americans] admit they know very little about Islam’s...and rank Muslims second only to atheists.” What does this say about our county, a supposed melting pot that is not accepting of innocent people who just happen to dress differently?
What I found extremely interesting though was people’s comments and reactions to the video. One person, a local in a town that had been observed in the project, responded by saying “Going from town to town in the US and South seeking to find racist, violent, or stereotypical reactions appears to be rather "racist" in and of itself”, and I have to agree. Though the members of the research group were just trying to observe, many feel as though they went into the study with their own biases towards other Americans, especially Southerners, expecting them maybe to be less educated? Most, if not all, comments regarding the video were negative and looked down upon Akbar Ahmed and his study, targeting him as the real racist because he just assumed that people were going to be mean to a girl dressed in Muslim attire.
In all, I think that the article is trying to prove that smaller towns can be less likely to be involved in open racism, regardless of whether people believe the researchers themselves were racist. I think it is difficult to test such a theory because there is no town or city where racism is nonexistent, just because you’re not racist doesn’t mean you’re neighbors aren’t, it’s individual beliefs so its difficult to generalize different areas of the country.
I think it is great that people have the courage to do something as interesting as this. I also believe that you have the opportunity to learn a lot by going through the motions in someone else’s’ shoes. Being white, we are never going to know what someone else went through or what their ancestors went through. But I feel that we hang on to our heritage and are proud of it regardless. But I don’t know if it was easy or hard for my ancestors. I’m pretty sure they were poor and had a tough time when they came to America, but why should I be ridiculed because someone else had a “harder” time then they did? But back to what Akbar Ahmed and his team did. I can only imagine what would happen if some of them walked into my high school and pretended to be a student or a teacher. To be honest, I don’t think they would be treated with respect. The students may be nice to the person’s face, but being immature and not knowing any better, they would talk about them and make fun of them in one way or another. Now I’m not saying that everyone is like this, considering I went to high school there and would like to say I am not as rude as some of them can be. But it is a common thread throughout my town. Many people don’t know any better because they have never been around another race. Someone in my discussion group brought up the point that “We are afraid of what we don’t know”. I completely agree with this statement. And because we are afraid, we take it out on the unknown race by making fun of them or judging them and in general, being rude. I was surprised that these people were in Alabama and they had a good experience in the restaurant. Being judgmental of Alabama, I would have expected them to be racist. But it is only because I don’t know people from there; these are just stereotypes I have heard. I’m not saying it is right, but I mean on first appearances and just walking by someone on the street I have the tendency to judge someone and think a certain way about them. But the Muslim religion is something I was never really taught about and have no idea about. I think if I had the chance to learn about it and be in their shoes it would be a great experience because it’s hard to think of yourself in a different way unless you actually go out and change your appearance. There’s not many ways to do that, but I think this team has done a great job.
I think that this was a very good experiment that Professor Akbar Ahmed and his college students conducted. I think this provided an eye opening experience for his students to be able to see through their own eyes how it is to be treated and looked different because of being different than normal in America. I thought it was a normal response of a jaw drop and a stare when the one college student said that while she was dressed in the traditional Muslim scarf that wraps around her head. I mean I think most of us do not try to but don’t we all look at others that are different then us. We do not try to stare, we may not even have a negative stereotype against the person but our eyes are drawn to them. However, I was surprised that the students were not disrespected by the citizens. However, I wonder if maybe the reactions of the citizens would be different if this experiment would have been done in a larger city like New York City, which was directly affected by the attacks. I mean this small town being in Alabama I think there would be a bigger response if they were black and see the ‘racist” remarks.
After September 11th being a Muslim or even from the Middle East you were treated with disrespect because it was believed that they were all terrorists. Since the attacks the Middle East and the Muslim religion has been constantly in the news to inform the American citizens about what is happening in the country that committed this act. Just like the lecture that Sam taught in the beginning of the year showing how all the video clips that we see on the news from the Middle East gives American citizens the impression that they are Muslim killers and this idea is taught to their children at a young age. But Sam also illustrated through different clips about radical Christians in our country can look like Christian killers. Through this lecture we can see that even though we have been closely monitoring Muslims for past eight years we still do not understand everything about their religion and we base out knowledge on the same type of stories that are aired on the news. Then since we also see these same stories we develop negative generalizations about these people and their religion. I know that I fall victim to this I do not follow up on current events and I do not know the different ideologies of the Islamic faith. So this experiment that Professor Akbar Ahmed started with his students would be something that I would want to be apart of because then I can learn more about the religion and then I could see how it would be to be treated differently because I was of a different religion. This experience will also help me to see how it would be to be looked at differently because people may be suspicious of what I may do.
When I read the article on CNN.com I was not surprised to see that professor Ahmed was leading this journey. I have previously read articles he has written and attended his lecture entitled: Waziristan to Washington, A Muslim at the Crossroads. Ahmed is an extremely intelligent and progressive individual.
On the topic of a group of students traveling across the United States to better understand how Muslims are accepted or treated, I don’t know if the results they get will be accurate. When watching the video attached to the blog I was curious if the people in the restaurant were aware of the camera and acted differently because of it. I am also aware of the way that we are socialized in the United States to be extremely politically correct in terms of religion and race. When the woman they interviewed in Arab, Alabama said that she couldn’t really comment on Middle Eastern religion because she didn’t know anything about it, my first thought was bullshit. Even if you don’t know anything about it and don’t want to be called out on camera you have formed opinions about it based on what you have heard on fox news and from your friends who also don’t know anything about the religion of Islam. Just as the poll on the blog indicates five out of ten Americans believe that Islam or that Middle Eastern Religion promotes violence.
On the second point addressed in the blog regarding people not knowing anything about Islam or other religions, I’m not very surprised. For one of my classes I watched a documentary on how Americans are some of the most religious people for how little we actually know about a personal religion or any other religion. From personal experience I also know that as a culture we are very quick to judge based on what we have heard or a comment we read on a blog, without doing any research for ourselves and forming our own opinions. As a group we form judgments on everything from someone’s shoes to political doctrine without doing significant research on the topic. The election is a perfect example, and let me preface this with I am a big fan and did in fact vote for Obama, but how many of those who did looked at his voting record in the senate, fully read one or more of his platforms listed on his website, looked at his voting record in the Illinois Senate, or watched all four debates in their entirety? I’m a political nerd so I did most of these things, but how many people simply jumped on the I want Change bandwagon? Probably the amount that jumped on the all Muslims are terrorists concept after Sept. 11th.
Overall I believe that Ahmed and his team may get some really useful information out of their experiment, however I believe that there are a few challenges in their way based on how we address popular religion in the U.S., the ways in which we all pre-judge “others”, and our constant feeling that political correctness is the best thing since sliced bread.
I think that Akbar Ahmed and his students were doing a very good thing by going on their journey. Many people truly do not understand other religions because of pure ignorance or ideals that they have. When first reading the article, I thought that if I were Hailey, I would have been scared. I would have been nervous that people would become violent or say bad things to me. It is so crazy that one would feel this way as a result of going to different parts of the world dressed up as a Muslim girl. I was thinking, like Hailey, that many people were going to call her a terrorist in Arab, Alabama. To our surprise, we were wrong. I think it is really necessary to literally be placed in someone else's shoes to understand what occurs in their everyday life. In the airport, she was checked thoroughly, which is understandable because of the 911 attacks. One thing people need to realize though is that these are innocent people. They are not the ones who planned the attack. We need to take our stereotypes and try to change them by gaining knowledge about other people and religions. I definitely think the project would help to do this. I keep thinking about the lecture on ethnocentrism. It really is true. All sides look at each other as the enemy because no one really knows what is going on. I thought the video of the man and woman was very interesting because they were so polite. That could have been attributed to the cameras, but I was surprised when the woman said she did not want to guess at where Hailey was from because she did not want to offend her if she was wrong. I think that is how so many people feel. Sometimes people want to understand other people more, but it is difficult to ask those questions. The statistics that were shown on the blog did not really surprise me. Based on terrible things that happened to the U.S., many people hate them based on that and no other information. What we need to realize is that people of all religions were killed in the terrorist attacks. I really do think so much of how we feel is based on past experiences. They saw Arab, Alabama and thought that was definitely a place they needed to visit to get reactions. I feel that some people's minds are just set to think that way. Also, I know that many people disrespect Muslims, but I also feel it goes the other way. We, no matter what religion, need a mutual understanding of each other to be able to fully respect each other. In returning to the project, I think it is a great idea. Although, I definitely feel they should be cautious because it is hard to tell how people are going to react to certain things. But if people start to become aware of this project and get involved, maybe someday we can change the views of people everywhere.
Well first off, I want to commemorate that young lady for doing what she did. I, probably would not have the guts or nerves to put on a head scarf and go into a town and pretend to be something that I am not. I was surprised that the towns’ people did not outright object to the fact. I was expecting that she would be thrown out and ridiculed because of her religion. It was a very interesting experiment. I think the results would have been different if she were in a larger metropolitan area. They probably would have been more harsh and hateful.
In high school, I took a class called Tolerance 101. In this class, the teacher would force us out of our comfort zone and we would view the world from the aspects of different people. We would also touch upon controversial topics and form our own opinions. Anyways, we were studying the Middle East unit and the reasons for September 11th. We were reading an article about this girl, in a high school, who decided that she was going to wear a burqa for a day. For those of you who do not know, a burqa is the tradition garb that the Taliban would force women to wear. It is a long purple sheet, that covers the woman from head to toe, and has a mesh part to see out of. Women, when the Taliban was in power, were forced to wear this out in public. This was after September 11th when the high school girl was going to dawn this outfit for a day. Throughout the day, she was ridiculed and harassed to the extreme. One comment from one of her classmates (I do not know the exact words but it was along the lines of this) was “Women, like you, deserved to get raped by our men.” That comment is absolutely disgusting. When I first read that, my mouth literally dropped. That was one of the most insensitive, hurtful, hateful comments I have ever read. I’m ashamed of being American at that point. Eww, that’s so disgusting.
People are generally afraid of what they do not know. Because not much is known about the Islam religion, people are afraid and create unnecessary assumptions. It also does not help that the media does not put Islam in a very positive light. In class the one day, we watched that video that depicted a very violent interpretation of what jihad is. To me, that is unacceptable. If we want to create a warmer, more accepting environment, showing extremist videos is not the answer. That just does not make sense. So going back to Akbar Ahmed’s experiment, that, to me, seems like the right way to portray a different point of view. Having a person who is “different” interact with the local people will lessen the tensions, and maybe even eliminate them. I think we should all try to be someone else for a day or two. Stand in someone else’s shoes will truly eliminate the fear.
Ok, now I don’t want to sound crass or anything, but… do they actually think their results are accurate? I mean, lets start off with what they are doing. They have five white people speaking American English, yes a yankee accent, but none the less, they blend in pretty well. The Arab man leading them… blends in equally well, and I guarantee if you showed a video of him talking about a random subject, most Americans would not be able to identify him as an arab and would probably guess his accent was Canadian. Is this an exaggeration? I don’t believe so as when I told a girl here at Penn State about my study abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark she thought Denmark was part of the United States. So. The woman who they have wearing the Hijab, is a blue eyed white woman. Now I’m just going to throw it out there that I’m guessing the typical demographic of a muslim woman is not a blue eyed white woman speaking American English… and they were surprised at their results? This is rather similar to when I was studying in Copenhagen, the growing fashion was for guys and girls to rock the Intifada Scarf, or Keffiyeh for casual or going out on the town wear. To me, having a few Danes walk around Arab, Alabama wearing a Keffiyeh would be just about as effective of an experiment. I’m not saying that those south of the Mason Dixon line aren’t nice. I know they are. We in the Midwest, and down south agree the northeast are much less friendly. This is why I know that given the circumstances of the experiment, they probably would not see any violent reaction. At the same time, I am not saying that if you put someone of actual Arab demographics in that situation in the south, there would be a greatly negative response. I’m just saying I don’t know how they can really consider their results to be credible. I say this because I know there is not the biggest amount of openness not just in small town south, but small town America in general. Small town America can pretty much be described as the demographic watching Nascar, I feel I can safely say this. In June of 2008, Nascars only black employee (I was unable to find demographic stats on nascars employees but I’m taking a wild guess) sued the shit out of the organization for a healthy $225 million dollar sum due to general racism and verbal abuse that took place during her tenure with the business. Again, I am not saying this represents everyone from the south and small town America, but... maybe a more accurate experiment would be to place them in Lynchburg, Tennessee, a southern town I can only imagine how they got their name, but maybe wearing a burqa over the jeans to make the results a bit more authentic.
When I finished the article, I realized that I was being pretty naïve. I think it’s obvious that Americans have a certain stereotype and opinion towards Muslims. However, I didn’t realize how blank some Americans were on the lives of Muslims. I couldn’t believe that one woman had actually asked, “Do Muslims love their children?”. I understand that they do have a different culture and background from many Americans, but I definitely don’t think that their lives are that much different from ours. Americans are people, and Muslims are people. In the end, we are all the same. Also, I was shocked by the thoughts of the woman walking into the restaurant in Arab, Alabama. It almost seems as if Muslims are expecting to be disliked. I think if they are to expect something like that, then it’s giving other people the ability to react in a negative manner. However, since I am not Muslim and have never experienced it, I couldn’t really say much. It’s almost sad that people expect Americans and others to act in such a horrible way. If we are a superpower, and a world leader, then I don’t think it’s acceptable to be having such a non-accepting reputation. The majority of Americans probably have a negative attitude towards Muslims, however I do think there are a population that accepts them. An example of this would be the woman smiling at the woman when she walked into the restaurant. To change as a country, I think we need to have the heart to change individually. We need to teach ourselves, and our future children, that all in all, we are basically the same.
Also, I was very interested in that a group of students got together to take this adventure. I think it will allow them to see things in multiple perspectives, and perhaps it will help them teach others of how life as a Muslim truly is. Since September 11, I think many Americans have broadened their views on the other parts of the world. But, there aren’t enough people taking that initiative. Especially since Muslims will soon be about one quarter of our population. We need to start considering the future of our world. Most of Muslims are positive, big-dreaming, law-abiding individuals. They have the same aspirations and goals that Americans do. They also want to achieve the “American Dream”. It’s hard for them to want to fulfill a good life, and want to abide by the laws, when Americans don’t give them any opportunity to prove themselves. We immediately shut them down, and don’t even give thought to look past their ethnicity. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to change this, and have the world as one.
Although I found that the idea of this documentary is incredibly interesting, and somewhat witty with Arab or Arad Alabama, I did not find that it was conclusive or scientific in any sort of way. I do not understand how they intended to measure the amount of racism. I could see the direct comparison of racism in the video that we watched in class about the white man and black man going into the same rental office, and the black man getting denied an apartment. However it did not seem that this team was doing any such thing. They were just measuring racism freely. This is almost 100% subjective. This being said I think Muslim Americans probably have one of the most difficult times and face some of the worst racism in America. From my own experiences with a Muslim roommate and my Penn State experiences with these Muslims, I have seen more people look through a Muslim and not want to interact with them than I have ever witnessed between blacks and whites at Penn State, or whites and Asians etc. People are often wrong and never in doubt about Islam. And although I know this is what the documentary by Professor Akbar Ahmed is trying to show, I was left feeling a bit unsatisfied.
I also think that people are more uniformed about Islam than any other religion because it is never talked about. I think people have changed their views about the religion since 9/11 and in his or her own minds written the entire religion off as crazy. It is ironic how similar Islam is to Christianity, yet no one realizes this connection. I believe that the Islam that people tend to think of is the Jihad and the Islamic suicide bombers. These thoughts are as crazy as the “Christian” killers. Are there some people like this? Yes. Is it everyone? Absolutely not. And is it the majority? No. The only way to get rid of this taboo topic is just simply to talk about it. The more we talk about it, the better informed people can be. Knowledge is power, and if people are more knowledgeable about what the actual Islamic religion entails and believes these individuals may open their closed minds. Hopefully after years have gone by and the sting of 9/11 is not quiet as present people may begin to reconsider what they previously believed.
After I read the article about the students travelling across the United States, I was somewhat surprised that they did not experience more discrimination than they did. One of my friends is partially Trinidadian and, therefore has brown skin. He has very white features and I would venture to say that almost anyone could tell that he has no Arab features other than the color of his skin, kind of. My friend goes to the airport four hours early in order to allot enough time for extra, extensive security checks, which, though they claim to be “random” are clearly not because he is stopped every time. On his first flight after 9/11, he was flying to Canada to visit his family and the security checks caused him to miss his flight even though he was accompanied by his purely white mother. He was told, with his Trinidadian father, to wait for the next possibly flight “where they could keep an eye on him.” He now is accustomed to the “random” security checks and, like clockwork, experiences them prior to almost every flight he takes. Incidentally, his name is James, one of the whitest, most American names that come to my mind. For this reason, I was surprised to find that the young woman wearing the same clothing that Muslims wear did not experience more hatred and prejudice during her cross-country trip.
During high school a girl who most would consider “Gothic” started wearing similar clothing to those discussed in the article that only reveal the hands and face. This was her way of expressing herself, I guess. Because she was an “outcast” by most standards to begin with, people began saying that she had started to study Muslim ways and was converting. I thought it was stupid and ridiculous but, nonetheless, people continued to spread these rumors. Finally, one snotty rich girl decided it would be funny to expand the rumors. She claimed that she over-read a text message that the “Muslim” girl had sent saying something about a bomb. By the end of high school the girl had not worn that outfit for over a year, but whenever people would mention “Rebecca” and people asked “who?,” bomb girl always cleared up the confusion.
When I read this article, those two stories came to my mind immediately. Rebecca and I were in elementary school classes together and she was just Rebecca then. Now I realize that at my ten year high school reunion people will recall bomb girl because of one snotty rich girl who thought that would be funny. My good friend James does not view vacations the way that I do because, to him, it is another security check that separates him from everyone else.
A few things really stood out to me as I read this article and watched the accompanying video. First and foremost--and I don’t think this point can be stressed enough--the girl who participated in the experiment by playing the part of an Islamic Arab woman was in fact neither a Muslim nor Arabic! What was the point of having a “22-year-old blue-eyed Catholic” from Dallas, Texas pose as an Arabic woman? Even if bigotry existed in Arab, Alabama, I doubt it would be expressed to anyone who looked so obviously white as Hailey Woldt. Granted, wearing a black veil may make her look like an outsider and seem out of place, but as stated in the article and the video, people would glance her way but soon lose interest and leave her alone. One woman seemed shocked to see her, but then quickly smiled. Hailey and the other researchers seem to take heart in this, but all I see is a bunch of people who were at first shocked by the appearance of a Muslim woman in their small town, but then quickly realized she was just another white person. To me, this research really proves nothing.
This isn’t to say that I believe the residents of Arab, Alabama would have acted adversely if the girl participating in the experiment had truly been Arabic. They may have reacted in exactly the same way--I’m just saying that I have no way of knowing due to the obvious flaw in the experiment. Along these lines, I’d also like to call attention to some of the comments people have posted below the video, many of them written by residents of the town. If you haven’t read them, take a look--it’s pretty interesting what people have to say, and I think most of them make good, intriguing points. The most obvious: In trying to find out if southern Americans would react badly to seeing a Muslim woman and associate her with negative stereotypes, the researchers have unwittingly stereotyped an entire portion of the United States themselves! More than a few of the commenters state that they feel the way in which the researchers were searching for--and expecting--bigotry in their town was “disturbing” and I especially liked the sarcasm of one of the comments which stated, “Certainly, at some point off camera, someone in this group had to express their surprise by the nice paved roads in the south.” Even if you just watch the beginning montage of the video, all you are seeing is stereotypes of southern America--Confederate flags, hunting rifles, church signs, and even Lynyrd Skynyrd playing in the background. Then, as the researchers begin to talk, Hailey mentions that she hopes “no one gets violent” and that the team “is here to protect me”. If I were a resident of Arab (and I think most people would agree with me here) I know I would definitely be offended if someone coming to my town were afraid of being violently attacked because they perceived my entire community as vicious, bigoted, backwoods hicks. Just because some all-white families live in a small town in Alabama and speak with heavy Southern accents doesn’t automatically mean they are going to be racists.
Having said that, Professor Ahmed does in fact say at the end of the video that the people were all nice and he believed the residents of the town were unfairly stereotyped as bigots, so maybe there can be some excuse for the way the video was presented--I don’t know if the beginning is supposed to be comedic self-irony, or something like that, but I think it just ends up confusing the point the team was truly trying to make here. None of this changes my original argument, however: that the girl participating in the experiment should have been a real Arab in order to get more accurate results.
I really liked reading about Akbar Ahmed’s project Journey into America. In our post 9/11 society it is more important than ever to bring awareness to a highly misunderstood religion. I kept thinking back to Sam’s lesson on ethnocentrism and the dangers that we can encounter if we make assumptions and overgeneralizations. If I were to go to Pakistan, or any other predominately Muslim country, as a Catholic, I would not want to be seen as a Christian radical. I would not want to be compared to those involved in the “Army bible camp.” I am sure that Muslims living in the US have these same fears. They do not want their religion to be misrepresented as a violent one just because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Unfortunately this fear is a very real one. I was shocked by the one woman’s question, 'Do they love their children?' It is statements like these that make me so angry. I will admit, immediately follow 9/11 I knew practically nothing about the geography of the Middle East or the Islam religion. I therefore made some stupid assumptions, grouping the two together, and because it seemed like such a foreign concept to me I didn’t really make an effort to correct my mistake. After this class however I feel like I am making progress in learning about the Islam religion. This is why I think Journey into America is such a good idea. It gives people the chance outside of high school and college to learn more about this religion and correct their false perceptions. It’s great that the group's goal is to highlight the need to understand Islam because that is exactly what many people need to know how to do but don’t always have the means to do it. Ahmed’s project reminded me a little of the clip we watched with Eddie Murphy and his white man experiment. Although obviously Journey into America’s purpose is not a comedic one, it is kind of like stepping into someone else’s shoes for a day. You can never really understand what someone of a different race or religion is going through unless you experience the things that ultimately create these prejudices in the first place: physical differences. Whether it’s skin color or a black abaya, these are the first things, and often the only things, people begin to make assumptions with. I know it may sound totally cliché, but it is what underneath all of these physical characteristics that actually counts. And considering the growing Muslim population, that one in four people will be Muslim by the middle of the century, there is no better time to start learning about these differences than now.
“The last time she’d worn the Muslim dress that, with a head scarf, covered everything but her face, hands and feet, she was in the Miami International Airport, where the stares were many and the security check through. “ (Muslim In America: A ‘voyage of discovery). I found Woldt’s premise in this article participating in a social anthropology experiment, to determine how it felt for someone to travel across lines of religion and race very interesting. Woldt a member of a team lead by Akbar Ahmed is traveling through the united states to fulfill a purpose of determining American identity, Muslim identity and ideals of American’s in a post 9/11 era. I find the fact that a team of five students who were not necessarily Muslim to a charge for six months to work on this project to determine cultures reaction very fascinating. The beginning of this trip was in our nation, but it also lead the team to travel abroad to educate themselves on the Muslim world abroad.
The Muslim world population is 1.4 billion people meaning that 1 out of every 4 people by the middle of this century will be Muslim as well as 57 Muslim Countries today. (Ravitz). I find these numbers extremely eye opening, in the fact that this is a large percentage of the world. Regarding Americans considerable ignorance in the fact they do not understand another cultures religion is at first shocking, but I think that this instance is unfortunately common. Americans tend to get caught up in their lives about themselves, this is just a commonality or norm that I believe happens. Unless someone is truly trying to educate themselves and have a vision for the world and other cultures, it become very easy to get distracted by many factors of American culture such as the media, consumerism, and Hollywood etc. I think that the topic of Muslims and a post 9/11 world is a controversial topic because as we discussed in our discussion group a while back it is hard to determine where you stand. After an event like 9/11 that could be a cause or a factor or a force to make a certain individual look different at a people group such as Muslims. I know that it was voiced in our group how an event like 9/11 could change the way you view people as you perceive them walking down the street. It is certainly unfair to make snap judgments based solely on predetermined ideas and subconscious reactions. However at the same time it is also hard because, personally I want to give every person I interact with a free chance. The difference between how we make snap judgments and how we just look at another race is also in this instance a very fine line.
I think this is a very interesting experiment and I would be quite curious to know the results of this experiment. I am very shocked that the small town of Arab, Alabama did not seem to be racist. Additionally, they were actually quite hospitable, sincere and welcoming. This was definitely unexpected for me. I would have definitely assumed that a town in Alabama would probably have a negative response. It is sad to see how un open-minded people are when it comes getting to know people. The respect of Islam as a religion has definitely gone down especially in the United States of America after the 9/11 attacks. People have begun to view the religion of Islam itself negatively and also view Muslim people negatively. People assume that all Arabs are Muslim; however, we found out in class that most of the Arabs living in the United States of America are actually Christian. Regardless, the point is that too many people view the religion of Islam in a negative light without even knowing much about the religion itself. There are people who actually believe that almost all Muslims are bad and all Arabs are bad. For example, my father once had a patient who was suffering from delirium. This lady was usually very nice, but once when her personality switched, she told my father, “Why do you terrorists do these things? Why did you do the 9/11?” My father did not take offense because of her condition. However this is an example about the widespread ignorance of people. First of all, we are not even from the same country as the terrorists who did the attacks. Not all brown people are from the same country. Second of all, not all people who are from that country are terrorists. People judge on a regular basis by looking at skin color and tend to make numerous assumptions about that person just because of his or skin color or dressing style. This kind of racial profiling has increase rapidly after the 9/11 attacks, especially at the airports. People of the same skin color or people who wear similar clothes from the country that the terrorists were from, are much more likely to be searched and troubled during security checking at the airports. It is very unfair that innocent people who have no negative desires or intentions are the ones who constantly get racially profiled and treated differently. The sad part is that we cannot do much to change peoples’ minds or to get rid of peoples’ fears or simply even their ignorance. Maybe it will all just change with time. This is true in any race or religious group that a few bad people can change the image of the entire group of people. This is exactly how stereotypes begin to form.
“Recent national polls find that four in ten Americans have an unfavorable view of Islam, five in ten believe Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence, and six in ten believe Islam is very different from their own religion.” At first reading this article I was kind of surprised to find this piece of information, but then after thinking about the views of my home town I am not surprised in the least about the negativity towards Muslims. I think that the biggest reason for all the negativity is the fact that people are not nearly as educated about it that they should be. I know that I am not as educated as I would like to be. Honestly before Soc119 I didn’t even know there was a difference between Muslim and Arabic. At the time of 911 when the terrorists attacked the twin towers I believed that many foreign people were bad. This was because I was just going with whatever my society was telling me. It wasn’t even my family. It was just many people in my town saying derogatory remarks about foreigners. I didn’t understand at the time so I just went along with whatever they were saying. I never actually participated in the talking bad about people different then me, but I did think they were right. Only because I didn’t know better, but as I grew up I became more and more educated about different people.
Sometimes I try to put myself in the position of a Muslim entering a place where people are different than them. When I do this it makes me think about a time I entered a room of 20 boys. This isn’t really the best comparison, but I imagine my feeling times ten. I felt totally self conscious. I didn’t want to say or do anything that would make me look stupid. I felt as though they were whispering to one another. To think that Muslims go through some of these same feelings everyday of their lives when entering a room full of people that are nothing like them. I don’t think that Muslims are the only group of people that experience negativity from people. I think that every group of people minority or not experiences negativity from people different than themselves.
I think that maybe more people should live the life of a Muslim to see what they have to go through. If they knew how some people acted towards them then maybe they would change their own ways of how they look at Muslim people. People need to start opening their minds to different people. They need to embrace their differences and learn from them. If not our world is going to continue to have a number of problems. I want my kids to respect everyone the same the way that I do now. I try not to think of peoples differences as negative. I try to think of them as what makes up our world.
Growing up I remember hearing a great deal about Catholicism and Judaism in my house and during my time at school. This only made sense because I had a parent who was catholic and on who was Jewish. I also knew a little about Protestantism from my best friend and a little about Lutheran from the girls who lived across the street. However, I can’t remember once in my entire childhood hearing or talking about Islam. In fact the first real recollection I have of hearing about the religion came after the terrorist attacks on September 11th. This was probably the worst way to learn about a religion. I was getting all of my information from frightened parents and sensationalizing newspapers and I now know that the majority of what I learned in the two years following September 11th was not accurate. Despite all of their education in how to teach in an unbiased manner even my teachers were guilty of disseminating some very biased information. I remember being told that Muslims hated women, that they regarded children very poorly, and that they generally couldn’t be trusted. Of course there was not a Muslim to be found in our community to contradict these statements so I, like millions of other Americans, remained misinformed. Over the years I ended up letting go of many of the negative stereotypes that I had been taught in the post-9-11 era as one by one I found no evidence to support them but there was nothing to replace them. I remained largely uninformed until I came to college and a teacher took the time to explain the inner workings of Islam to my class. I remain truly grateful for his efforts because it was an eye opening experience for me. While the majority of the religion remains very foreign to me I now have a better idea of some of its main tenets. I think it is unfortunate that it wasn’t until college that I was given the opportunity to learn something about Islam. Although it may not be the dominant religion in the United States it is very popular abroad and thus should have warranted at least a few lessons during my earlier education. All keeping students uninformed does is force them to come up with opinions based on what little information they have access to. Too often that information is wholly inaccurate or heavily biased because it comes from those speaking the loudest such as protestors rather than those who are most knowledgeable like professors. While I have never been a fan of teaching religion in any school setting I do believe that incorporating a broad overview of all religions in middle school or high school would go a long way to eliminating biases we have towards different religions. At least it’s worth a shot.
For me this intense ignorance is both bewildering and unsurprising. Indeed, how can we be so unknowing of ¼ of the world’s population, and of a religious tradition inextricably linked to Christianity? However much it appears in the news, it does so superficially and under the aegis of tragedy and terrorism. We never see Islam. We see danger and negativity associated with Muslim populations. In the same sense, we don’t see our own negative aspects (the same goes for Muslim Americans here), we are alienated from the realities of how our country flexes its imperial muscles and carries out policies justified only by the maintenance of absolute power.
In a way, our ignorance of Islam has been absolutely necessary for the past 8 years to have unfolded as they did. I can’t imagine that in the late 1930s, many Germans regardless of their political affiliations, could say much of Judaism. Perhaps they’d heard the negative stereotypes, that Jews are miserly and unscrupulous, etc. This ignorance was essential to the success of certain Nazi policies. In the same way, the Red Scare preyed on an American ignorance of communism and socialism. Cold War policy relied on our lack of knowledge. We needed to erect a Red Menace that appeared far more powerful and threatening than in fact it was in order to drive our competitive identity. Even today, socialism is still a naughty word for many, and chances are high that they’ve never read a word of Marx. Sometimes fear is the ultimate motivator. With Islam in the 21st Century, we see the very same pattern emerging. Our policies today rely on our misunderstanding of 1.4 billion people.
In fact, they rely on our not seeing them as people at all. The Midwestern woman’s quote is very telling. Humans love their children. You might say that even certain critters demonstrate what looks like love for their offspring. To genuinely wonder whether or not a certain people demonstrate a basic human trait is to not recognize the existence of their humanity. This is not to say that this woman believes Muslims to be subhuman and worthy of slaughter or enslavement. She is just so far removed from them in mind and experience to see them as anything but a term and concept.
A concept is conceptual and anything can be made of it. It can birth a symbol that can serve whatever purpose one sees fit. If Islam as a “concept” can be made into a symbol of hatred and everything that’s wrong with the world, as Judaism was in Nazi Germany, then we’re in the clear and we have the green light to do whatever it is that might serve us regarding a quarter of the world’s population. Forgive me my cynicism, but sometimes the logical sucks.
First and foremost I love this article and find it very interesting. I think Professor Akbar Ahmed and his team did the right thing. People need to be exposed to different cultures and people. I also think that is a good idea for them to bring the Muslim community to various places and see how people react. I found it interesting when the woman's jaw dropped then smiled. The young woman was smiled by the woman said she felt a little happy that she smiled and I agreed. People's first reaction (instinct) is ok. I do not think it is wrong for someone's, in this case the woman, jaw to drop. But realized that she is just another human being. I was appalled that the Midwestern woman asked "do they love their children"? Of course they do! If she must know, most of the the Middle Eastern (and Eastern) countries are very family-oriented. Even though she has not been exposed to and Muslim person, it does not mean that she can be THAT ignorant. That is pure ignorance and lack of knowledge. She clearly is uneducated. It still amazes me today that people have not encountered different cultures and people. We are all on this world, so diversified! One of our duties, in my opinion, is to explore other parts of the world...or least read about different cultures in books. People here live in such bubbles and they never want to come out of that bubble. How can you experience life that way? Not being exposed to everything? If race is so important, we should meet different people from all over the world and interact.I have a lot of international friends and I am comfortable about the knowledge I gained from having all these friends. I have learned about many religions and different various customs. I think teams should do this for many racial groups such as Indians. As for 9/11 and Islam? I think it is incredible sad. I am Hindu, but I find Islam one of the most interesting and for anyone to judge any certain group of people after a catastrophe (or whatever) sound pure ignorance to me. People in America needs to stop basing every judgment solely on this incident. Sometimes it gets me so angry how people can be so immature and ignorance. Take a few steps to the library or computer and read articles and stories. There are plenty of books in the bookstore that speak of authors recalling their childhood in Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, Thailand and even China. Explore that way if you had not the chance to talk with them. Even though they are just books, they are real stories and you can gain a lot of their "world"and culture.
After reading this article it made me rethink the way that I myself perceived someone that dressed like and was Muslim. When September 11th occurred I was only 11 years old. I remember specifically the room I was in at school, the teachers being scared and parents frantically calling to take their kids out of school for the day. It was a horrible day but at that age it was hard for me to fully grasp the situation that had occurred. Now, eight years later, growing up learning more and more about that day has left an image in my mind of who the attackers were, where they came from and that their only goal was to kill thousands of innocent Americans. Those people were Muslim. It’s unfortunate for the rest of the population of the world that considers themselves Muslims to be put automatically in a category with people whose hearts are filled with such hate for people that are different than them, but then again that’s exactly what we, as Americans, have done to the innocent Muslims of the world. The study, “Voyage of Discovery” is an interesting way of investigating how now, eight years later, Americans are viewing Muslims. I completely believe in the saying that time heals all and I think that this study brings light to this. It clearly states in this article that one of the women that was dressed in Muslim robes was treated fairly and justly when going to a restaurant and despite some stares it was an enjoyable meal. Only a few years ago that would have not been the case because of how fresh those images of that tragic day’s events were in American’s eyes. There are still many cases of people being unjust towards Muslims; the airline industry being a prime example. Still to this day, it is more likely for Muslims to be thoroughly checked when going through security than a white man. I do think this is unfair and not right but because this is the industry that was directly affected from this incident, in my opinion, it’s going to take them the longest time to put September 11th in the past and fairly screen people traveling. What is most interesting about this article, however, is how densely populated the world is with people of the Muslim religion. It says that by the middle of the century one in four people will be practicing Muslims which is an unbelievable number. Sam said in class that the Muslim religion is very similar to Catholicism and its sad that so few people in this world really understand that fact and judge people accordingly. However, as time passes I think it will become necessary for Americans and people of the world to accept Muslims as an equal part of society and move on from September 11th noting that we shouldn’t let the acts of a few maniacs impact the way we view a quarter of the world’s population.
I was really shocked by the results reported in that article and the video. After 9/11, the news reported horrific stories of how American citizens of the Muslim faith were mistreated by regular citizens and the government. This even sparked me to write a paper in high school on profiling experience by Muslims in American airports and I found many reliable sources confirming the information. That is why I was surprised with the experiment in this entry. When I first read Sam’s blurb detailing what the experiment was about, I was prepared to read an awful account of what Hailey Woldt had to deal with. Contrary to my assumptions, the worst that Hailey experienced was people shooting quick glances at her. I wanted to learn more about the experiences throughout the experiment, so I started to sift through the blog for additional information. As I was going through past entries, it caught my attention that this project is very recent, having started on September 1st, 2008. This is nearly seven years after 9/11, and I know that seven years is not a very long time in the grand scheme, but it might be long enough for people to become a little more educated. When the attacks first happened, American citizens were furious and they wanted a quick solution, someone to put the blame on. It was announced that the group responsible is a Muslim group, so it was easy to just assume that all Muslims were somehow related to that group. Since then, Americans have had time to cool down. They still remember what happened on 9/11, but those same emotions fueling the hatred are not running rampant through their minds. Also, more information has been presented. People are put into more situations with Muslims and usually come to the realization that not everyone who shares a common belief is involved in terrorism. This point is reinforced by the clip from Arab, Alabama. In the introduction to the clip, Akbar Ahmed tells us that the town is predominantly all white and is notorious for not taking kindly to outsiders. Even a man on his crew, who was raised there, attested to the fact that Arab is not a terribly welcoming community. I was pleasantly surprised by the comments delivered by the woman from Arab when she was asked questions by the crew. She said that since she is not well educated on Middle Eastern religions, she did not want to make any stereotypical comments based on Hailey’s garb. Arab, Alabama is a town that does not house many Muslims, yet the people there still seem accepting (or at least non-hostile). Hopefully, this means that the stigma behind being Muslim has been completely eradicated. It would have been interesting to have conducted this ‘Journey Across America’ a few years earlier, when more people were still stubborn and equated Muslims to terrorism. The results would have been much different.
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States. From my perspective and quite possibly many others, those that practice Islam stay very true to it. After 9/11 many people, many Americans became really skeptical and weary and almost ultimately afraid and paranoid of those that are Muslim. We immediately shifted the blame to Muslims, but I’ve come to learn and find out that a lot of Muslims don’t agree with the more “extreme” Muslims that view Jihad in a totally different light. The fact of the matter is that a lot of people don’t really understand Islam and the basics of it and the ends and outs of it. Growing up in a Christian family and being in the church pretty much my entire life I’ve had to hear about is lslam. The Journey in America project is an interesting one. Not everyone shares the same opinion on Muslim Americans. After 9/11 there was blatant discrimination towards those that looked Muslim or those that looked to be of a Middle-Eastern background. That was a rough and trying time for those that were basically looked upon with mistrust and disdain when a lot of them had nothing wrong so what better time to conduct such an experiment now, only a few years after 9/11. What better time to see if that same mistrust and ill will towards Muslims and those of Middle-Eastern dissent. The project itself is nothing new. On the surface they were treated with some respect but you always wonder if that is how they really feel. Do they really have respect for you? You can only treat people with the same respect you hope to receive yourself. One of the participants in the project said that she could see some reservations in people’s faces but could see that faded away. They traveled around the country to see how people of all walks of life would react to them. I live in the city of Philadelphia. A very diverse city at that. I encounter Muslims almost everyday. To me, they’re no different than you and I. Across the sea; many countries see Christians in the same light. They see us terrorists. They see us as the enemy. Now to Arab, Alabama. First of all, that’s just funny as hell. Arab, Alabama is an all white county that doesn’t take too kindly having outsiders, especially those of color. From what it sounds like, Arab, Alabama could quite possibly one the most racist and discriminatory places in the United States. The irony is that the residents live in a place whose name that discriminate against. I know for a fact that I’d never take a single step in that place. I wouldn’t want to know what it’d be like to be a person of color to live in that place. I wouldn’t want to be a black Muslim in Arab, Alabama but for now, I could be a black Muslim in America.
I think this project is a great idea because any project that aims to raise awareness about an issue that people have misconstrued views about is a good idea. It is especially a good idea when we are dealing with the topic of Islam because many people do not know about it. We have pre conceived judgments about a whole group of people and we fail to give them proper acknowledgment as a people. It is interesting to see the ethnocentrism that America exhibits as a whole. In general, we have this view that we think we are so much better then everyone else and that we are right and everyone else is wrong. We tend to think that other people, religions and cultures are inferior to us and that only our view is the view that is right and that matters. This is completely ignorant because this mindset lessens that value of a person. It disregards another person’s thoughts, views and beliefs and that is not fair because who said that America is right.
It was encouraging to see that the people in the Alabama town were somewhat accepting of the women. Outside of the normal questioning looks of a stranger in a new place, they seemed to be rather welcoming. Some people would be not so welcoming and some would be angered at an Islamic person. However, many of these people do not know much about Islam and therefore do not have a fair right to judge people about it. They are only using stereotypes to judge instead of actual experiences. If they actually got to know a person of Islam they might have a different view because that is what really matters, an individual person, not the stereotypes of a whole group of people.
It is interesting that people have hatred toward Islam after September 11th and before, it was not as big of a deal. It is only when it affected their own country does it suddenly matter. Yet when it affected another country it was not seen as a problem. And they fail to realize that that is not what Islam is about. They think that September 11th is the basis of Islam and fail to look into it any farther to see what Islam is truly about. There is a bad side of Islam which can spawn the tragic events of September 11th, but the same can be said for any number of religions. Terrorist are extremists who try to use religion as an excuse and justification for their actions. This does not exemplify a whole group of people, yet many people fail to realize this and simply do not want to accept this because they are more caught up in hatred instead of actually looking at the true value of an individual, which is a main focal point of all religions.
I believe Professor Akbar Ahmed and his group are doing a great thing taking a journey to understand and educated others about Muslims and their way of life. People in America, including myself are very ignorant to the facts that may be very important issues when dealing with race relations. This article reminds me of the lecture where we were told to look at America through Islam’s eyes. Something like this and Ahmed’s journey is what all Americans need to learn to do in order to learn more about our world and therefore prevent miscommunications or racists issues. Getting these thought patterns out in the media like Ahmed hopes to do will definitely spark the chance to make a difference in American societies and I commend him for taking the chance to do that. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy being imposed with difficult questions about different cultures and then forcing myself to think differently. It really opens up a lot of doors for understanding other cultures in our world today. Knowledge is the most important thing in creating equalities, so if someone like Ahmed was to present me a book on Muslim culture I would be more than happy to read it. This is mostly because I can admit to the fact that after 911 I would glance a bit awkwardly to a Muslim person walking through an airport, any ideas that would challenge this would be enlightening.
This article also surprised me with the fact that during the experiment, the group did not necessarily run into harmful comments or actions that threatened them. We read so many articles about extreme hate and racism that reading an article about people of a different race being easily accepted can be even more shocking. It seems terrible that Americans automatically think their own people will be racist towards anyone who is different. Expecting the worst from your own country is not helping race relations either, because we are already in the mind set of looking at people differently because of their race. On the other hand I also feel people have learned to keep their racism quiet. For the people that are openly racist and quietly racist may be easily cured by just getting the enlightenment of education. I know nothing about their religion and I am sure a large percent of our population have no idea either and that is definitely not helping our relationships with Muslims. They’re still seeing our bible school church gangs (from lecture) and we’re still seeing their hijacked planes. So what we can learn from this article is to just get your facts right before making any assumptions of an individual, especially because Muslims are a growing population.
This is the kind of reporting and experiments that I love to read about; people going undercover to try and find out what we don’t know about people in the United States. But I’m not talking about Tyra Banks going out in a fat suit and pretending to learn so much about herself and others. So when I saw that Akbar Ahmed had taken a group of college age students, people like me and my friends, and gone undercover as Muslims to see how people would perceive them, I was intrigued. The results they found were actually just as interesting. The part that I found the most interesting was what they found when the group went down into the Deep South, like into Arab, Alabama. These are the people are often thought to be ignorant and extremely racist, excluding those who are not like them (i.e. white). I have never been to the traditional “South” but I know of the stereotype of the “redneck”. I know this isn’t true of all people in the south; I guess this would be along the same lines as assuming all people of Middle Eastern descent are terrorists- weird. Anyway, in the video where they are sitting in the restaurant, none of the other patrons seemed like they were about to abuse the girl in Muslim garb, not even the guys in camouflage like they thought. That was extremely eye-opening. If the traditionally close-minded people of the south don’t even blink an eye, then what is really going on in America? Who really are these people in the polls judging Muslims?
Growing up in the DC Metro Area, I have been exposed to all different ethnic and religious backgrounds, and never even blinked an eye. And I can’t say that after 9/11 I started looking at the people around me to see if someone who looked Middle Eastern was around so I could avoid them. So I am very surprised when it is reported how close-minded people can be, without having met or even know anything about those they are judging. It astounds me even more that people basically have no grasp on what Islam is. Did no one take World History in high school? I know it was required in my school to graduate, and it focused a little bit on some of the major religions of the world. So even if I know a very limited amount about Islam, I do know that they believe in the same god Christians do, and follow the Old Testament too. If more people knew that maybe they would judge them less critically; especially people like the woman who asked the researchers in the article if Muslims “love their children”. Most people don’t ask the same about Jewish people, who share many of the same similarities to Christians as Muslims do. Maybe if people were better educated, these prejudices wouldn’t be as rampant across America.
Taking a trip across the nation like Akbar Ahmed did is a great way to show and teach students about the Islam people and the Muslim religion. Whether it is effective towards the rest of the country, I can’t give you an answer. I am white and consider myself Christian when it comes to religion. I grew up with this religion and unfortunately it prevents me from exploring what I believe in. I also don’t know much about other religions, especially the Muslim religion. Therefore, I would say that I’m one of the seven people out of ten who don’t understand. I seriously have based my thoughts about other religions on what I have heard, media or not. Since our country is very much Christian, I think that the focus in media is strictly not Muslim. Even if the media did start to portray the Muslim religion, I believe that Americans still wouldn’t change their views on what being Muslim really is.
Before reading this blog, I had no idea that a quarter of the world’s population was Muslim. That’s a ridiculously large number! Americans need to stop being egocentric and see the world in other people’s shoes too. However, I see the people of America’s view on Muslims and in a way you can’t blame them. When 9/11 happened, history was made. So many people lost their lives and so many people lost the lives of those they loved. Our country was very upset with the people who caused it. Who are those people? They were Muslims. It’s sad that one group of Muslims can stand for the whole population of Muslims. I remember seeing people in airports being searched and people walking down the street being stared at.
The truth is, I was one of those people. It was until I took this class that I was able to realize the pain that some of them have to go through. I was able to see that they are people too. They are just like me and live here just believing in different beliefs. How was I able to judge someone so quickly because of faith? I understand how selfish I was and I see how selfish most Americans still are. If only Sam Richards could teach the country. That would help! Haha
On the topic of politics, we need to start paying attention to our economy and think harder. I can’t believe only half of our country doesn’t know the vice president’s name. He is a very important person and he plays a major role. But people know who Brittany Spears is. They know who Johnny Depp and Michael Jackson are. This is shocking, but it could make a turn around. If people cared about politics and chose a candidate for president by their views and not because of skin color maybe we wouldn’t be in this financial crisis.
I think the main issue here stems from the basic quality of ignorance, which encompasses the majority of the population in the United States. According to the survey data on the blog, most people do not know a lot about Islam. However, Americans still view Islam as a violent, inferior religion. Despite the fact that there are often news stories which involve Muslims today, Americans are not well informed about anything and therefore just go along with this preconceived notion that society the United States has deemed on Islam. Just because they are not changing their ways and religious practices to fit in to our culture in America, people do just judge Muslims based off of how they look or act differently from “us” Americans. As stated in the article entitled Muslim in America: a ‘voyage of discovery’, people in America need to “look at Muslims in the context of their own culture and society” in order to better understand and start to solve these problems. Additionally, “the group needed to talk to Muslims and examine what they knew about American culture, American society and how they actually adjusted or assimilated or integrated – or not – into larger American society.” This is a key point that I think everyone needs to take into consideration. In order for society in America to accept and rid of the negative connotation that people in the United States have towards Muslims, they need to take a look at it from another perspective. If people are able to view Muslims in light of their own culture, I think this would be a big step to the beginning of a better understanding of Islam. In turn, this would lead to the possibility of not completely getting rid of the negative connotation, because quite frankly I do not think that is possible in today’s society, but at least lessening it and creating more of an acceptance towards it. There would definitely still be ignorant Americans that might not want to understand or know more about Islam, and there will be others who simply are not able to view Muslims with respect of their culture, but it would be a start and could make a little difference. Also, I think that for Americans to understand how Muslims in America adapt, or not adapt, into our culture would also aid in the problem of ignorance as well. White Americans do not think about how it is or what it must be like for Muslims in America because we are not faced with the day to day difficulties or stares that they deal with on a normal basis. Therefore, if we were better informed about this and understood the adjusting that takes place within society, maybe it would open the minds of society in America.
I learned about the Muslim religion in a tenth grade social sciences class, and again in a positive psychology class last year. Although I don’t remember everything I learned in these classes, I think I probably know more about the Muslim religion that most Americans. I know that the main dynamics over which the religion is founded on are the same as the Christian religion and the Jewish religion. It seems that Americans have permanently linked this world religion to negativity and violence. As the experiment showed, even when Muslims aren’t being disrespected outright, they are treated with indifference. One of the girls in the article described seeing a woman drop her jaw at the sight of the girl dressed in Muslim clothing, but then she smiled. The smile seemed to be used to cover up what she had already done. I think one of the most interesting parts of this blog was the statistics that Sam provided: “And yet Americans rank Muslims second only to atheists as a group that doesn’t share their vision of American society." This kind of quote makes me question what the majority of Americans think about the separation of religion and government or Americanism. I don’t really follow a set religion. As a teenager, I went through the Christian confirmation ritual, and I was baptized as a baby into the Christian religion, but as I got older, I realized that Christianity wasn’t something that I wanted to accept. I didn’t see it as part of my “identity”, or written on my identity glasses, as Sam would put it. I didn’t want to act as a believer when I was not in my heart. Religion is not something that I want or feel that I need at this point in my life, but I am open to accepting religion as my life progresses. The point is that I don’t think I’m an atheist, but that is sort of how I classify myself when asked. My questions lie in how your religion relates to how committed (for lack of a better word) you are to the vision of American society. I don’t see the connection. I don’t see how not believing in a God, or following the Muslim faith would lead someone to automatically also fall into the category of being un-American. Personally, I don’t see myself as being particularly against the American vision. It’s interesting to me that I may be the recipient of the same kinds of attitudes that Muslims experience from some American people if atheism was something else, something that was displayed from the outside. That statistic really makes me feel more connected to this issue that I thought I was previously.
After first reading the article, I found that this is a really cool idea for students to see how the world reacts to Muslims in our country. I think it’s very important to be able to see from the place of other people’s shoes and not only will this greatly impact their lives, but the stories that they will have and tell from their experiences will help other people to understand, grow and learn. I imagine that it must be scary to know what sort of reactions you might get throughout this journey but in the end that’s the point…to experience something that will shake you. I am also not completely certain that this journey will present the group with exactly the results they are looking for. For instance, the fact that they are traveling as a group and there are people documenting may show people that this group is looking for a particular answer and so they respond in that way. Not to say that they may not get dramatic results. I am not sure if I heard this correctly, but I think at one point in the video at the end of the blog they say that nobody even bothered to notice the girl. Part of me when I heard this wondered if this was partly due to the fact that she was surrounded by other white people and there was a camera crew around them. This does not exactly present the typical, “normal” situation for something to occur or an act of discrimination to take place. However, overall I think that this group will still learn a great deal and their results will be life changing.
I thought it was interesting in the article how it says that by the middle of the century, one out of four people will be Muslim. I think that people, myself included, need to start becoming more educated because this statistic is huge. I think that the various prejudices and stereotypes that exist in our minds are stupid because there are so many more people out there that we are judging that really do not deserve it. Yes, someone who looked like them may have done something bad to our country. But, that is really no basis to judge someone. It is absolutely true that “America-as a superpower, as a world leader- needs to be able to interact in a positive way with one-fourth of the world’s population.” These people have a lot to offer to us and I think we need to embrace it. This project is a great idea and I think that many more people should be experiencing stuff like this. I think that documentaries and videos and “experiments” like this really help to show people what is occurring and move people. I know in high school my grade watched a documentary about the invisible children in Africa and the results of watching it were extraordinary. My high school is the number one school in the country to raise money to build schools for the kids in Africa and it has truly impacted my classmates’ lives to make a difference for those kids.
This ones coming from the heart because Im a Muslim. But really now, who dresses like a Muslim no a days. I honestly don’t think Muslims should have, or even want to stick out in a melting pot like America. Sure a woman may wish to cover her head, but nothing more is truly necessary. In the unlikely event that she may want to cover from head to toe, one can do such a thing and not necessarily have to stick out. Men, besides having a beard should not have to stick out in any society. Anyone being different per say is asking for attention weather good or bad. It is in today’s world that one should be able to wear or do whatever they wish, however lets not loose our brother that I like to call common sense. Common sense has been drifting away from society at large slowly and silently as time goes by. Realistically now, who really needs to wear a traditional dress anymore? Its for that reason that I believe anyone trying to stick out, weather for their own cultural reason, or straight up just to stick out, they will get the attention demanded. Granted it’s a little more complicated for women, and one shouldn’t have to avoid certain areas simply because of ignorance found in the area, but lets be realistic for a second. Lets get a fat white guy, wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans and an American flag printed on the front and drop him in the middle of Pakistan. Not necessarily the middle, put him up north, in the mountains where he would get some hardcore confrontation. Obviously the guy will probably be killed and his shirt burned while the people dance around the burning shirt. Shit happens in certain areas, and one should respect and be smart enough to realize that one could very well not be accepted in a certain area. Sure its ignorant, and it is America, but no place is perfect, and peoples ways and thinkings are hard to change. Its truly unfortunate that people are being harassed because of their religion or colour, but that’s life, don’t let it screw your day up. Im a Muslim and I have been treated differently because of that fact here in America, but lets not analyze the fact that shit happens in America. Lets not forget I got an American passport simply because my parents lived here long enough. A Jew couldn’t get a Saudi passport if he and his family lived there for three hundred generations. Wait; Jews aren’t even allowed to enter the country, so lets analyze that for a second before we start criticizing America and it’s ways. A lot of people died a long time ago, and a lot of people have trouble getting over that fact, so let them be angry and ignorant for a few decades.
Why is it that the average American has such a limited understanding of the many religious, political, social, and cultural aspects of Islam? If I were to give an opinion I would say it is due to the fact that much of this information does not directly pertain to their day to day lives. In the instances it actually does mean something to the average American the nature of the relationship is crucial to dictating the viewpoint. On average Muslims have demonstrated time and time again that when given the opportunity they can be incredibly successful in American society. Following this track they come into contact with non-Muslim Americans in settings such as universities and white collar work environments. In such settings interactions occur where people have the opportunity to discuss their backgrounds, answer questions, and expose one another to their respective cultures. During this positive and friendly discourse both parties often learn the other is really not all that different and they could caught a glimpse into the experience of the other fostering greater understanding. On the flipside Americans who are lower on the socioeconomic scale who live in areas with few or no Muslims living in close proximity have a completely different experience with Islam. Much of their experience is influenced by events of a negative nature that include terrorism, war, and energy uncertainties completely blown at of proportion by the mass media, after all if your only experience with a group of people is seeing masses of them cursing your country and burning your flag a favorable or even open opinion towards them can be quite elusive. After all the idea of people simply living their lives in faraway lands is out of sight out mind, but when something happens that is somehow adversely related to them tempers fly, I mean isn’t it interesting that something like a terrorist attack has the power to miraculously transform every ignorant opinionated loudmouth in an expert in international relations/prophet of doom/supreme unquestioned moral authority? We also have to consider that the majority of the enlisted military personal who have the higher causality rates come from lower classes. Combine this with the fact that some much armed military conflict has occurred between Americans and Muslims in recent years. What exactly are people’s gut reactions going to be to that general group of people responsible for the death of their father, son, husband, brother, or friend? However, it would seem that there is hope is slowly emerging out of this tense and frustrating situation. More and more Muslims continue to move into communities where they have never lived before and while there is a fair amount of initial conflict and mistrust it fades over time and the non-Muslim American, through interaction, can start to see their Muslim coworkers, class mates, and neighbors as individuals rather than representatives of a greater group.
After reading the story about the article “Muslim in America”, I had a lot of thoughts going through my mind, all mainly memories. I live very close to New York City, so September 11th had a big impact on me. My town is very diverse and full of people from different countries, cultures, and religions. The period after the announcement came on the loud speaker at school that day, my grade, the sixth, had lunch. One of the very loud, outspoken, “troublemaker” girls in my grade stands up on a table and asks for our attention. We all look at her because we have no idea what is about to happen. She yells to all of us that America deserved what was happening to us and that the Muslim world was going to take over. She proceeds to kick over a garbage can. This girl was Arab and everyone in the cafeteria was silent. We hadn’t seen the news coverage or known what was really going on so it was completely shocking to us that this girl would say this. What had we done? Why did the Muslims hate us? When I went home that day and told my mom, she was mortified. Her words to me, though, were not words of hate towards Muslims or Arabs. She told me that that girl was only one opinion and I shouldn’t let her affect how I see anyone else. After that day, I heard tons of stories on the television about how our country was being so protective and trying to stop people who looked Arab or Muslim at airports and other places. It seemed so awful that these men who terrorized our country makes our view so skewed. We group everyone together and just because certain men in a group are against us, we think that they all do. We are so scared of the things that we do not know about. This past semester I moved in with a new roommate. I saw her last name on Facebook and I’m not even going to lie, I had my stereotypes. I have never been a “racist” person and I’ve grown up to be open and accepting to different cultures, but even open-minded people have prejudices and stereotypes. After living with her and talking to her friends, I have learned so much about the Arab and Muslim beliefs and customs. It is sad to think that people would be scared when I have not met one of them who was a bad person. I think we are holding onto the past and not seeing that one group does not all believe the same thing. It makes me think of the Holocaust or the KKK. Just because a lot of Germans were Nazis and involved in the war, doesn’t mean that all Germans hate Jews. Or in the case of the KKK, not every single white person hated and terrorized blacks. While the numbers may have been large, it just goes to show that a small group of people make majorities look bad as well.
It was very interesting to watch how the Alabama people react to Arabs or women wearing a veil. Surprising I had such an incident here in state college. We were going to Wal-Mart with my friend’s mother who has a veil on. And since the first day I came here I never felt offended or nobody ever gave me a dirty look for being Arabs. But this time it was different. My friend just parked her car and her mom came out of the car. He opened the door and was one inch away from touching the car next to us. She didn’t even touch the car. The guy who owns the car got so mad and started insulting us and calling us “You Arabs. “You think you can come here and do whatever you want because you have money. My friend’s mother just said I’m sorry but it didn’t touch your car. He’s like I’ll make it on the way out I’ll make sure to scratch your car. Just imagine how offended the mother felt. I’m sure she gets that a lot from people I Europe and in the states. She gets insults and dirty looks because she wears a veil. And for some reason the Islam nation is viewed as a terrorist nation that’s full of violence and hate. It’s either that or they have no clue why some people have a veil on. Sometimes I feel that people in the United States are to self-indulged in their nation that they don’t bother educating themselves to know more about the world. Sure, the United States of America is a huge nation where most people don’t need to know about the outer world to survive. But it doesn’t mean that you should be ignorant of other religions and cultures. As is people come to the United States expecting this great nation that knows everything about the world where people understand but it comes as a shock once they are here and notice how people don’t know anything about what’s going on in the world. They have the most advanced technology and most of them live a great life but yet they don’t make use of it. They just ignore it and become more sucked into their nation. You call races names, did you ever think of how people view you. They view the United States as amazing and from time to time invaders but yet we have the heart to respect when not being disrespected. On the other hand, some of the Americans judge without knowing what it means or the belief Muslims have. I just believe that people should make time for themselves to educated themselves and know more about other religions and cultures.
Cayla Rasi
It really is amazing to this that people can judge, fight, and verbally badger other people because they say that “their religion is wrong.” You are right, in your blog you say that a lot of people do not know about specific religions and are not educated about them and yet they are judging people who do worship a certain way.
Hello!?! Would a lawyer go into a court room and not learn both sides of a case in order to perform his/her best? Everyone needs to learn about other religions because may be then, people would be able to at the very least, respect one another and understand that not everyone thinks a certain way.
I found the following statistic interesting (the one you gave in your blog): five in ten believe Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence. I actually recently read a book titled “The trouble with Islam today” and it is all about the judgements and assumptions that are made about Islam. This statistic surprises me now, only because I have taken the time to learn about Islam and learn what the religion is all about. I also had several questions that I wanted to answer myself, because I no longer wanted to judge people based on assumptions that I had made (along with other people). One of those assumptions is “Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence.” Here is what I discovered about that: Islam is a very peaceful religion, and what has allowed the Taliban to be so violent, what has been the key source for the killings, and bombers – it’s is the manipulation of the sacred religious text.
I wonder how many Muslims in the middle east know how to read. I wonder about this statistic because I think to myself: if everyone knew what their sacred text was actually saying, would they allow the violence to continue? I know from the book “the trouble with Islam today” that many Muslim women are not educated and can not read. So when you think about it, how can they know what religion they are following if they can not even study it themselves!? They are being told by fathers, brothers, and husbands what to think about the religion – and at that moment when those men are telling women what they need to do because their religion “says so” that is their opportunity to manipulate the sacred words to mean something else.
Before people start making accusations about another religion, they need to study the religion first. I know that this is not possible, for people to take the time and study another religion that they already seem to despise—but imagine if people did learn about other religions, then we would all at least be able to respect each other and our beliefs, we may not want to follow a specific religion and practice that religion, but we could at least understand each other and stop these continuous religious wars!
It is amazing that people are traveling around and educating people about their religion. More people need to listen!
What an intriguing and eye-opening experiment! Akbar Ahmed and his team of student’s have shown a lot of courage, courage that I don’t know if I would have been able to show. These college students, who are just slightly older than, have taken time out of their lives to be a part of a very interesting social experiment. Traveling across the United States pretending to be something they are not, pretending to be something that not many would wish upon their worst enemy in this post 9-11 world, to see how their fellow American’s would react. What guts that must have taken.
Although Sam has again looked at the bad in this situation, saying that they were treated coldly or with detached respect or perhaps benign indifference, I must disagree. I am an eternal optimist. My optimism about the world and especially America’s positive reception to others unlike themselves, makes me believe that this was not a failure but a small success in race relations. And the group’s trip to Arab, Alabama, even with Hailey Woldt dressed in traditional Muslim garb, is a prime example. This particular trip shows that even in the least excepting part of the country, the Deep South, minorities can get by and not meet any harsh criticism or threats.
I know that it is not what we as a society should hope, that the minorities can just “get by” but this is a huge improvement in our country’s journey towards equality.
Of course we need to improve our education on other religions other than the “norm” in our country. And of course we need to increase our awareness of other societies and cultures at home and abroad. And we definitely need to increase our overall knowledge of our government’s policies and leaders. But we also need to take in the positive actions when they come around. We need to look at this group’s trip to Arab, Alabama at face value, as a success, as small as it may be.
Alabama and the other confederate states have only been “segregation free” for just over 40 years. It may seem to be a long time coming, and a disgrace that even after 40 years race and religion are still a problem, but the United States is a young country. We still have much to learn. We still have much to grow. Ahmed and his students are helping to spread information and the truth about Islam. They are reaching out to the most uneducated, the most uninformed public and being honest about what the Muslim world and their “mysterious, violence encouraging” religion really stand for. It’s a social experiment that is hitting an important target. And will hopefully lead to a more accepting nation as a whole.
I really found the “Muslim in America” blog to be very interesting and a real eye opener. I believe that this piece really showed how ignorant people in America can be and how it easy it is for us as a people to pass judgment on people religions that we have no idea about. I believe that as a film major and as someone who wants to travel the world and make documentaries that this was a great project to be a part of. This really proved to me that Americans are very uneducated when it comes to topics that are concerned with race and religion. I believe that the Islam religion is a religion that most Americans are very uneducated about but because of the events of September 11th, 2001. I can also blame myself as an individual for not knowing much about other religions and for casting a judgmental on other peoples religions that I know very little about.
I believe that this project shows that Americans are not acting out violently towards others that are different from them but are rather confused at what other people are like. I believe that to a lot of people religion is the backbone to their lives and it something that is very important to them. A lot of people believe that their faith is something that molds and shapes their personality and how they live their lives. I also believe that people are more concerned with their own faith rather than having to educate themselves on other religions. I believe that because we are too lazy to research other peoples’ religions we are confused as to what they really believe in and what they are all about. I believe that having the students dress up as Muslims and really feel what it is like to walk around in their shoes they were able to learn more than they ever would have sitting in a classroom. I believe that this helped them open their eyes to really see and feel what it is like to be considered “different” in our country, and to really feel what these people go through on a daily basis.
I think this is such a great project to show the world that not all Americans are so (as Akbar would put it), “malign”, and that the people in the video were actually pretty nice. I especially respect the blond female in the video because she does not jump to conclusions in that she does not want to offend the dressed Muslim girl from Texas. I want to commend Akbar for his work to see how Americans would react to someone different within a certain area, i.e. Muslims in a deep southern town. I wonder how this project would have gone if they replaced the Muslim female with an African American, in which I wonder how the town would have received this type of person. I truly think this video shows the hearts of Americans these days, especially eight and a half years since September 11. I think if this video were shot about five years ago, the perceptions of people may have been different. However, I also do think that because the person is a female, I don’t think the Whites’ perceptions of a female Muslim would be as strong as what a male Muslim would be, since all of the September 11 attackers were males (not to accuse or stereotype).
This video has brought up certain thoughts that I have always had throughout this Sociology class. I have always wondered how people would react to other “non-normal” people within their area. For example, I have always wondered how a cowboy would be taken in a black ghetto of downtown Philadelphia, or vice versa, a gangster that is taken to the middle of nowhere in Texas and how those people are perceived in such a town.
I still think that many Americans have a great heart and are understanding to the different cultures and religions that other people have. However, the statistics shown still show that some Americans have a hard time dealing with things from the norm. Many still believe that Islam teaches violence within the religion, but that is certainly not the case. I think the reason Americans believe this, is because “one bad apple spoils the batch” ideal. The media shows terrorists that have violent backgrounds that are Muslim, and I believe the American public gets these ideals from what they are shown. I truly think that American citizens need to educate themselves about other cultures and religions, for those people belong to our country as well! I certainly believe that if Islam taught ideals of violence, there certainly wouldn’t be as many followers as there are today! I think Sam brought up a good point a few weeks ago, and I wonder if many middle-eastern people believe we are “murderers” because of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A quarter of the world’s population is a significant amount. Yet the majority of America does not take the time to familiarize itself with the religion. As Sam said, is this really any surprise to anyone? Speaking for myself, my high school had a comparative religions class. In this class we compared all sorts of religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism, but we spent considerable time on Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Because of this and my own personal fascination of religions, I feel as though I’m in the upper echelons of American society regarding knowledge of other religions.
I was somewhat surprised to find that small towns were so outwardly accepting of these people dressed as Muslims. Coming from central Pennsylvania, I know there are a lot of small towns around me, mostly white, that are not very accepting of other cultures or peoples. Even a lot of my friends from Penn State just assume that I am an intolerant racist because of where I am from. I then quickly have explain to them that no, that is not the case and that I’m not from the mountainous areas they assume. I am from Harrisburg, five minutes from the city. This provides for a very suburban lifestyle, not rural much like my friends like to think.
One thing I found interesting in the story itself was that they mentioned that when the girl had full Muslim garb on she was thoroughly checked at security in an airport. Is this wrong? Are we, as Americans, wrong to profile people dressed in Islamic dress, considering them more dangerous then everyone else in the general population just because of their theistic beliefs? Or, is it just human nature to be concerned about safety? And at what point do we go too far in ensuring our safety? Having just flown to Jacksonville, Florida, I know the airport can be an extremely stressful place. Everyone is concerned about getting to their destination on time and safely. Because of this heightened tension can you really blame someone for feeling a little nervous when they see someone with a turban on praying to themselves in Arabic? Maybe he’s just praying because he is as nervous as you are. Maybe not. I think people’s biggest fears are of things that they do not know. Arabic and Islam in general are very foreign concepts to people in America. Even the practicing Muslims in the United States are not overtly obvious in there practices so it is not always easy to tell. This foreign concept is what I think causes everyone to be nervous about it. All in all though, I think that knowledge of the religion can go a long way for the ignorance that’s out there and can significantly help the tensions between people.
To be perfectly honest, I do not entirely understand why the researchers elected to conduct this experiment in the manner they did. Obviously as a participant in the experiment, it gave the students a first-hand account of what it is like to be a Muslim, but as far as I could tell from the article, the experiment gained nothing truly informational to share with the public, because the cameras were in full view; of course local citizens were on their best behavior. And maybe this is just putting on display my naïveté, but I think you really have to spend a lifetime in a Muslim’s shoes to get a sense of the racism, because I sense that very little of it is overt, at least when the party being hated is present. At the very least, most people know that the majority of people would look down upon any explicit racism. To me, this experiment seems to be modeled like the first phase of most spy movies, when the protagonist meets face to face with the antagonist, possibly over a game of blackjack, and exchanges coded threats and gains no real information. Maybe I am being overly cynical, but useful racism experiments should be modeled after the ones we learned about in class, where the white experience is compared to the black experience, but substituting Muslims for blacks, or more compellingly, using all three groups. The students should have gone undercover as the sort of person they were interacting with, leaving their ivory tower, and instead of attempting to understand the feelings of an ignorant person through the lens of a Muslim, they should have attempted to understand where American extremism towards Muslims comes from by playing the role of the ignorant. Essentially what I am saying is, if these students actually expected people to be incredibly outwardly racist, just because they were in a small town, even with cameras rolling, then they are detached from reality. It does not surprise me in the slightest that they did not experience extreme prejudice and discrimination, and it should not have surprised them. Just like the Muslims they are defending, most Americans are decent folks too.
Despite all of that overly critical writing, the message that the group is trying to express is hugely important. The basis of all prejudice is ignorance of the facts. And who can blame people when the old news they get is the sensationalized garbage that the media spoon feeds us. Exposure to Muslims and knowledge about the religion- the true religion, not the extremist minority version of it- is essential to eliminating prejudice. Hopefully, the group was at least able to expose the isolated residents of the locations they visited to true Islam, and were able to share that Islam is extremely similar to our Christianity. After all, familiarity breeds liking, and obviously so does understanding.
I think that the reason the people in this experiment experienced south hospitality is because of the fact that the white people were afraid to treat them blatantly different. While it seems (from what they said) that they were treated nicely, I would have liked to hear what people at surrounding tables were saying about them. I doubt it would have been as nice. I think people did not want to treat them badly to their faces because of something mentioned earlier in the blog: the fact that “five in ten (Americans) believe Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence.” People do not want to treat someone badly that they fear would act violently toward them. So many people at other tables, people from a distance, could have been saying really intolerant and bigoted things, but the documentary is unable to capture that. The white woman in the video demonstrated what Sam has been saying in class for the past few lectures, the fact that white people don’t like to get in open discussions of race. The white woman in the video said she didn’t want to answer all their questions fully because she didn’t know anything about their culture. Most Americans don’t know much about Muslim culture.
The reason that many Americans have negative views toward Muslims is because they are uneducated about that culture. They do not see Muslims in their towns and they do not learn about Muslims in their schools or through the media. Since most do not know about Arab culture, they make generalizations based on the few things they have heard. Most uneducated Americans connect the terms Muslim, Arab and Islam to the September 11th attacks and therefore think that all people associated with Islam are terrorists or at least they are dangerous. This ignorance is one of the leading reasons why there is intolerance and bigotry in America. For this, I believe all people should be required to take a course like our Soc 119. I do not know how this would work (how we could do this), but I truly believe it would lead to a better society. Maybe if it could be instituted as a required high school course. Some high school students are too immature to learn things of this nature though, so an alternative could be having universities require it. If Sam could try to convince Penn State to require it, that would be a great start, and later the race relations project could extend out to other universities. Knowledge, or lack thereof, is a huge cause of racism and intolerance and the quicker we are able to educate everybody, the quicker we can clear up race relations.
First, I just want to say that it must have taken a lot of courage to actually perform a study such as this and, I find it very humbling to come across professors and students alike willing to put themselves in these situations to further knowledge of the subject to better the rest of society. After reading this article, I think the line that really took me aback was when the American woman asked “do they love their children?” Questions like these really do go to show that despite the fact that most Americans do not go out of their way to learn about the Muslim culture this does not, by any means, stop Americans from suspecting the worst. Frankly, I find this statement rather sad. I feel as though any parent, regardless of culture or race is going to love their child and the mere fact that this woman could make such a broad generalization about Muslims me wonder if she views Muslims as regular human beings, clearly not if she assumes that it is not in their human nature to love their children.
Secondly, I did not find it particularly surprising that when Hailey Woldt put on the black abaya in Alabama she was not verbally abused and declined service, as she had expected. In this day, and age I feel as though people are much more conscious of what they are saying. It is the norm and vastly encouraged to be “politically correct.” So, it would seem that even if those individuals who gave her weird glances and stares had not said anything it does not necessarily mean that they were not thinking anything negative about her. It also may have been to her advantage that Woldt’s has blue eyes and appears to be Caucasian, people may not consider her a “true Muslim.” In addition, I think the lead researcher had it right when he pegged the people’s reactions in the café as being “intentionally blind.” They would simply take a quick glance and look away. Finally, I think the fact that Hailey went into the restaurant with all men probably influenced the situation also. Plus, the fact that they were filming the entire experience. Therefore, there seem to be a few variables that may bring about results that would not coincide 100% with how real Muslims are treated, although it did seem to shed some light on how Muslims may be treated in the South.
Furthermore, treatment towards individuals different from Americans seems to vary immensely upon context. If a Muslim is in a large group of people who for some reason or another dislike Muslims or “blame” them for 9/11 than the actions of a few individuals could entice others to join in and treat that individual badly. This could be a factor to what happened with the parade incident. Overall, it is a sad fact that most American’s know little to nothing about the Muslim culture and religion and still jump to radical conclusions about Muslims. If only Americans were given a clearer picture of other cultures through media I feel as though racism would be a much rarer occurrence.
I believe what Akbar Ahmed and his students did was pretty interesting, challenging, and possible scary. Changing your identity and dressing like someone other than yourself is not an easy thing. I am amazed by this girl’s confidence for volunteering to put herself in such position. I am sure it was a very interesting challenge for her as well. I would assume in little towns like Arab, people would be shocked to see someone with a different look and religion. Some people can have extreme reaction toward these differences. I personally have heard of many horror stories about racial discrimination and hate crimes. I would not be surprised if the girl wearing hejab got attacked or the people around her got attacked, since she is dressed like a terrorist to some people’s eyes.
I am coming from a bigger city where I have seen people with different colors, cultures, and religions and I truly enjoy all these diversities. These differences add so much to the culture of a city and help the citizens to become more knowledgeable about the world. It was great to see that people did not overreact toward this girl’s Hejab, besides the stares. I would not assume that stares are signs for hatred, thus I believe it could be caused due to curiosity. I stare at people when they look different because it is interesting to me and I want to know more about them and not because I hate them. It is so great to hear that people in such small white places have started to accept other cultures and are able to respect the differences.
One of the major reasons explaining why people used to hate and overreact to people that dressed differently and had a different culture was due to lack of education. I know back in high school most of my friends followed and believed media and never cared much more to go and actually figure out the truth about all these differences. Knowing what it means to be a true Muslim will clarify the fact that Muslims are not supposed to be terrorists. There are only the extremist of the Islamic religion that commit such crimes like 911 and automatically people generalize and judge every Muslim based on that.
Overall, I thought this was an amazing experiment. Traveling around the U.S and watching people’s reaction toward Muslims is an incredible idea. I am thrilled to hear that people treated the girl dressed in Islamic cover nicely and no one overreacted. This shows that people have become more educated and know much more about different cultures than they did 10 years ago.
When I first read this article I thought the experiment was a great idea. For people to actually understand how others are perceived they need to live a day in the life of them. It was great that these people took the time to do that and care enough. Many people would do this and think it’s a great idea, but only a few might actually participate in the experiment, just because they simply do not care enough. My friend’s roommate whom I me this year is muslim and it was the first muslim person I had ever actually had a conversation with her. She was here for the semester and was from Egypt. She rarely mentioned anything about being muslim, but I can say she was definitely one of the nicest people I had ever met. If I were to see her walking down the street there is no way I would be able to point her out and know her religion. It is a sad, but very true thing that these people are viewed so differently. Walking through an airport is probably one of the most difficult things for them because they know that the second they step foot into the airport that they are being judged and many people think that they will take over a plane or other absurd thoughts. It is a horrible thing, but I am going to be honest and say that I, myself have had those thoughts and I am truly embarrassed to say that I would view other people that way just by seeing what they are wearing. These people could probably be the nicest people in the world, but constantly will be judged, especially after 9/11. I think many people have these negative views of muslims because they are not the typical “norm” of the United States. The average person does not go around with their face covered here, and people are scared of new and different things. Also, many people probably had not heard much about muslims before 9/11, so all of their opinions are based solely because that event happened and that is not fair. And, now, the war in Iraq is on the news and it brings the muslim religion into a negative light into the houses of millions of people, and making it worse, children hear it, and know nothing else about the religion, so they grow up being uneducated about it and base their opinions on that. Just because there are a few bad people in the religion, it gives it a bad name. There are probably plenty of people similar in other religions, but they are so common in the United States that no one thinks of it that way.
I think the Muslim project Professor Akbar Ahmed is doing is a real eye opener. It shows how little people know about a different religion and culture. It also shows how people react to them. I completely understand where the statistics come from about American’s thinking them violent and unfavorable because people of their religion attacked us, the United States. I know this was eight years ago but it affected everyone and that does not go away. I am not saying people have a right to judge people they don’t know or the religion they do not completely understand, I just understand where they are coming from. People need to get these Muslims a change and stop putting them in the group of terrorists and Osama Bin Laden.
Our troops have been in the Middle East now for about 8 years. This war is always on the news but what do we really hear about the lives we are fight for over there? We hear about how more Americans were killed or were they are heading next. Why would people want to them more about those people? If the media portrayed some things different people could get a real eye opener and maybe understand a little better. I know there are shows out there that talk about it but not enough people hear them.
It is scary to know how Professor Akbar Ahmed and his team are put in danger for are documentary about people and the reactions and/or knowledge of Muslim people. People are people religion does not change that even though so people seem to forget that. It is just people being racist.
I thought the part in the video where the team talked to those people from Arab, Alabama was really interesting. They had no idea what religion the girl was, no clue. They just associate her with someone from the Middle East. She could be from anywhere in the United States, but people will only see her as from the Middle East. It is the way our country has identified Muslims. I guess it is kind of a stereotype. We have to learn about their culture and religion before we can attempt to see them for a normal person with different a belief.
I wonder how this project affected Professor Akbar Ahmed. He is Muslim and to see so many people clueless about his religion and judge it, I feel like it would be hard. I think it is awesome for him to show people how they act with Muslims. He is also teaching people about the Muslim religion which probably means a lot to him and other Muslims. He is making a stand for Muslims everywhere and for everyone else it is an eye opener.
It always amazing me how many people fall into ignorance. It also amazes me how one event changed the way we feel about a whole society of people forever. Before 9/11 I’m sure most people never really thought of Muslims and Arabs. But after that tragic event the way we feel about Middle-Easterners and Muslims has turned negative. The statistics shown about how Americans feel about Muslims doesn’t surprise me. I myself have to admit that I do not know much about the faith, but I do not have an unfavorable opinion of it. I think it’s important for us to try to put ourselves in their shoes. It must be hard for Muslim-Americans, especially those who dress traditionally, to deal with the prejudice that they do. To me, it is similar to how Americans felt about the Japanese and Japanese-Americans during World War II. We even put Japanese-Americans in internment camps! A lot of our negative feelings towards Muslims stem out of ignorance and fear. I would suspect that the minute I mention the word “terrorism” the first other word or image that would come to mind is an Muslim or a person of Middle-Eastern dissent. As I have read in a few posts by others- I believe the media has a lot to do with this. If the media spent more time educating Americans about the Muslim faith than equating them with terrorists, maybe we’d have less discrimination. Awareness is key when thinking how to fix this problem. I commend the team behind this social experiment. They are brave for taking on this project. We’ve all heard the horror stories of hate crimes. But it’s nice to know that people smile at Muslims. Humanity is much more powerful than we think. People are able to accept a lot more than we think. I was pleasantly surprised to feel about the acceptance these Muslims were reacted with. I do Americans are ignorant in general. I am not saying most Americans are racist or that they are cruel-minded, hate-oriented people. They’re not. Most are just trying to put food on the table and smile on their kids’ faces. Ignorance comes directly from a lack of educated. Most Americans are uneducated about other cultures, races, and religions. They don’t think about it. They don’t have time to think about it. I think if more of us were aware of Muslims we could get rid of some of the discrimination against them. When I read about the statistics that some Americans think the Muslim faith is very different from their own and it is more likely to encourage violence my first reaction was in agreement. But it took me a few seconds to rationally think about it and understand that that is not the case. We need to step away from our first impressions and look deeper. Education is the key to ended ignorance.
The Muslim in America: A Voyage of Discovery is a very inspiring project with a very basic goal – to find out what it is like in a Muslim’s shoes in country that claims “diversity” and “equal opportunity”.
It does not surprise me that individually the crew was “largely treated with detached respect or perhaps benign indifference”. After all, no one would want to be labeled as a “racist”, especially when all fingers would be pointed a specific individual. So even though the survey data says that many people they encountered had negative thoughts about Muslims, people would not exclaim it.
(If you really think about it, it is kind of the “silent racism” prevalent in our country today. We may never admit to it, but we all know it is there.)
It is not uncommon that people’s thoughts are often influenced by their environment or those among them. And as much as someone would hate to be single-handedly pointed out as a “racist”, depending on where one may live in or how one may have grown up, one would hate just as much to be pointed out as “different”. A person would be ostracized just for holding a different belief, even if that belief is the one that brings peace and equality among all.
Wanting to find out more about Journey into America, I decided to go to the link posted on the blog entry which lead me to the project’s active blog. (I was not aware that is a current, ongoing project – which a recent entry of today’s!).
I was very much drawn to the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Muslim Syrian-American who did everything he could to help and rescue victims of Hurricane Katrina. He used his own boat, and offered food and water to all who needed them. He was just an American doing a good deed for a fellow American. But because he looked like a “terrorist”, he was imprisoned. I just don’t get it. They didn’t have anything on him. At all. And it was not as if terrorists caused Hurricane Katrina either. So I don’t understand his capture at all. It is something that would leave me aghast and ashamed – similar to what the blogger wrote.
What is even more appalling is the treatment that Zeitoun received once he was taken. Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty”?
“He underwent humiliating strip cavity searches and was denied a blanket. For three days he languished in the prison and underwent sleep deprivation, handcuffed upright next to a loud generator. “
Not to mention, his starvation because food served always had pork, even though he had explained his religion and beliefs during interrogation. It’s just unbelievable. I do not even know what I would do if I were placed in his position. I do not think I would have the same outlook or reservation as Zeitoun who exclaims that his ordeal was “tame” compared to other Muslims.
No matter how much I look at it, it is devastating to read how these things still happen. No matter how idealistic I would like to forward to, I cannot ignore evident prejudice and maltreatment of people who are just like me – a minority living in America, “land of the free”.
I think the only word to describe the article “Embracing Muslims in the Holy Land” is stereotype. People always place stereotypes on people who are “different” than them or their people. Stereotypes are places on cultures, religions, etc. by almost everybody. They think these people are “weird” because they are not like them and do not have the same religious beliefs or act the same way that they do. I think this is wrong, but some people don’t mean to do it. They get bombarded with these stereotypes by always hearing about them in society and from other people. So they might not mean to be racist or place stereotypes on other people, but they do, and therefore are racist themselves. These label these people from other cultures and religions as “freaks” because they do not fit in by their standards.
I though the article was very interesting. I am a white Catholic who often sees racism and hears of stereotypes often. Over the past week for Spring break, I went to California. I flew out of Newark, New Jersey into San Francisco. I also flew home from Los Angeles back to Newark. So I spent a lot of time in the airports where a lot of stereotypes and racists attitudes come into play. I believe this is mainly a product of the events that happened on September 11, when a terrorist who was of the Islam religion flew a place into our nation’s World Trade Center in New York. These people did this as part of their religion. They thought it was a religious act and that they would go to heaven because of it. Therefore a lot of people in the United States turned their opinions on Muslims as both a hateful and violent culture. This event happened almost 8 years ago, and these views still exist today by many people. They get frightened when they see these people in the airport because they associate the acts committed by those few people and stereotype them as terrorists.
I believe this is true, and this does happen at the airports , but when I went on my trip last week, I saw many “normal” looking white people get pulled aside and searched. Many of the people working in the airport in California were black and Hispanic, so does searching white people in the airports act as racism? Who’s to say no? I saw them pull aside more white people than blacks, Muslims, and Hispanics. I don’t hear any white people complaining about this and labeling it as a racist act.
I don’t think its right for people to look at Muslims differently, but sometimes I think its not really a choice, its just the way they feel inside. They aren’t used to seeing people like this often. Many people are terrified of flying, and when they see these people in the airport who look like the people who attacked our nation on September 11, they get afraid. I’m not saying its right, but that’s the way it is. Hopefully one day we can see these people for who they are, not what they look like or what they wear.
I think this is a great study to uncover some typical American ethnocentrism. Unfortunately, after the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, it created a very bad stigma for Middle Eastern people in America. The American people needed someone to blame, and unfortunately they blamed it on anyone who has dark skin and looks like they are from the Middle East. This can be blamed on lack of education. “Islam became the most talked-about, controversial, debated, hated and, really, mystified religion in America.” and yet the people who hate it, know nothing about it. They obviously are not educated on the extremist group who carried out the attack. Those Muslim extremists are an extremely low minority.
It is a shame that a nation can destroy someone someone’s identity. The Muslim identity has come under severe attack, especially after September 11th. While talking to people in their research, they found that Muslims were extremely uncomfortable with their identity. One woman was even strong enough to say that she hated it (her Muslim identity) and that she wanted to simply fit in. It is terrible to think that a normal person cannot even be comfortable with herself due to the ignorance of other people.
When watching the video I noticed that the researchers had a pretty bad mentality going into Arab, Alabama. They were expecting bad attitudes and possibly even violence. Sometimes, carrying this attitude will simply create additional bad attitudes. I am sure the researchers did experience some weird looks while walking down the street; however, this always is not a bad thing. These towns are predominately white and Christian and have little experience with Muslim people. Difference is usually noticed, and being noticed is not always a malicious thing. The people they met in Arab were friendly and quick to inform the researchers that they did not know anything about Arab culture. Unfortunately, lack of education can lead to prejudice, stereotypes, and racism. There are always a few closed minded bad eggs that will ruin it for everybody.
When visiting a foreign country it is only expected to be seen as different. It is not a bad thing because you are different. When traveling through Europe, I knew I was different and I was treated differently. This did not bother me and I expected it. I had a different culture, different views, and ate different food. What I did not expect was people to judge me because I was different. This is something that we have to overcome. Prejudices can be detrimental to relationships, institutions, and culture. I believe that prejudice will always exist; however, one way to overcome this is through education. A good way to become educated in another culture is simply through experience. Instead of passing prejudgments, go talk to the person, do not be ignorant, and admit your lack of knowledge in their culture.
Ignorance. Watching the video at the end of this blog post made my mind go straight to the word ignorance. In our society igonorance has a definite negative connotation, but really is it fair for us to expect everyone to know everything about everything? I’m sure there are a lot of cultural things in the South that we would stare at and judge and be ignorant towards. But at the same time I think ignorance is sad. It represents the lack of knowledge a person has about other cultures. The people who were interviewed from Arab knew that they didn’t know anything about the woman’s outfit and religion and therefore would not make assumptions. It’s great that they won’t make assumptions, but it’s sad if they don’t actually try to learn about the religion, after having this experience. I think ignorance is fine until you are exposed to a difference. If at this point you don’t open up and try to learn, then you truly are the negative version of ignorance.
I think this experiment is so, so interesting. It’s amazing that they have been able to create a situation where a person who would normally fit-in can experience what it is like to be the outsider in one’s own country. I’m not at all surprised by the reaction, or non-reaction, of the people in the town of Arab. I would have been incredibly surprised if people had been violent- maybe not so much if they made some comments. I think that we are truly mostly raised with political correctness in mind, and amongst friends may discuss the “outsiders” but will very rarely confront someone about it…especially if they are in a group. In this situation I also wonder if the fact that the woman dressed in the Islam outfit (sorry, I don’t know what it’s called- I guess I’m ignorant as well and should look that up) looks caucasion with blonde hair and blue eyes had anything to do with the lack of a reaction. It would be very interesting to do this experiment again with different people and see how the reactions would or would not vary.
I think it’s extremely sad that so many people do not know anything past what they have seen on the media about Islam. But then again, I think the a lot of people don’t ever try to truly learn and understand other religions. Religion is a touchy subject, just like race, and it’s a hard one to explore and understand other religions if you are devout to one. Therefore it doesn’t really surprise me that so few people know about Islam. Honestly, I know the basics, but not much more than that…and for me to learn more, all I would have to do is a Wikepedia search. But for me, whether someone is Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, I really don’t care. And so if I do meet someone who is Islam it doesn’t make me think of them differently. Unfortunately for a lot of people it would.
Marlon Chopra
I definitely agree that most Americans know nothing about Muslims. I somewhat can understand how most of they think that way too. The United States and many of her inhabitants are very close-minded, shut off people. They sit in their bubble and are only concerned with what is happening in and around their bubble. But you better not mess with that bubble because then you’re going down. Americans like to take whatever they hear on the TV or from other people and run with it. Many of them never feel the need to try and verify this information they have received. Many take what they hear as gospel. This is not just one group; Whites, Blacks, Asians, etc. Many westerners think this way. . Now, I personally do not know a whole lot about Muslims and the people of Islam, definitely not enough to tell anyone about it, but I am not in the dark about it. I have done research on my own, trying to learn more about it. Not a whole lot of research, but more than most.
. I know how many of the Muslim students on that trip feel. Most Americans know nothing about my religion, Hinduism. Many of them think they do, but they have no idea, this is the diary of a Hindu. Sorry, I had too. I know how it feels to have people completely butcher my religion and what it stands for because they feel they are cultured and are the almighty. I personally hate it. I hate when people try to tell me about my religion. I hate hearing people talk about things they know nothing about. I hate it when they spread their uniformed “knowledge” onto others because the other people don’t know that it’s complete balderdash. That goes back to what I was talking about before. Many Americans take what they hear as gospel. They take what they heard verbatim and then go spew the useless nonsense to other people. I especially hate it when people tell me my religion is wrong and their’s is right; don’t do that. Don’t try to force your belief system on me. I can never see why people have to do that. I can never see why people just won’t let others have their own beliefs and respect that people think differently than them.
I felt bad for the kids though. I felt bad that they have to go through the issues that have aroused because they are Muslim. Especially for the guy that had the problems in high school.
I don’t think most Americans think that Muslims and the people of Islam are terrorists, but I would not put it past them. Sometimes I am awe struck with what comes out of people’s mouths and what they think. I definitely think that some people think this, but not a majority. It’s a sad reality that there will always be people that automatically think the worst of people.
I think the whole road trip around the US, to better inform the public is a great idea. I love road trips in general, but a road trip with a cause is cooler. I love that they are pleasantly surprised with the reactions they get. I myself would have thought that they would get hateful and rude reactions from people, but they seem to be getting warm welcomes. It’s an enlightening experience for both groups; the students on the trip and the people they are encountering. I hope the trip continues to open people’s eyes and minds and we move closer to a more accepting America.
I think it is a wonderful idea of having students travel the country and embrace another cultures. This should happen more in today’s society. In classrooms, all we ever do is just “talk” about different situations and how you would handle it, but in a class like professor Ahmed’s, you would be thrown into the mix and actually live though what others go through on a daily basis. Types of classes should be offered like this everywhere. I think it would fit into a race relations class. It kind of sparks my memory of when we were shown the skit with the black man who dressed up to be white, even though it was meant to be funny it made a loud statement. Everyone jumps on the word discrimation to define these sometimes misintruppted acts of “racism”. I personally think that it is just because people aren’t educated enough on the different surroundings and situations that might come up. I don’t think people mean to descrimate but its just a gray area that people need to be educated on. A class like this forces you as a student to think outside the box, as well as help inform the public that your interacting with what is going on with the issue you are trying to iron out. I think 9/11 has a huge part in discrimating against Muslims but I feel as though people need to accept the fact that it happened and the profiling is part of security measures. I’m not saying its right but it is just the reality in society. I also think that people associate the Islam religion as bad. We, as Americans just aren’t educated in the religion. Lets be honest…I don’t think people fully understand their own religion sometimes. Islam shouldn’t be associated with something bad. If you were to analysis every religion, I’m sure you could find something bad to say with each one. Overall, I think this professor’s journey with his students is a great idea. I would love to see something like this catch on all over the country. It would be cool to see a type of class like this explore all different cultures that aren’t fully understood. Professor Richards states in his blog, “Second, for as much as Islam is in the news these days, and has been in the news for the past eight years, people don't seem to know much about the religion. Nobody should be surprised by this--and yet I continue to feel my head shake back and forth in wonderment. (Keep in mind that half of all Americans cannot name the U.S. Vice President at any one moment because, as one might imagine, it's not an easy thing to keep track of between episodes of the Real World and American Idol...and searching out good deals at Wal*Mart.)”
Even though I do agree with this statement. Why are we comparing it to TV shows. Religion is much more important. I understand his point when he says people care more about who is dating who but at the same time entertainment news is sort of stimulating and exciting. The people who want to know more about a certain religion will take the time to learn and hopefully educate others into knowing more.
First I’ll address my views on the reported ignorance of the American people towards the religion of Islam and politics in general. Although it should probably be common knowledge who the vice president is at any given moment, I really don’t think that criticizing people on their lack of political knowledge is productive. If I could take a rough guess as to where politics would stand on my list of priorities in life, I’d bet that it would be at around number 45, behind football and shark week – and I’m not ashamed to say so. I think that something even worse than someone who doesn’t know the name of their local representative or current Secretary of State is someone who criticizes those people and then turns around and criticizes the government for being corrupt. Of course it’s important to know about issues of the world that matter…but the names of our government officials are not important to me whatsoever. To be knowledgeable of the religions of the world and those that belong to the people of the United States is important, but I don’t think that we can look down upon the people who aren’t aware. Maybe we should criticize the system of education that taught them? Or the media who reports on the situations going on in relation to the religion but not the actual religious doctrine or customs? As far as the experiment goes, I found myself buying into the southern stereotype of racist white people and was a little bit ashamed after I watched the video and realized how wrong it is to assume that people are racist or non-accepting just because they live in the south. I think that the video shows that the people conducting the experiment were guilty of the same prejudices that they were attempting to expose.
The actress posing as a Muslim went as far as to say that she was actually afraid that people of the town of Arab would become violent and actually attempt to hurt her just because of her outfit. It was refreshing to be pleasantly surprised by their kindness and indifference but I doubt that the surprise became front-page news or a twist in this man’s book. Instead of seeming surprised and pleased with the results, the conductors of the experiment seemed disappointed that they didn’t uncover cruelty and bigotry, which to me is disappointing. Not all southern white people are racists. It is a potentially offending stereotype and a common misconception, just like the misconception that all Iraqis are American-hating terrorists or the generalization that many Iraqis are guilty of, that all Americans are Christian killers. I think that this experiment had the opposite effect than the one that the conductors had hoped, and I’m glad. The actions of the people of Arab should show us that many stereotypes and generalizations are mostly false and that buying into them is wrong.
This was a very interesting experiment. At first I was a little surprised that the people in Arab, Alabama were seemingly indifferent to the student dressed like a Muslim. Even the student in the beginning of the movie clip admitted her fear of violence. It was interesting to see that people instead generally looked once and then looked away. I think it would be more interesting, however, to listen in on the conversations, or hear the thoughts of the people that looked away. I think we would find suspicion and maybe even hatred behind their blank expressions.
It seems that people in general are afraid of as well as intrigued by things they do not understand and this is especially true with other cultures and religions. It is likely that many people in Arab, Alabama as well as many of the American towns this group visited have never before seen a Muslim in person. Undoubtedly, their perception of the religion and people comes directly from what they view on television, which is vastly negative as well as terrifying. This is outlined sadly by the woman Sam quoted asking if Muslims love their children. This basic question really sheds light on the views that many Americans hold toward this religion, especially considering that loving your own child is a fundamental part of being human. This question almost is implying that Muslims are something alien and evil and do not share even the most basic aspects of a “normal” person. The statistics of how little Americans know about Islam also demonstrate the vast ignorance of our population. I find it extremely depressing that people are unable to see the parallels between Islam and Christianity, and to understand that we worship the same God. I believe that if this were possible, our hatred and anger would dissipate and race relations would improve immensely. In our culture, however, it is very easy to get lost in the negative news portrayals and forwarded emails without looking much deeper. I find it striking how willing people are to accept the things they hear about groups they do not understand.
I also find it extremely sad that we as a society allow this to happen. We seem to love to hate other people, groups, or institutions, and the media only fuels the fire. If the truth is not interesting, the story will be spun to catch the attention of viewers. Only one side will be told giving people a false perception of the story. Because of this I dislike watching American news as you are bombarded with a glamorous story spun in the direction of whatever political party that station sides with.
Maybe it is very negative of me to assume, but I would be curious to hear about the negative experiences that this group encountered when traveling around the world. I know that the article said that even when in small towns, no one was down right mean. But we have read so many articles lately about people who complete extremely ignorant acts without fear of its publication. And a lot of these articles deal with blacks. A race America has been used to hating. Not in a sense that people of color are hated by all, but in a sense that racism against Africans and African Americans is deeply rooted in society. The Muslim culture was not as prevalent, or maybe just not as noticed until after 9/11. I would almost assume that because it is a new fear, a new “other” that the actions would be more irate and ignorant. But maybe the positive sides to these encounters have to make me start believing that change might really be possible.
I believe that change is possible, but it will take time. It will take time because it is fear that runs the show most of the time. People are insecure and looking to others in order to find what they think they are supposed to be. And when they feel threatened by an outside culture they don’t understand then that fear turns into hate. 9/11 created a hate that mixed the unknown with the misrepresented. It made Americans view Muslims “unfavorably,” although Americans really know nothing about Muslims at all.
I am not sure what it is that keeps us not only ignorant, but also uninterested in finding out more. The majority of Americas will waste more time on Real World and American Idol. They don’t care to travel. They don’t care to open their minds. Is it fear that keeps that the trend as well? So many people make assumptions without ever stopping to find the truth. That isn’t only true when it comes to race relations, relations between cultures, or relations between religions, but it is also true of relations between those of the same color and background. We make assumptions based on hairstyle, the way someone dresses, and the manner in which they speak. We assume we know where they come from or what they will stand for simply by watching them in line in front of us at the grocery store. Am I wrong in thinking that insecurity and fear is what is driving this? What are we so threatened by? And how can we convince people to stop and take a second look or rewire their thinking to look for evidence, instead of making assumptions?
In Soc 001 Dr. Richards gave a lecture on death and how in our fear of death we really aren’t truly living. Death is only a part of what gets in our way; WE get in our own way. We really need to accept that fact that we are all going to die. We will all rot the same way (as gruesome as it sounds.) And when we acknowledge that then life can become about the soul, about the inner beauty we all have to share, a beauty hidden by societies demands; demands that cause fear.
It is obvious that the film crew dressed as Muslims set out to find some answers. More people should try to step into a different world, a different set of shoes and try for once to really get to know the people we share the world with.
Initially right after I read in the article that someone was doing a project to see how Americans would treat someone dressed as a Muslim and how they felt about Islam I was quite skeptical of a positive outcome. My initial reaction was that I would soon read further along in the article that this project or experiment however you may want to call it, would cause a major outburst of anger, rage and hatred from the American’s side towards the person acting as a Muslim. However, as I continued to read, I was quite surprised by what the people doing the experiment had to say about some of their encounters along the way. First of all, I wanted to also express that before reading this blog I had never heard of this experiment as well as I think that it is a very interesting idea because, when sitting and thinking about it, I would too wonder what Americans actually think about Islam and Muslims beside all the American stereotyping and beliefs post September 11th. I definitely do agree with the statement of the fact that Americans in reality don’t know much about the religion of Islam at all which might be the reason that there is a lot of hostility towards it. Its very easy to hate or not have an open mind towards something that one is not familiar with, even despite that the religion has been so publicly highlighted in the news in recent years. To me its honestly shocking that someone in a country like America that claims to be so well educated and advanced compared to other countries can have people living in it that ask question such as, “do they love their children?” by no means and I saying that this person was a bad person for asking this question, I just think that I am more shocked myself that someone can be so naïve or clueless about a religion and ethnicity that is so large.
I think that what this professor is doing is a great thing. I believe the article said that there were over 7 million Muslims living in America today. With some many of them being here and living among us as neighbors, schoolmates co-workers, etc, we as a society and nation should have an obligation to try and learn about their culture and history. I think that if people knew more about their culture, a lot of internal hostility towards the unknown would be resolved and peoples minds and ideologies would be changed and would improve for the better, after all, knowledge is power.
After September 11, 2001 and all the tragedy surrounding that day, America has viewed Arabs and Muslims in a completely different view. Before this date, they were treated indifferently, and now people see Muslims and Arabs as terrorists or potential extremists that are associated with the Al Quada. Reading this blog and the article that went along with it, I was a little surprised by the civility of the response received by those dressed as Muslims or the actual Muslims in the group. I knew that not many Americans could name who the recent or previous Vice president of the United States was, which most definitely says something about the citizens of America. We may take the time to watch our sitcoms and keep up with every episode of American Idol, but we don't keep up with political and global issues that are more prevalent and important than who is America's next top model. The experience of Craig Consadine shows the underlying issues involving Americans and Muslims in America. They just do not see eye to eye. Not only that, Americans are uneducated in religious issues, and really refused to find out the truth but insult what they do not know. Jonathan Hayden talked about how he met a woman who had not never met a Muslim but did not know if they loved their children or not. That shows that she did not think of them as they thought of Americans and did not even see them as real people. Many Americans have yet to meet an actual Muslim or have a chance to react to them. Because of Saddam and the Taliban Americans see all Muslims as associated with that and not as true Americans even if they were born here. The professors experiment showed that Americans do not really know how to react when they see Muslims cause they immediately think badly of them. How ever he helped to enlighten them and show them that there is much more to Muslims than what Americans have seen in Saddam and the Taliban. Americans can not base their opinion of Muslims off of just one group of people because that would be like if every other country thought every American was fat and lazy. I think that Muslims are still discriminated against in air ports and the checks are not as random as the people who work there claim them to be. I know I have been stopped and questioned before cause I am brown. I know Muslim Americans who were born here who get strange looks for wearing head dresses or covering up completely in hot weather; I feel that Americans should learn to accept and respect and be open to other religions and groups of people that they are not familiar with.
I was really struck by this article when Ahmed pointed out how Islam was mystified in the United States after 9/11. Although, after 9/11 the fear and disconnect with Islam became more apparent, if you look closely you’ll find that even prior to 9/11 we’ve had an estranged conception not of just Islam, but also of the entire eastern culture.
One component of this lack of cultural understanding is what the media teaches us to think about Muslims. We rarely see anything other than oppressed women and violent men. Rarely is a person of middle-eastern decent casted in a role representing the average American citizen. By portraying people, we commonly associate, with the image of Muslim as fundamentally different than the way we are, the people of our country start to adopt this belief as well. The sad thing is that Americans are quick to ignore other cultures. We feel that since we’re the most important and powerful people we don’t need to pay attention to others. So, it’s rare that we actually take any initiative to understand their culture, and religion is a huge part of their culture.
9/11 confirmed my belief that fear fuels hate. I truly believe that if we were all give the information that allowed us to understand who was actually responsible for the attacks on the twin towers, and the horrifying amount of casualties resulting from the attacks, that regardless of who was responsible it wouldn’t have lead to racism. Racism is linked to misunderstanding. An educated person wouldn’t make assumptions based on the color of one’s skin.
But it is scary to know that it’s not just stupid people. There are even smart people that are subconsciously racist. So what can we do? How do you crack the ideology that governs the design and structure of our society without completely changing that structure? And it seems that no one wants to change this structure. Most people are perfectly fine floating through life ignoring it, or assuming there’s no possible solution. And even if there was a simple solution, would the white man want to fix things? Because as of now, it seems that it’s easier for white people to put up their blinders to all the issues minorities in this country face. If they don’t think about the injustice they have no reason to feel guilt for it.
Every decade has its own minority group to turn against, and ours happens to be the Muslim population. It’s sad, but it’s the trade off we make for the society we live it. If we eliminated the negative script that goes along with people of color we would have to change the way we view ourselves. The dominant group may understand for the first time what it is to question racial and religious identity.
This article made me realize how much people really do not know about the Muslim religion, including myself. I have an idea of the basic principles but it surprises me that I have never really thought about researching more about such a common religion. This is not to say that I have ever treated anyone of this religion negatively because of my lack of knowledge, because I know enough where I do not believe that the majority of Muslims are bad people. It is pretty shocking that so many Americans can attribute so many negative thoughts towards people just because they are dressed a certain way. I do however think that the video shows that we are on our way towards less animosity. It seems like although many people may be ignorant, they are willing to learn more about the second most common religion. I have never really understood how religion could play such a big role in society, especially when most are very similar on general goals. A Catholic person could be a bad person just as much as a Muslim could be. The fact that people do not see this is sort of strange. From this project it is comforting to see that even though there are barely any Muslims in “Arab”, Alabama that the people still did not to be too phased by Hailey. They could not even name her religion, but they were still very kind and interested in learning more. I definitely think that the first step towards peace is to understand the views of others. If we could all accept others for their different beliefs there would be no need for war. This is not only the fault of American citizens; however, because much that is portrayed in the media makes us feel a certain way. If a group is represented as an enemy it is hard for many to distinguish among good and bad people. I personally would like to be more educated on the topic so that I can help to spread the correct truth. I am optimistic that we are on our way towards peace and that although everything will not be perfect tomorrow; I have hope that it is not too far away. There are far too many views in the world today to not accept differences. The variety makes life interesting and who is to be the judge about what religion is “right”. We all essentially know the same amount and no matter what we may believe, no one truly knows what comes after death. Regardless of anything else treating others with equality and integrity is essential. There is never any justification for violence and the sooner we realize this the sooner improvements in society will be made.
I think this experiment is inspiring and geared towards the right goals. It is an extremely efficient way to take the problem of West/Muslim relations and make it accessible to the masses. It is an ingenious use of different sociological techniques, which allow the students to experience first hand the foundation of their research and I wish that I could ever have the same opportunity.
To understand something foreign to us, to move forward we need to have a direct experience of that issue. Too often people feel like getting so involved requires too much effort but ultimately it will end up being much more useful to their personal growth and to the development of their research.
Unfortunately people will not make the effort to get information but if students get involved then they might find it easier to relate and get interested.
Ignorance seems to be widespread in America. If something does not seem to be beneficial, then most people will not take the time to care or get information about it. The culture is very profit driven.
This is very regretful because being open-minded and having a thirst for knowledge are an assured way to end inequality. Because once we understand others, once we know what is really going on and can independently chose what to believe from our own research, then communication can be established across physical, cultural, racial and ideological borders.
I am a strong believer that the most important education one can get is through traveling and mingling with other culture. I value that experience much more than a simple college degree. As much as that might mean little to many, I will always respect multiculturalism because hands on experience of others is the only way to move forward.
Any type of knowledge means nothing if it cannot be applied to something physical, if it has no effects in the ‘real world’. Any data can go either way, it is up to us and to those that teach us to lead us toward a positive application of the concept we are being taught.
In regards to my reaction to the people in Alabama, I think that the fact that the veiled girl was alone made her more acceptable. When they were interviewing those people outside the restaurant, maybe the camera presence changed people’s reactions and made them more cautious over their choice of words.
However it was impressive to see that nobody directly attacked her. Again she was a woman, and the only one in that context wearing a headscarf. Furthermore had she been a resident maybe her treatment when she wanted to get a job or get any type of service might have been different. As much as that story is inspiring, it does not speak for the whole of the ‘south’ and as long as people do not have direct experience of something, and have a way of understanding it then they will not accept it.
I found the blog post “Embracing Muslims in the Heartland?” and the article and video posted with it to be interesting on several different levels. My first reaction to this experiment was one of surprise, I like I assume many others figured that these students would be treated harshly and would not be given the respect which they deserve. I found it to be comforting to know that this was not the case and even if they were treated with a sense of apathy it is much better than reactions of bigotry and violence. But where I disagree with Sam is in the statement of, “even in small towns the film crew dressed as Muslims was largely treated with detached respect or perhaps benign indifference”. This statement almost concludes that they were treated this way because of how they were dressed. I feel we all treat people with “benign indifference” everyday and to go up and begin to ask questions, while it may turn into being informative to the party asking the questions, is in reality treating these people dressed in Muslim garb different than one white person may treat another.
The thing which I found most interesting of the posted material was the response on iReport to the video which was posted. An over-whelming amount of people responded by saying this experiment was prejudice in itself and that by classifying the south as red necked bigots the professor and his team were no better than any other prejudice group. This response is somewhat true. Ahmed did select the town of Arab, Alabama because of its believed aversion to races and ethnics different than its own so he did make a premature assumption that this would be a racist community. But if we look at this issue in the sense of the experiment Ahmed and his crew were simply seeking to view racism throughout the United State, which anyone would be naïve to deny existed. I can understand the frustration of the citizens of this community but if they look at this on a larger scale they can see and understand that it was not a direct attempt to portray them personally as racists.
A point which Sam makes that I completely agree with is the lack of general knowledge concerning Islam which many Americans possess. This lack of knowledge contributes to the overwhelming ignorance surrounding this religion and needs to change. I personally learned about Islam in my grade school and high school education only a few times and went through much of my life only knowing small facts about this religion. It is an individual’s personal responsibility to seek out the information needed to become informed about peoples different than them and to help stop the spread of ignorance.
I think that this project is good as an eye-opener for America. After the attacks on 9/11 there was skepticism all over the country about the Muslim religion. Muslim followers were looked down upon, shunned, questioned, and were national pariahs. Regardless of their personal beliefs, they were outcast by the rest of America.
I remember there were two Pakistani twins in my middle school. This one day, a local bully threatened to beat them up saying that they were responsible for “blowing up” the World Trade Centers. Initially, the twins pretended to ignore this statement, trying to avoid the threat. The bully followed them down the hallway calling them terrorists, saying that he wished that their people would die, telling them to get out of the country. The twins (who were in my math class) didn’t show up to school for the entire next week.
It doesn’t surprise me that people in America are ignorant of the Muslim religion. People in America are ignorant of what’s going on in their own country. It’s mind-blowing to think that by the middle of the century a quarter of the world’s population will be practicing Muslim. It’s also terrifying. The only thing that scares me about this exponential growth is that there are still Americans who believe that since we are the current superpower, we are the only people worth understanding. There are still Americans who believe that all Muslims think like al Qaeda and want to blow up America.
I’m not sure how I feel about the peacefulness of the people of Arab, Alabama. I don’t know if I think that it was genuine. They reported many stares, but that could happen in any town or even city for that matter. People simply stare at the unfamiliar. However, what was going on in their mind when they stared? Were they thinking hateful thoughts? Were they questioning why that woman dressed the way she did and thought she looked silly? Just as the woman resident of Arab said, she couldn’t guess what religion the other woman was dressing as because she didn’t know much about the Middle East.
And then there are other small towns in the United States that I know would have said something to her. There are still arrogant, simple-minded people who simply hate anyone who resembles the terrorists of 9/11. Just because in this documentary, they didn’t get yelled at, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t happen anywhere else.
Although it is certainly the epitome of naivety, I think that I can sort of understand where the general opinion of the public is coming from. Most people admit that they don’t really know much about Islam, but they will still say that people who are Islamic are more likely to be violent. Yes, it is pretty idiotic to make judgments on something that you do not understand, but at the same time, look at what we are exposed to. The media plays to the whims of the uneducated public. Its liberal bias is nauseating. Every day we are fed information about the situation in Iraq, and seldom is this good news. The reporters fail to tell us anything about the positives. For example, I have heard little about the schools, hospitals, roads, etc. that are being built each day. Nor have I heard about the millions of Iraqis that act favorable toward the American soldiers. In fact, the majority of the Iraqi people like what we are doing for their country. But body counts and civilian killings are always prevalent in the paper. When we are facing these kinds of statistics, it is no wonder that people are going to have an ill conceived notion about things. We hear Iraq, Muslim, Islam, Arab and it automatically equates to “terrorist.” Terrorism is based around violence and therefore Islam = Violence. It’s a simply if then mathematical equation. And we all do it.
As for the lack of education toward the topic of Islam, I find this to be relatively unsurprising as well. First of all, what do people really understand at all. Ethnocentrism is overly prevalent, (perhaps especially in the United States), and none of us really have any interest in anything that is different than our own. That being said, why would we want to learn about something that is below us. I am curious as to how many people understand Hindu or Buddhism, or even Judaism. Penn State is represented by a large population of Jewish people, and I would estimate that very few non Jews understand the religion beyond the absolute basics. People care about themselves; and that’s about it.
I am particularly baffled by the Muslim in America Project, however. You would think that in the southern Alabama town, she would have been treated with less kindness. Maybe it was the southern hospitality. On the other hand, it does make sense that she was a center of attention at the airport. People equate Muslims with terrorists, and terrorists with September 11th, and September 11th with planes. So naturally that would cause fear and caution by the security. Plus, Muslim garb simply has more places to stash weapons.
First of all, I give Professor Ahmed and his crew props for embarking in a journey like this. It really shows a lot of courage especially from his young American students. I also respect the fact that they are going out of their way to try to understand new things and make an impact. Ever since September 11, there has been a lot of confusion about the religion of Islam. The word Islam is almost always associated with terrorism nowadays. Many Americans today have sort of a phobia towards Islam and Muslims are viewed as advocates of violence. A big part of this reason is because Americans are ignorant when it comes to a lot of things especially other cultures and religions. If people who really knew the religion of Islam and its true message, I think they would appreciate it much more and become less prejudice towards Muslims. Islam’s message is not to kill innocent people like what happened on September 11. Everyone said Bin Laden and Muslims are responsible for what happened and whether Bin Laden did it or not, he is not a true Muslim. Bin Laden and everyone involved are radicals who interpret the Quran in an extreme way. Islam is a book that promotes peace amongst its people and other groups as well so to me being more educated about the religion would definitely change the views of a lot of Americans when it comes to Islam. So I admire efforts made by people like Professor Ahmed because otherwise things will not change and Muslims will remain “the terrorists”.
Sam gave us some very interesting facts and statistics about Islam and to be honest I was quite shocked. He said that by the middle of the century, 1 in every 4 will be Muslim and that right now there are 57 Islamic countries around the world. Islam is second only to Christianity with almost 1.4 billion followers worldwide. The way I look at it is that if a quarter of the entire world’s population is Muslim then there has to be a reason for that. All these people aren’t going to follow a religion that creates hatred and violence between amongst themselves. It really shocks and bothers me how Americans treat and view Muslims in this country. After 9/11, the media did an excellent job of convincing people that anyone that looks Middle Eastern and has a beard is automatically characterized as a terrorist. I come from a Muslim family and we strongly believe in our faith. Even though we are all U.S citizens, we get hassled at the airport all the time because my brother’s name is Ahmed and my mom wears a scarf. I understand the government is doing their job in protecting this country from ‘terrorists’ but what bothers me is the stereotypes and the stares and mean looks, etc. I just encourage Americans to be more open to other cultures and religions and try to be more educated and less judgmental. That’s why I admire Professor Ahmed’s efforts in trying to find the truth and at the same enlightening people and hopefully making an impact.
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