Yay! I did it! I finally finalized my questionnaire!
I don't dance so there wont be any victory dancing... so here is a very enthusiastic high jump.
If you are interested, here is the link to my questionnaire that I made through esurv.org: https://eSurv.org?s=LCIEOH_49a08bd9
If possible, share this survey with your family and friends so I can get as much data as possible!
The rest of the week I'll be drafting a script for the video I'll be making as my final project.
As usual, at the CAIR office I have been researching hare crimes and sharing them with my advisor. But now I get to write the articles too! If you haven't already, check out the site hatehurts.net to see the kind of stories that we track and share.
I have been doing more research this week and found an interesting study pertaining to my project.
It turns out that Islam and Muslims are more negatively portrayed than cocaine, alcohol and cancer!
Wut...? Wow...
Yup... This study was conducted using New York Times headlines between 1990 and 2014 by Owais Arshad, Varun Setlur, Usaid Siddiqqui, Jai Setlur, Di Yan and Steven Zhou. The headlines were then compared to a dictionary of words with sentiment ratings which created in 2005 by research done by Minqing Hu and Bing Liu at the University of Illinois along with "Violence Vocabulary" that was compiled in 2015.
Headlines were then broken up to get rid of words including "as", "and" and "the" to isolate the content of the headline. Each individual word was then given a rating (0 if neutral, +1 if positive and -1 if negative). With each word scored, the total score of the headline would be calculated by adding the rating of each word. If the total was above 0, then it was classified as a positive headline, if it was below 0 then it was a negative headline and if it was 0 then it was classified as neutral.
At the end of all the classifications, the data revealed that out of all the headlines with regards to Islam, only 8% were positive while 57% were negative. Look at the charts below to see the comparisons between other topics.
So, without a doubt, Islam presence in the media highlights more negative aspects of the religion than positive. This makes sense in the recent rise of ISIS and many attacks, but again, the extremists that hare highlighted in the media don't represent the majority of Muslims.
In fact, the researchers discussed how collective responsibility has alienated many groups in history, including the Jews, the Germans and the Japanese. The media's focus on these groups has caused the public to fear Muslims and Islam in general causing the increase in unrest now days.
It is said that fear comes from the unknown, but I think it can come from the known as well.
I have a story to share:
So, my family and I were coming back from a trip to California where our cousins live. On our way back, we stopped by at a gas station where a man in traditional Muslim clothing was standing and smoking.
Well, needless to say, we had a reaction. We weren't violent and we didn't approach the man but we were all a bit nervous.
I guess we were fearful too. My family and I study about Islam every Saturday so we know about our religion, but I guess it was odd to us that we found the man there. We were fearful that there might be an incident. Either on onlooker would instigate or he would. These were the types of thoughts we were having, so what about the others there? I know that I was keeping alert.
Well, thank goodness that nothing happened. The man had left by the time we came back to our car after stretching our legs and buying some snacks.
So my main point is that this stereotype has not only affected those who don't know about the religion but those who are part of it too.
This week has been pretty slow... I'm still in the process of working on my questionnaire... I can't wait to finalize it and get some actual results!
So in order to get a rough idea of what people already thought about Islam, I started watching some social experiments that were posted on YouTube.
One that stuck out the most to me was done by word association. The YouTubers asked New Yorkers to say the first thing that came to mind when shown words like Jihad, Islam, Muslim, Ramadan etc.
While I was watching it was surprising to see that someone people really had no idea what they were talking about. My favorite word association was for "Ramadan" (fasting) when a girl said "Ramen" (noodles).
Some people were really aware of the media's role and the topics they were discussing while many others did not know what the words meant at all. If you have time, take a look and let me know what you think:
Of course this is just an example of just a couple of people, but these are the types of responses that I'm probably going to be expecting. Some people just don't know enough about Islam to give an answer, some have the view of the stereotype while others understand that the media portrays a skewed perception of Muslims/Islam.
Here is another word association one that is (I think) more experimental. It starts the word association with things that have nothing to do with Islam to clear the subjects' minds.
So this week I have been working on the type of questions I want to ask in my questionnaire. At first I thought there would be only a few questions but with all the multiple choice options and pictures, it looks kind of lengthy (5 pages...). But hopefully with some finishing touches I can make it short and quick, and allow me to get all the information that I need.
Additionally, on Thursday, I visited Arizona's capitol hill (in downtown Phoenix where Arizona's legislature is located) with CAIR (my internship). This is the first time that CAIR has set up meetings with Arizonian legislatures to talk about certain bills and to encourage Muslim community members to participate in their government.
As with any event, their are always last minute cancellations, so we had a small crowd (I'd say about 15 people), but nonetheless the outcome was great!
There were two specific bills that we wanted to discuss: HB 2401/SB1125 (School Desegregation Funding) and HB 2617 (Israel Boycott and Divestment).
First, let's talk about HB 2617. Essentially, this bill wants to limit the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement that many individuals, college groups, companies and organizations have started. The BDS movement protests Israel's unlawful settlements in Palestine as well as Israeli companies that are complicit with human rights abuse. Additionally, if there is any company/organization that supports BDS, they will not be able to do business with the government and pension systems will be divested from these companies/organizations.
This bill infringes upon the people's first amendment right. We have the right to boycott certain goods to show our support, in this case lack of support, for certain ideas/actions/events. So why is Arizona trying to pass the bill? Boycotts have been a major part of American history (remember the Boston Tea Party and the Montgomery Bus Boycott) and this right is what makes America so great.
So it was important to us to convey the importance of this right to our legislators. As it turns out, I got to meet with the legislator of my district, Martin Quezada. He was very receptive and he told us that he was the only one to vote against the bill when it was under discussion at one of the committee meetings.
What surprised me regarding this bill is the fact that Republicans are usually against any type of law that interferes with business...so why do they want to regulate the boycotts? Won't it be better for this to play out by itself? Companies should have the choice to BDS rather than worry about the government trying to stop them.
HB 2401/SB1125 is a bit more complicated. So, after the Supreme Court Case Brown V Board of Education, all schools had been ordered to be desegregated. In order to do this and provide certain programs for their students, school districts were given the ability to impose property taxes.
So you may be thinking "why is this important? Aren't the schools already desegregated?"
Well, yes and no. Though the schools are not segregated as they were in the past, especially in Arizona there are many schools that only have minority students at low socio-economic standing. So taking away the schools' main method to provide a better education for their students will be stripped.
Education in Arizona is already at a low, by taking away this right will only make things worse. And the fact that this tax right was granted to the school districts from a federal level, it is highly likely that there will be lawsuits in place against the state and federal government which will be ultimately funded by tax-payer dollars.
These were the only two bills we discussed but it was important to show the state that the Muslim community was involved with aspects of daily life. Muslims are as much part of the community as everyone else; they are parents whose children go to school and business men and women.
Many people are only aware of elections and issues at the federal level and don't even know what bills are being passed right under their noses. Regardless of ones religion, participating in government is the way to ensure that you are aware of your surroundings and being represented.
This was an excellent experience to see not only how the government works but to also show others that Muslims are part of the community and that we care about "normal" issues like school funding and the first amendment right.
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.
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. :)
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.
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 accountthis 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?
