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As I hinted at in my blog posts on the anniversary of President Obama’s Cairo speech to the Muslim world, I’ve been working on a Religion News Service story about the impact that America’s political efforts and cultural exports – including ”Sex and the City 2,” “South Park” and the Miss USA pageant – have had on U.S.-Muslim relations. (This term is too vague and oversimplified, a few sources reminded me, but I’m at a loss for a succinct replacement. Any suggestions?)
The story, which I wrote for Religion News Service, is up on The Huffington Post. Here are some quotes that didn’t make it into the final version:
Fatemeh Fakhraie, Muslimah Media Watch editor-in-chief:
Recent pop culture representations of the Middle East and Muslims sort of highlight the fact that Muslims and Muslim-majority countries are increasingly high-profile, both in politics and in the mainstream American media. There have been several TV shows, books, and movies in the last 10 years that include Muslim or Middle Eastern characters. Because so many stereotypes still exist about these particular demographics, many of the representations are still negative, and until these stereotypes change, the representations won’t.
Amir Hussain, a professor in Loyola Marymount University’s Department of Theology:
I think behind the scenes, American Muslims are doing what we can, and this is the best way to improve relations with the rest of the Muslim world, to show them who we are and what we are able to do in this country… Politically, it goes back to (American) support for wars in Muslim countries, as well as support for oppressive Muslim governments in places like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt. In a funny way, I think (American) politics undermines the culture.
Haroon Moghul, director of the Maydan Institute, a consulting firm that works with American Muslim communities:
Cultural issues can undermine the (political) process, but I don’t think they directly impinge on the process… They can certainly hurt, becaue they can be used by people who are obstructionist, but I think fundamentally the bigger problem is that the people (Muslim governments) we talk to don’t speak for anyone. Obama reaches out to governments who don’t have mandates.
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
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posted June 8, 2010 at 1:42 pm
I can certainly understand and sympathize with the feelings of a group that has come to be regarded with some measure of fear and suspicion in America and Europe. The rational people of Islam do not pose a threat to anyone.
And yet…
It would be disingenuous to pretend that anti-Islamic sentiment is pure prejudice without any rational basis. For decades, a disproportionately large number of violent acts around the world have been committed by Muslims against a wide range of other cultures (Jewish/Israeli, Christian/American, Hindu/Indian).
I am absolutely NOT making any generalization of Islam based on the criminal acts of a relatively tiny number of violence-prone fanatics who happen to identify themselves as Muslims. I believe without question that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are sane and rational, and that they are appalled at the link that has been established in people’s minds between their faith and terrorism.
But then the non-Muslim world is faced with a perplexing question: If only a tiny percentage of Muslims commit or endorse terrorism, then why has the hugely greater segment of the faith, representing sanity and rationality, been ineffective in muzzling and marginalizing the crazies among them? Yes, there is strong, outspoken condemnation of terrorist acts; but I have seen no equally strong and outspoken condemnation of clerics and political leaders who preach hatred and engage in hate-mongering rhetoric.
Some may say that I am calling for a civil war within Islam. Yes, I am. I am also calling for a civil war within Christianity, and within every other group where a small number of crazies become the public face of the group because the greater number of rational people have shrugged at them instead of confronting them by name and denouncing them for desecrating the values held by that group.
Acceptance of Islam in non-Islamic cultures (and acceptance of non-Islamic religions in Islamic cultures) will come about when the rational people wrest control of their respective faiths from the fanatics that have hijacked their faiths. Among rational people of different faiths, there is no war. The real war that must be fought is between the rational people and the fanatics within each faith.
posted June 9, 2010 at 10:29 am
This could be always the factor for the Muslims.It would be disingenuous to pretend that anti-Islamic sentiment is pure prejudice without any rational basis. For decades, a disproportionately large number of violent acts around the world have been committed by Muslims against a wide range of other cultures.
Mature Escorts
posted June 11, 2010 at 11:38 am
American Muslims are doing what we can, and this is the best way to improve relations with the rest of the Muslim world, to show them who we are and what we are able to do in this country..
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