When i Googled the word "Muslim", this is one of the first images that appeared. Obviously this isn't what Islam is all about, but I was not shocked at all that this was one of the first photos. This image and many like it are what we're all shown on the news, in newspapers, on the internet, everywhere really, whenever Muslims are the headline or topic. We're brought up believing they are all extremists, terrorists, and extremely dangerous people. Most of us know this is not the case. The truth is that there are people of Islam who are like that, but there are people like that in every religious group.
It makes me sad knowing this is the image people get when they hear the word "Muslim". Even though I am not Muslim myself, I know people who are. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met. I hate it that a group of bad people has the power to cast a horrible reputation over an entire religion.
The people in the picture are Muslims at a protest in London. They were angry over cartoons published in a Danish newspaper they believed were insulting to the Prophet Muhammad. They decided to make signs that said things like, "Slay those who insult Islam," and "Butcher those who mock Islam." It shows mostly Middle Eastern people looking very angry. This is meant to be a representative photo of all the Muslims there. It makes them look like the bad people in this situation when, really, they were just defending their religion. The photographer probably sought out the most offensive signs and posters at the protest and took a picture of those people so it would create more controversy.
When an American hears the word Muslim, most of us immediately think: dangerous, terrorist, religious, Iraq, 9/11, and suicide bombing. The reason we think this way is because this is the way the media portrays Muslims. They seem to only make the news for bad things, never good. Even though we know not all Muslims are bad people, it is hard to get this image out of our mind because this is what we're brought up seeing.
Wow, I read your blog post and it sounded a little like mine except mine was about native americans and their portrayal in mainstream culture. My human evolution lecture stumbled over this issue of 'Muslims' and their portrayal specifically after 9/11 happened. We were talking about race and what that means in American culture, how it's portrayed, what the stereotypes are...the lecture was really interesting. My professor went over the fact that the idea of 'race' exists but it's not biologically proven, we all have the same anatomies and there's not a lot that separates us from each other. We're not separate species or anything like that so why do we create an artificial classification of humans? I don't know why but it was interesting, sorry i'm rambling but anyway back to the point...
ReplyDeleteBasically with everyone in America and their narrow-vision of how they see Muslims is sad. After 9/11 (this ties back into my human evolution lecture just wait) the birth weights of babies were significantly lower than what they were BEFORE 9/11. Even though the idea of 'race' is not biologically proven, the idea 'race' and its entirety has real biological effects. I've met people who are so ignorant and think all Muslims are bad, unfortunately they'll think that way until reality slaps them in the face. Muslims are people too. Not everyone is the same and i'm glad you pointed that out in your blog, that the only reason we think this way is because that's what Muslims are portrayed like in the media. It's sad to think that people can be so narrow minded but it's nothing new...
This was such a great example. These photos are all over the news. This is how I vision Muslims since this is all I can remember about them growing up. After 9/11 they were just portrayed as horrible people and a horrible culture since so many bad things were happening. It is so interesting how our culture views them because we only get one side of the story. They all look so angry and look like they are up to trouble.
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