In the July 30th issue of Newsweek, there was a feature article on the status of Islam and Muslim communities in today's world. The article looked at how various populations/enclaves of Muslims have integrated (or not) and tried to understand this groundswell of angst and explain how terrorism grows from these fertile grounds.
Before I go any further in this post, I may be guilty of some (maybe even a lot depending on your own views) of prejudice. I also realize that this prejudice is not from any first hand experience, rather from what I see and read. I'm not saying my prejudice is right but I do acknowledge its existence. And I also realize:
• I would hire or rent or sell to anyone if they were the most qualified. My prejudice, perhaps more dangerous, resides as a gnawing in my subconscious.
• If I see an overtly Muslim person on my flight, I get a little nervous. I pay a bit of extra attention to what they're doing. I'm sure they probably feel that from a lot of people and it can't be pleasant. Perhaps a bit of a 'win' for the terrorists and a 'loss' for the rest of us particularly 'regular' Muslims who just want to live the American dream and be left alone.
• Living in Orange County CA for 20 years afforded me the experience of a VERY DIVERSE culture. In my neighborhood we had folks from Mexico, Britain, Vietnam, Australia...black, white, and all shades in between. At work, it was even more diverse with the majority of our factory workers from Vietnam and our engineers from the Middle and Far East.
• The city of Irvine has one of the largest Iranian communities outside of Iran. The person who cut my hair for years was a 50-something woman from Iran and we had interesting conversations about life in Iran. I often felt as though she treated me like her son. She insisted she was Persian, not Iranian, a way to separate herself from the current government.
• The cities of Westminster and Fountain Valley are home to one of the largest Vietnamese populations outside of Vietnam. (Insert bad driving joke here.)
• I know, based on personal experience, that not all Muslims are violent or inherently evil. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, NONE of the Muslims I knew are violent or inherently evil.
• One of the founders of my former company was a devout Muslim immigrant from Pakistan that prayed five times a day — and he is one of the nicest and most thoughtful men you'll ever want to meet. He embodies everything positive the 'good' Muslims espouse that Islam is all about.
• Not all Islamic cultures are violent. Case in point is Indonesia which is the largest Muslim country in the world.
With all that being said, why was I suspicious of the Muslim family that lived in the apartment next door after 9/11? Why did it bother me that as I reached the top of the stairs I could look in their window and see that they were watching Al Jazeera on a big screen television? Prejudice is based in fear and ignorance and I need to constantly remind myself of that.
So back to Newsweek. The Letters to the Editor regarding the aforementioned article on Islam appeared in today's August 13th issue.
I want to comment on one letter in particular:
"Left unchecked, negative stereotyping of American Muslims will have dire consequences. Their growing isolation and embitterment will deprive the nation of a valuable human resource. And terrorists will inevitably exploit the situation by recruiting the oppressed. Bias is a two-edged sword."Okay, here's where I get really pissed.
• Why does this writer imply that oppression is in any way a justification for anything violent, let alone terrorism? Murder and terrorism are NEVER okay. Not because someone didn't hire you and not because someone made a snide remark about Allah.
• Why doesn't the illegal Mexican community resort to terrorism given that they work like dogs but get no rights? After all, there are 11 million of them here. What is it about the Muslim psyche that makes them furtile ground for suicide bomber training but Mexicans just work harder to improve their situation?
• Why doesn't the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community resort to terrorism given that they are one of the few minorities where it is still legal to fire them from work, bash their heads in, deny them a place to live, and keep them from their sick partner in a hospital? What is it about the Mulim psyche that makes them think, according to recent national polls, that it is okay to kill your enemy but GLBT people turn that inwards and kill themselves (without taking a crowd of people with them) in astonishing numbers?
• Why don't the disaffeced Bangladeshis brought in to Middle Eastern countries to serve as cheap labor resort to suicide bombings because the local oil-rich population treats them like shit?
Say what you want, but there's something different about the Muslim community's psyche. I don't pretend to know what it is, but it doesn't do anyone any good to try to justify it.
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6 comments:
Why do you think an observation of reality is a "justification?" In the case of Muslims, there are radicals who are spreading a message that western society is against them and they should reject it (violently). If their experience is that indeed, westerners do not want them or trust them, then there's little to lose by abandoning any attempt to fit into western culture.
So yes, this stuff does has dire consequences. There's no powerful equivalent movement for Latinos or gay people playing on this stuff, so it's not really a parallel situation.
Recognizing this doesn't "justify" anything, but that doesn't make it less so. (Since 9/11, any attempt to understand a phenomenon is seen as "justifying" it. It's as if we're determined to be really stupid about the world around us, because if we dare to understand it, we're somehow approving of it. That's just insane.)
Actually here in Denver it's illegal to fire someone for being LGBT.
Not so much for the other 'Red' counties in the state.
I think there's two things at work here. One, it is a culture that we in North America largely do not understand, nor do we make any sincere effort to understand. So when we are fed the sound bites that make up the news reality of what Islam is and stands for, we get justifiably defensive. How accurate that justification is, I think is the problem.
"Say what you want, but there's something different about the Muslim community's psyche. I don't pretend to know what it is, but it doesn't do anyone any good to try to justify it."
I agree and I don't agree. In so far as Islam is a religion that is based on a very rigid hierarchy, yes then it is a pathology of the psyche. But then so is radical fundamentalist Christianity, Catholicism, Jewish faith, and anything else taken to extreme. Islam, as a religion is very separate from the Muslims who have claimed an identity of someone who desires a Muslim jihad
Looking at the situation in Iraq, the people most in danger from radical Islam are moderate Muslims. Yet there's been no concerted effort on their part to combat radical elements in their community. That we know of.
Islam's war on the west is religious and racist and classist. Not only are we infidels we are decadent and supportive (on the whole) of fundamental civil rights they are unable to comprehend because they've never had them.
It's often stymied me why there aren't any queer terrorists.
I think the key there is 'isolation.' Hispanics and homos are not isolated. And our cultures do not have the history of fundamentalism that Muslims do. So I think they are more vulnerable. I agree, the writer is being a bit sensational, but I think there is value in the perspective.
I wrote the Newsweek letter that so incensed you. No justification of violence was intended. And,for most readers, I'm confident none was conveyed.
I wish you well in your quest for improved reading comprehension.
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