Muslims and Americans - Essay Example

Muslims and Americans Everywhere I go, people are afraid of me because I am a Muslim guy. One day, I was thinking abouthow Americans acted around me and it brought hatred in my heart. I could not help myself but try to change Americans’ thinking that Muslims like me should be feared and judged but no such luck. Thus, onMay 09, 2011, I planned revengeonthem. The idea was to travel and kill as much people as I can in the airport of Austin, Texas, which was the closest one for me. I would admit that I wasreally afraid of doing that, but when I remembered how people look at me, somehow I forgot about that fear. That day, though I doubted people knew what I was going to do, I was still shaking as I was carrying a black bag and on my chest with a bomb inside. I was trying to hide it by crossing my arms around my chest. I started to worry. It seemed to me that the police were still coming for me. When the airport announced myflight, I went to the check in to the gate. After that, I was trying to get the bomb out of my bag really quickly. Then, the police attacked me. The police caught me before I destroyed the airport and killed everyone. Unfortunately, I was trying to bomb the airport to help Muslim people and finally put an end to discrimination. I am a terrorist. People like me were built to destroy. Most people are afraid of me because I really look bloodthirsty. I am savage because everything that is taken away from me will surely have to face a bitter revengefrom me. When someone steals anything from me, I try to cut off the thief’s hand immediately without any remorse. Also, everybody knows that I hate women because I really do not like to look at them. I do not treat women the same way that I treat men because I am better than all of them. I have high regard for religion. I do not drink alcohol because it does not suit my palate, and I am smarter than people who drink alcohol. Also, I do not eat pork because I think that pork is damned meat. All these written above would exactly be how Americans would write about my life today. But the truth is, I am not a single thing mentioned above. I am a young Muslim.I do not kill people, I have very close American friends, and have never done anything to hurt anyone. I do not drink alcohol or eat pork, and I respect all kind of people just like how I want to be respected.I have been living in the U.S. for two years, and I observed that most Americans think that all Saudi Muslims are terrorists. This is one of the dumbest things about Americans. Aside from that, Christian communities do not understand that Muslim people are different from each other because of their experience with September the 11th. There is a very good expression in Arabic, which says your fingers are not equal. It means that people are different from each other, not all of them are the same. It is not right to generalize Muslims and associate them with terrorism just because of what happened in the 9/11 attack. September 11‘s attack made Muslims’ lives hard in the United States. According to NPR NEWS, After September the 11th, many Muslim-Americans said they faced increased scrutiny and discrimination as their religion and their culture became the subject of intense public debate. According to a recent Pew Research Center study on Muslims in America, 55 percent say it's hard to be a Muslim in the United States 10 years after the incident. But the report also finds no signs that alienation has increased or additional support for extremism (Conan, 2011). The events of September 11 changed most Americans beliefs towards Muslims. It made them think that they are all terrorists. Therefore, security measures have been taken againstMuslims, which make travelling to the U.S from Saudi Arabia a stressful and anxious experience in an airport with heightened security. My brother who studied in Texas was held about a day and a half by the Home Land Security in the airport for no reason, and they let him sleep on the floor just because he is Muslim. He was never questioned, but asked to step aside at the immigration because of his Saudi passport. Also, a friend of my brother was rejected by the Home Land Security when he arrived to the U.S. for the same reason, although he was a student at a U.S. college. What people need to understand is that as there are good and bad Americans, there are also good and bad Muslims. Yes, there are close-minded people who use Islam as an excuse for killing all non-Muslims, which is clearly not right. In fact, killing people deliberatelyis something that is against Muslim belief. Islam says, if a person kills someone deliberately, he or she will be in hell forever after death. According toIslamic City, The Arabic word 'Islam' simply means 'submission', and derives from a word meaning 'peace'. In a religious context it means complete submission to the will of God (Islamic City). The picture above is what Islam really means. Unfortunately, close-minded people do not understand Islam well. In order to be Muslim, one has to follow what the holy Quran says, which teaches about“wisdom, doctrine, worship, law, and most especially establishing a relationship with God” (Islamic City).I put to heart my reading of the holy Quran and I do not see that we should kill or hate people who are not Muslims. Real Muslims are people who would choose to do good and be better every single day. Our religion teaches us that there is no difference between people. If you have chosen to be Muslim, you have to respect everyone you face. This is one of the rules of Islam. According to PBS, “one day in 1968, Jane Elliott, divided students third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring lesson in discrimination. The story impacts on the children and its enduring power thirty years later” (Elliott, 1968).Jane Elliott was trying to do an exercise to see the students’ reaction by treating blue-eyed people better than brown-eyed people. I think that brown-eyed people would kill blue-eyed people because brown-eyed people want to be the best. Nowadays, people are afraid from being in thatsame situation, a class divided in reallife because of hatred and people killing each other. So, parents today try their best to teach children to respect everyone they meet to avoid conflict. Muslims are doing the same thing by teaching each other how to respect women.Muslim females do not even appear in advertising or TV because it is taboo and degrading especially with how media can objectify women. Media believes that sex sells, thus, selling is not merely about products or services anymore. With this, American advertisingforMuslims is shameful because it is done in such a way that they wouldnot want their children see it. This is what Street Couch has to say about advertisement in the U.S. “Call them skanky, slutty, exploitative or just plain sexy, American Apparel advertisements definitely have a modus operandi: Young woman with a just-got-out-bed look. One or two pieces of clothing”(Street Couch). Some sensitive close-minded peoplewho have the power in Saudi Arabiaset up some rules under Islam such as prohibiting women to drive or no cinemas in Saudi Arabia. But all these are not the rulesof Islam. There two kinds of Islam, the Sunni and Shea,the former being the most common in Saudi Arabia. Currently, the royal family governing the country is Sunni too which helps closed-minded people to set up whatever rules they want.Most Saudi Muslims are afraid to drink alcohol not because of the religionbut because of the government rules. However, real Muslims on the otherhand do not drink alcohol or eat pork because of the holy Quran, which is what we believe in. We believe that drinking too much alcohol will affect self-control and can cause one to stumble. We do not eat pork because we believe pigs were cursed by God and therefore are not animals fit for food. Most Americans have some misconceptions about Islam due to the careless conclusions about religion, customs andtraditions. I can understandAmericans’perspective of Muslims and Islam, especially when they see women in some Islamic countries without some rights. However, it is important to not generalize. Although Saudi Arabia is an Islamic country, some rules exist just because of the customs and traditions which are controlled by some unreasonable people. These people are against giving men and women the same rights; they think that women must stay home to take care of their children. Recently, Women driving in Saudi Arabia became a big issue. Opponents do not accept any opinion about itbecause they claim thatwomen driving in Saudi Arabia is against Islam. However, this is not supported by any specific quote from the holy Quran. This is a misconception because women in theera ofProphetMuhammad (peace be upon him), which was the beginning of Islam, rode camels and horses and participatedinthe battles.So, if riding camels and horses in the era of ProphetMuhammad was taboo, why did ProphetMohammad allow them to do that? On the contrary, Islam gives women their rights and protects them. All these were said to prove that Muslims are just any kind of racial group who are composed of different people with different personalities and character and they should not be blamed for what happened in the 9/11 attack. Unfortunately, no matter how much knowledge are given tomost Americans about the real Muslim belief, they still think that all Muslim people are terrorists because of what happened on September 11th. They have seen and heard about what Muslim people have done to kill so many innocent people. Thinking of that fateful day, I understand where Americans are coming from. This is because of the fact that what was all over the television would be the collapse of the buildings, the fire, and the collision. Also, how the news reported the incident focused on the background of the group Al-Qaeda being an Islamic group who perpetrated the attack instead of focusing on them individually (FAQ About 9/11, n.d.). Because of this Americans have never questioned whether all Muslim people are like the Al-Qaeda group or not because the media somehow dictated how they should be associated to Muslims even when Muslim belief or tradition had nothing to do with why they perpetrated such killing. Some articles and news that provide people a wider view of the whole 9/11 incident says that the Islamic extremists called Al Qaeda might have other reasons for attacking the World Trade Center. It might be the fact that they wanted their voices to be heard by the government and not have a government taking sides on the white people just because most of them claim that they are more educated compared to other ethnic or racial groups. It might not really be a matter of Muslim’s poor or literal understanding of Jihad, encouraging killings because Muslims also know that taking another’s life is wrong. We all have that natural instinct inculcated in us, whatever your religious belief is. I think that people who did the most shameful thing in the world, which is September 11thkilling should be punished, ridiculed, and looked at with contempt. However, we all know that all public knowledge recognize that not one of the terrorists of the 9/11 survived. Yet, this is not a reason to direct one’s anger as someone who lost a loved one because of this attack to blame all the other Muslims alive who most probably feels the same pain for what happened. According to what I have written, it was shown that Muslims in U.S are not treated as well as everyone. I hope that Americans get to know how wrongly they think about Saudi Muslims. Americans must know that not all Muslims are the same. I hope the future changes the understanding of Islam in the U.S so thatall Muslims areequal with Americans, where the American government guarantees the freedom for every citizen. Also, I wish that Americans accept particularities from all kinds of religion. I hope for the day when 9/11 would bring people together to create a better society where no minority is ignored and eventually move on from a very painful experience. Works Cited: Elliott, Jane “divided students third-grade” PBS 1968 Conano, Neal” How Being Muslim In America Has Changed Since 9/11” NPR NEWS September 8, 2011 Grossman, Cathy Lynn “Number of U.S. Muslims to double” USA TODAY 1/27/2011 2:29:00 PM http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-01-27-1Amuslim27_ST_N.htm Islamis City “Steert Counch” "9/11 Attacks — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts." History.com — History Made Every Day — American & World History. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. . "FAQ About 9/11." 911memorial. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. . "9/11 Video Accounts Of The Terrorist Attacks: Remembering The Events Of September 11 (VIDEOS)." Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. . Read More