By Faten Al-Alawi
Today, I went to visit a group of young adults at Pediatric Care who are curious about different religions. I spoke as a Muslim working at the Buxton Initiative. It was encouraging to see that they were very eager to know about Islam, and for me, opportunities to correct stereotypes about Muslims and Islam give me some sort of thrill. It’s very comforting to know that I saved somebody from falsely believing – all their life – the stereotype that Muslims are horrible, violent people. However, it is not only outside the religion where people develop stereotypes; it occurs within the religion as well.
Fundamentalism and extremism are very big problems for Islam and young Muslims who are easily influenced and are still learning about Islam. The issue is that fundamentalists and extremists are portraying themselves as Islamic and receiving extensive media coverage from the West. We have seen the consequences; they haunt us every day.
I point to the American media when I say this because it seems many media outlets have put the negative portrayal of Muslims high on their agenda. Because there is no balance in the media’s portrayal of Muslims, Americans have been misled into thinking that all Muslims are evil, or terrorists. One can see surprise on the faces of Americans when a beardless man or hijabless woman tells an American that he/she is a Muslim. Does the media have any incentive to portray Muslims living in peace? It doesn’t seem so, so we need to brace ourselves for more suffering, more stereotyping, more racial profiling, and more ignorance.
The media also hurts Muslim communities. The negative portrayal of Muslims not only poisons non-Muslims, but also harms young Muslims who are still in the process of evaluating their beliefs and exploring their religion. When young people like me see these people being portrayed with such a negative light in the media, they begin to associate them with the “proper” Muslims and role models, and bad roles models. Of course, this is one of the few portrayals of Muslims that they see. Taking these people as role models is wrong, because their actions and ideas are un-Islamic. I know that nobody can control the media, or make the media act more responsibly, but the media is not selective about its victims. They are both Muslim and non-Muslim, everyone gets hurt by the media’s agenda. It is not Islamic to hate others on the basis of their religion, but Muslim youth does not know that. All they know is that Muslims have decided to massacre people based on their religion, and they think that “massacring the infidels” is what Islam is all about. All these stereotypes and false portrayals of Muslims generate a confused generation of young Muslims. In school, I learned – and I tend to use this example often – that women cannot become judges or political leaders because they are too emotional and not rational enough. This too is un-Islamic. People who spread false teachings about Islam also cause “discontent” with Islam for people like me. And it’s wrongful “discontent” because these teachings aren’t true to begin with.
I also know that it is not wrong for me to get angry when my religion is soiled in exchange for higher television ratings. This phenomenon of religion-bashing is going to occur until people learn to act in a civilized manner.
