America has always been a melting pot, but in the post-9/11 world the environment can be downright hostile. Radio talk show hosts, pundits and politicians utter statements about Islam and Muslims that if they were to say the same about other religious groups, they would face severe consequences. This hateful discourse leaves me wondering how I can respond in a way that is constructive and doesn't simply perpetuate the shouting and hate speech.
A 2010 TIME poll reported that 62 percent of Americans claim to have never met a Muslim. This left me wondering: What about those Americans that do know a Muslim? How can can they effectively respond to this climate of fear and hostility towards Muslims?
A new online project, "My Fellow American," enables people of all faiths and backgrounds to share a story about a Muslim they know personally. The centerpiece of the project is a short teaser film that juxtaposes voices of hate with everyday Muslim Americans. It serves as a call-to-action for people of all faiths to stand up against this climate of hate speech and Islamophobia.
After watching the short film, the viewer is encouraged to visit the website, where dozens of Americans have already submitted short YouTube stories about a Muslim they know and admire. It calls on people of all faiths to sign a pledge and share the project with their network and affirm that American Muslims are indeed our fellow Americans. The pledge reads:
Muslims are our fellow Americans. They are part of the national fabric that holds our country together. They contribute to America in many ways, and deserve the same respect as any of us. I pledge to spread this message, and affirm our country's principles of liberty and justice for all.
To take the pledge and share your Muslim story, visit the My Fellow American website.
WATCH:
Follow Daniel Tutt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/USMuslimStories
Wajahat Ali: The Post-Osama Muslim American
My Fellow American-National Campaign to share untold Stories of ...
YouTube - Video for "My Fellow American" campaign
Muslims: My fellow American - Susan Campbell | Still Small Voice
Where's that quote from?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Language-Commentaries-of-WDeenMohammed/message/682
How is this for combatting Islamophobia in America?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jersey-town-picks-muslim-mayor-orthodox-jew-deputy/story?id=11092489
N.J. Town Picks Muslim for Mayor, Orthodox Jew as Deputy
To find out, please review the following excellent report. It will clarify many of the errors that are commonly mis-reported as fact, in Islam-related comment threads here on Huffington Post, and elsewhere:
Manufacturing The Muslim Menace
89 Pages, pdf
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/training/Muslim_Menace_Complete.pdf
“‘Manufacturing the Muslim Menace: Private Firms, Public Servants, & the
Threat to Rights and Security’ is a “must read.” Thom Cincotta's heavily
documented critical study uncovers and exposes the dangers to national security
posed by a group of private security firms operating outside officially accredited
systems. These firms offer anti-terrorism training programs, driven by an
ideological agenda that trade facts for fiction and promote Islamophobic
conspiracy theories that demonize mainstream Islam and Muslim
communities.”
–John Esposito
Founding Director, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding,
Professor of religion, international affairs and
Islamic studies Georgetown University
"The third is helping to fill the blogosphere with voices that don't accept bigotry. This can be as simple as responding to inaccurate or bigoted articles or as elaborate as creating articles, videos, and chatrooms dedicated to combatting hatred and correcting misperceptions. There is already a critical mass of people online who further Islamophobia (and anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia) as though it were their day jobs. Much as E-Islamophobia produces negative results in the real world, so too can E-activism reverse or preempt them."
"So long as bigotry goes unchecked, it will hold a disproportionate influence in both realms. Yet this need not be the case. The hatewave is here, but our beliefs charge us to counter it. See you online."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joshua-stanton/eislamophobia-the-new-hat_b_818451.html
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This is a misconception. There is no such thing as "the theology of permanent warfare" in Islam.
"They need to choose one side and fight for it. "
Your entire premise is flawed, Jan. American Muslims are regular Americans, not closet Islamists.
Ultra-conservative Muslims (i.e. Salafists) can benefit from a more accurate understanding of Islam, certainly, but if that change is to happen, it certainly won't happen from outside Islam, and certainly won't be accepted from people who are as critical of Islam as the signers of the St. Petersburg Declaration, or via a declaration as out of touch with the realities of mainstream Islam as that document is.
Besides, moderate Muslims such as Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Tariq Ramadan, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Shayk Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri are way ahead of you. They're moderate, they're Muslim, and they're able to show, via actual Islamic methods of Quranic reasoning, how and why extremism is un-Islamic.
At that time, there was quite a bit of misconceptions about Islam that was spread in the Christian Europe.
The kind of language that was used back then to describe Islam is again being used in some circles in Europe and North America. Recall what Billy Graham and Pat Robertson have said about Islam and its prophet.
Certainly, there are elements within Islam that are also responsible for spreading misconceptions about Christianity and these elements have taken a confrontational approach to dealing with the West.
So, the spread of hatred is being done in both sides.
Luckily, there are Western Christian and Jewish scholars who are sympathetic to Islam, and there are also Muslim (Western and non-Western) scholars who have positive views of Christianity and Judaism, as well as the West in general.
It is said that the current atmosphere vis-a-vis the Muslims will pass, like the time when the Japanese Americans were mistreated during WWII for which they received an apology.
But why not learn from past mistakes and not repeat them?
And, I would add: it's both sad and ironic that many of the leading anti-Muslim voices are Jewish - a group that one would think would be especially sensitive to the negative effects that can emanate from having lies spread about an entire population of people.
In fairness, some of the leading pro-Muslim, and/or Muslim-accepting voices are also Jewish.
Here's one shining example:
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Receives Tikkun Award
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0IMzz7p6Mk
This image says it all to me (http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llbx4hA0GY1qza249o1_400.jpg)
Faved.
We have millions of fellow Americans who worship as Muslims.
Exactly 161 of them have been arrested on suspicion of involvement with terrorism in the last decade.
The number one source for reporting these suspected terrorists to authorities was American Muslims themselves.
http://sanford.duke.edu/centers/tcths/about/documents/Kurzman_Muslim-American_Terrorism_Since_911_An_Accounting.pdf
If we stick to the facts, prejudice is impossible.
Facts speak louder than fears.
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I understand that you believe this to be true. I disagree.
By identifying critics of Islam, some of whom are bigoted, as the problem, you mislead Muslims into thinking that if the bigotry goes away, the problem is solved. Not true.
If all criticism of Islam by non-Muslims was suppressed, the attacks by Islamists on non-Islamist Muslims over the issue of assimilation would continue. Your portraying of all Muslims as victims masks this part of the conflict, which is the main event.
Others are managing to do that, you can too.
On the bus today . . I met someone from Ethiopia . . . she saw I was reading a book on hieroglyphs . . so we started talking about Egypt . . . . I tried to converse with her in Arabic . . but my Arabic is bad . . . but we had fun . . . .
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2010/11/kick-in-groin-for-kafir-doctor.html
Every religion has a few idiots, and a vast majority of regular people, as most of us have noticed.
For a hint as to how strongly I feel about the pledge, please see my comments on Muslim-related and Islam-related threads here on Huffington Post.
To take the pledge yourself, and to get a feel for what the My Fellow American project is all about, please visit:
http://myfellowamerican.us/
As I've said in many of my related comments -- I don't stick up for Muslims from any religious perspective; I'm actually not religious at all. I stick up for Muslims because they're my fellow Americans, and they don't deserve the unwarranted and unprecedented prejudice they receive.
Best,
Daniel