In honor of Islamic Awareness wdek, I participated in the MSA wear a Johan for a day. I recieved some attention on campus but I wanted to see how I would be presented off campus. So I went to downtown grand rapids. Suprisingly I recieved more attention on campus that off campus.
Islam, contrary to popular belief is a religion of peace. The root of the word Islam is peace. Islam gets a bad image from 1. Islamic extremists. 2. The media. 3. Fear of the unknown. Let's start with Islamic extremists, every religion had extremists , we have them right here in America. A lot of them actually. Remember the woman who killed all of her children in a bath tub because Jesus told her so? That's extremism. The media has this cycle of picking a bad guy for the society to fear, African Americans, Korea, China, muslims, native Americans. Americans, not all, but most don't take the time to read unbiased news or investigate for themselves. So fear comes in to play, I bet half of you don't know 10 true facts about Arabs or muslims. At this point i dint take ignorance as an excuse you have the choice to think for yourself. You have the choice to educate yourself. You are your own teacher.
During my walk on camous, wearing the hijab,I heard and experienced several things. I experienced staring, the kind of staring that happens when hounding known what your looking at, the curiousity look. Then I experienced those who avoided eye contact. You know when you try not to stare at someone do you just avoid them all together. What shocked me was when a woman stopped me to ask me if I spoke English and replied that I did, and she told me my English was very good. I was born in America, my first language is English. Americans can be Muslims too. Its not just the middle east, the lasrgest population of Muslims is actually in Asia. Shocking right?
Anyways, after the intial shovknof her comment I told her I had lived here all my life and that my first language was English. Lastly, I was unrecognizable to one of my professors and he asked me if I had belonged in the class. I can't blame him for his comment.
This is just a little insight on how you Muslims are treated in this country. My experience was very mild compared to others.
My lesson here is , educate yourself so we can eliminate prejudice and discrimination.
