Muslims and America - Essay Example

One of the mostly viewed episodes or films in the US is “30 days: Muslim and America.” The episode was directed by an American, Morgan Spurlock. The film has one main character, Dave, who is a Christian and goes to live in a Muslim family with an aim of learning the Islamic culture. The film has a variety of thematic constituents including religious discrimination, hatred, culture and several others. The episode situates the viewers in a crazy world of terrorism blames and hatred. It makes one think of existing religious differences and conflicts in the American society.

Moreover, it probes some reasoning and comprehension of the conflict. By using an American, Dave, who has also the same perception, it is quite predictable that whatever he will face in the Muslim society is violence. This perception however changes when Dave, the Christian American, finds out a total different story in his 30 days of stay in Dearborn, Michigan where most Muslims in the US stay. The episode also situates the viewers in a position where they can easily tell who the wrong one is between the groups, Americans and the Muslims.

This is through following carefully Dave’s experience while living in Muslim communities in Dearborn and Michigan. The presence of Mosque and Quran aids in forming more ideas concerning the Muslim society. Dave learns of the friendly nature of the Muslim people and gets convinced that all the evils that people do say about the Muslims are false. For one to comprehend the phenomena in the episode, it is advisable that he or she avoid developing any form of attitude or mental rigidity on certain ideas.

Otherwise; the episode will seem like a dream to him or her. Everything will seem to be false. For instance, a viewer with a rigid or static belief that Muslims are terrorists or are always bad people will never gain, or learn any lesson from the episode. One has to develop a neutral mind and love for all; in short, it is better for a viewer to put himself or herself in the shoes of professional judicial persons like judges before venturing into the episode. One must also understand that different groups of people have different cultural behaviors and beliefs.

Therefore, an individual should not view or perceive anything done by his or her neighbors as evil and condemn it (Arshad, 2003). Culture is a very crucial aspect of every society and each person should respect one another’s for the purpose of creating a leeway to peace discovery. The episode situates or positions the viewers in different ways. First, Spurlock has employed a lot of symbolism in a bid to place the viewers in a Muslim society (Arshad, 2003). Through the use of Mosque, Muslim dressing styles, and eating styles, he has indeed made most viewers, I included imagine being in a Muslim society experiencing and learning their cultures.

He has also used the interviewing method on both two sides to get their opinions concerning one another. An example of such is the interview of an old man by Dave (Zelizer, 2007). The man tells him that all religions are bound by one common thing or person who is God. The man goes ahead to state that there is only one God with different names. He quotes that “when one takes one life he destroys humanity” from the Quran (Spurlock, 2011). Spurlock has also employed certain words, editing styles and images to encourage us viewers form certain ideologies.

The words like, Jesus Christ and Mohammed, Bible and Quran, have been used in the episode to encourage viewers to form and maintain neutrality throughout the episode. He has also used images like the mosque and Camels (in form of cartoons) to represent a Muslim society in Asia (Zelizer, 2007). The episode also talks much about mistreatment; it does not mention any problems caused by the Muslims to the Christians. However, since the Muslim