Week 3

It's been a very interesting week. I watched bits and pieces of the Republican debate last night (2/25/16) and a short film (approximately an hour long) of Guinean immigrant Adama and her arrest. The fact that Adama (the film), was broadcasted on Tuesday (2/23/16) after being completed in 2011 caught my interest. There must be a reason that the event in this film (the arrest occurred in 2005) was being shown today...well, because it's relevant.

One of the key topics, I think, in the Republican debate was the relationship between Israel, a Jewish country, and Gaza, a Muslim territory. How would they achieve peace? Would they achieve peace? What were they going to do about ISIS?

So, the fact that this video has been broadcasted recently is a red flag. People are realizing that there has been an anti-Islam influx lately and in order to counter this sentiment, videos and documentaries portraying American-Muslims in their homes, their actual lifestyles and their concerns is also on the rise.

It's important to remember that even though a great group of people may greatly fear and hate Muslims and Islam, there is another group that counters this ideology with their support and understanding of Muslims and Islam.
 Yes, 16 year old Adama was a Muslim, she was an illegal immigrant--she didn't have papers but she was also a good student, a good friend and an excellent older sister. What we still don't know today is why she was under suspicion of being a suicide bomber.

Adama didn't know why she was being arrested. She cooperated as much as she could because she knew she was innocent. But being subject to intense interrogations and strip searches is a horrifying experience and Adama barely had time to recover from it, because as soon as she was "let go" with an ankle bracelet and 10:00pm curfew, she became the breadwinner for her mother and four younger siblings.

She put on a strong face for everyone while reliving her horrible encounters alone in her room. But she persevered through the hardship (her father's deportation and the threat of her siblings being sent to foster care) and ultimately, through the United States Justice System, she was allowed to stay in America instead of being deported to Guinea and given the chance to bring happiness back to her family.

Similarly, Usama Alshaibi, an Iraqi immigrant grew up feeling all American until he too faced difficulties.

(OK, let me back up a bit. As I was watching Adama, which was actually broadcasted as a series by PBS called America Reframed. So I stumbled across Alshaibi's video, and I thinking it would be interesting and relevant, watched his video American Arab as well.)

Usama and his family love America, except it is hard for them to say they are proud to be Americans. They felt targeted during 9/11, when the US went to war against Iraq, the appearance of crazy backwards Arabs in Hollywood

and instances like when president Obama was accused of being an Arab:

 

They were confused as to why a country that promised freedom and liberty was now targeting them and their people. So Usama started telling the stories of other American Arabs as well:

An Arab woman, Amal Abusumayah, who started wearing the hijab (the head covering) after she was married was assaulted at the grocery store. While at the checkout line, someone attempted to pull her scarf of her head and then run out the store. Amal confronted the assailant and notified the police but decided not to press charges. She thought that the best course of action was to let the assailant go with a warning to demonstrate that Muslims were not violent people and they have the ability to forgive.

Arab metal/punk rock musician, Marwan Kamel, defies the both Arab world and American world's definition of "normal". Marwan plays loud music, smokes and drinks along with his fellow "rebels" of society proving that labels don't necessarily correlate with actions. 

Stereotypes do exist and we cannot get rid of them. They are part of our history, our present and future. The only thing we can do is learn from these stereotypes and understand that within the broad categories that society has formed, each person contains nuances that place them in a category of their own.

If you have time to spare, check out these links:
Republican debate highlights
Watch the short film Adama
Or you can read about it here
More on Adama's case here
Watch the short film American Arab 

P.S. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners of the Oscars, those who were white, those who were of color, male, female, foreign, American, homosexual, heterosexual (the list could go on) especially Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (who is a Pakistani-Canadian female)!

Like I said before, there is as much support for the "minorities" as there is for the "majority" and this year's Oscars did an excellent job of portraying the importance of diversity.  :)

Week 2

Everything is great when you think you are on track and think you can get everything you need done in the time you have allotted for it. You have to take into account time for eating, sleeping, spending time with your parents who think that having no classes during the third trimester means you are just asking for chores to do, and then time to complete those chores because you realize you do have a bit more time than usual since you don't have to do to school...you can probably guess what I'm trying to hint at...it seems like I am running a bit behind schedule.

Yup, this sums it up about right...

Well, this week, in an attempt to gather data, I decided that I would go through five different translations of the Quran and find any instance where violence or Jihad was mentioned to compare the truth in statements like: "Islam is a war religion and all Muslims are terrorists who desire the downfall of America." (Yes, not everyone thinks like that, but you get what I'm trying to say...how much is Islam based on war and how much has been blown out of proportion.)

So, I made a list of a whole bunch of words (ex:war, fight, jihad, violence, oppress battle, kill, murder, etc.) and used the amazing computer function Ctrl-F to find any instances of this kind of language in the Quran. Well, the Quran has 114 chapters. The first chapter only has 7 verses, the search wasn't too bad. The second chapter has 286 verses, the third has 200 and the fourth has 176...Well, by the fourth chapter, I was convinced this was going to take me a whole lot longer than a week, let alone a month, since I was getting so much data that was out of context like "don't fight with you wife."

I did find pretty good content (like, what is Jihad and in what instances is fighting okay as well as when its not) within these first four chapters which I will probably use in the questionnaire I will be developing, but I don't think it will be practical to continue this process for the whole Quran in the time I have.

The Quran was revealed 1300 years ago, and not all at once. In fact, verses (ayah--pronounced:eye-ah) and chapters (surah--pronounced: sooh-rah) were revealed gradually over 23 years to the Prophet Muhammed and not in the order the Quran is written today. Surahs and ayahs were revealed at certain events and problems occurred during the time of the Prophet Muhammed. Because of this. it is important to not only study what the Quran says and its meaning, but also the context in which it was revealed.

The Quran was revealed in Arabic and most Muslims learn to read the Quran in Arabic even if it isn't their native tongue. At a young age, I was taught how to read and write in Urdu (pronounced: oor-do) as well as Arabic. Lucky for me, Urdu and Arabic have the same fundamental alphabet (like English and Spanish) so once I could read, write and speak Urdu, I could read Arabic--I just had no idea what I was reading. By going through my Ctrl-F search, I had an opportunity to actually find what I believed in print by finding which surah and ayah numbers that were relevant to my search.

So now I see which verses, when taken out of context, make Islam seem like it is praising religious war, but now I also know where exactly in the Quran , with context in place, it refutes senseless killing and war making.

Maybe because people don't have the time to actually understand what they are reading, they are susceptible to believing whatever others tell them about their religion. Without fact checking and actually finding answers for themselves, people fall into the extremists categories. I mean, how much time do extremists actually take to reflect and read the Quran when they would rather be destroying their own places of worship--I don't know, but I'm guessing it's not a lot.

As you can see, extremists don't really have a complete grasp on their religion. 

Week 1

Wow…

It’s only been one week and all I can say is that it has been very eye opening…

Yes, I love learning what new things are happening around the world. I made a Facebook account this summer and I mostly use it to catch up on current events with the help of the random "what's trending" articles and videos. I rarely watch the news—I rarely watch TV, I’d rather read something on my phone (RIP my Nook—it died a year ago *sniffle*). NPR isn’t my first choice radio station since their voices are so soothing that they make me want to sleep (WHICH IS TOTALLY DANGEROUS—YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SLEEPY WHILE DRIVING!). But when I’m not driving and my mom tunes into NPR, there really are some interesting articles. 

One of my most memorable experiences with NPR was a time where they played songs regarding the bathroom and toilets—but I digress. When sitting in the passenger seat, I listen to the soothing voices tell me about the latest biological breakthroughs: DNA coding and cancer treatments.

Well, through Facebook, I learn about all the political “mishaps” and “drama”. Especially recently with the presidential race. Trump’s hair, tension between Hillary and Bernie, the “IDK not Trump tho” campaign…wow, Trump’s in the news a lot. Oh, and remember the news about the new young prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and his awesome Bollywood dance moves? Yup, thanks Facebook.

My point is, I don’t actively look into the news. I don’t start up my computer and google the latest update in the stock market or presidential race or *insert random celebrity’s name here* ‘s life choices for that day.

But for my internship, that exactly what I’m doing—not about the topics listed above, but regarding any media coverage regarding Muslims—the news, journals, blogs, America, Europe, Asia—anything, anywhere. And the things you find…wow, the internet is amazing. I have set up a few google alerts that send me emails every day around 1:00 PM so that I can check out what kind of news I can share with my adviser. Good news and bad news.

February 10, 2016 was the one year anniversary of the Chapel Hill shooting where three Muslim University students were shot and killed (and the first day of my internship). I’m happy that I found a story that could make a good article but I also felt a bit sad (for the lack of a better word). I didn’t know about this shooting in much detail, so this was the first time I was reading into what happened. I checked out several websites to get an understanding of the event and the sentiment built around it. Muslims were afraid, the victims were Muslims, but the important thing was that PEOPLE shared the sentiment because the victims were HUMAN. The anniversary encouraged the support of Muslims and non-Muslims to work to provide for their community.

Family members of the victims set up the Lighthouse Project as a way to encourage community service in honor of the victims since they too were active participants in the community on a global level. Deah Barakat went to Turkey to help provide dental care to those in need, him and his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, started a national canned food drive called “Feed Their Legacy”, and the two along with Yusor’s sister, Razan, volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.

The community at Chapel Hill took a disaster and turned it into something positive. Instead of focusing on the shooter and his intentions (the media claims the dispute was over parking while others claim it was a hate crime because of the shooter’s strong anti-theist background), they community wanted to create a statement: that hate and fear can only be battled by love and generosity.

Tell me, what do you guys think about the Chapel Hill shooting? Is there something we can learn from this event?

And what is your source of news? Are you like me, waiting for what’s trending or do you do the digging yourself?

An Introduction

Hi everyone!

My name is Hibah and this blog will be detailing my weekly experiences and findings regarding my Senior Research Project: “What Is In Islam”.

But first, a little about myself…

I’m 18 years old, I live with my loving parents and my two younger brothers and I’m a senior at BASIS Peoria. I don’t have a favorite color but I prefer teal over puke green.

(  vs  )

I love to read mysteries (Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes) and I looove learning languages. I’m not saying I’m good at it, but I like the idea of giving the people the comfort to speak with me in their native tongue…someday…once I’m fluent… or know how to say more than just “hello.”

 

And about my project…

To some “Islam”, “hate crimes” and “foreigners” might be a “taboo” subject, but not to me. As a female Muslim-American, with Pakistani parents, raised on the Navajo reservation, I know all too well what it means to be a minority. I lived a mostly sheltered life when I was a kid surrounded by kind ethnically diverse neighbors: European, Chinese, Native American, Pakistani, Indian, and American.

But now that I’m older, I see that the interactions between myself and my neighbors were ideal. The real world has many more conflicts and clashing ideologies than five year old me realized. Maybe because as neighbors, we asked each other questions. What do you believe? Why do you believe? And we listened.

Now the media is the people's only source of information. Rarely do they think to fact check all the information presented to them or perhaps view the story from another angle.

Through my project, I want to gain an understanding about the relationship between hate and fear towards Muslims. How much does the public (both Muslim and non-Muslim) know about Islam, how does this information or lack thereof contribute to the fear of terrorist attacks and what can be done to decrease the hostilities towards Muslims?

While interning with CAIR-AZ (the Council of American-Islamic Relations) I want to help educate the public about Islam and create awareness of Islamophobia (the fear of Muslims and Islam) in order to establish the start of an educated society geared towards toleration rather than hate or fear.