Examining Why Islamophobia Is Harmful;
There was this one time that my mom and her friend were walking on a hike up near Seattle. They
came across a woman walking a dog, the dog was off its leash, which was illegal since the park had signs
everywhere indicating that 'NO DOGS ARE ALLOWED OFF-LEASH'. Since my mom has never liked
dogs, she decided to avoid the woman walking her pet and stand to side, instead of understanding and
being respectful of my mom's decision, the woman merely scoffed at her and her friend and commented:
"Well these people clearly don't like dogs," indicating at both of their scarves upon their heads. The
woman was white, she was breaking the law and being a racist, and no, Muslims can like dogs and have
them as pets. This is just one instance of Islamophobia within its smallest form.
Why is Islamophobia harmful, and how does this topic not get brought up enough in schools?
In general, Islamophobia has always been a very 'sensitive' topic, this isn't to make light of what it is
and what it defines, this is merely showing how people tend to ignore what others are going through and
facing on a daily scale-level. The example I gave up above is nothing compared to what Muslims have to
deal with- especially visibly-clear Muslims, in other extreme circumstances. This topic has just started to
be discussed within schools, but is poorly covered upon since not many teachers know how to explain it,
or just flat-out know what they're doing. This is not to claim that all teachers are horrible at being
inclusive, this is to comment that a good majority of them aren't doing enough.
According to the JSTOR organization's quote: "Anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia are not just
phenomena—they have increasingly become the focus of a new field of research: Islamophobia studies.
Frequent national and international conferences and publications in this area bear witness to this." I can tell that
there is an immenseness of effort put into the support of trying to stop Islamophobia and have it taught more
frequently and researched extensively within the school districts of the world. However, there needs to be more
attention put into helping children feel included and not put down because of their faith or religion-no matter
what they believe in.
Of course they're many ways for non-Muslims to comfort a Muslim or anyone else in general, who is being
put down because of their beliefs. One of the ways to do so, is to not use the method of "I treat all students the
same" or "I don't see color" approach. The problem with this method used in many classrooms, is that stated
from article author Asma Ahmed; "When I probe and ask more questions, I notice the fear of being
perceived as an Islamophobe, or harboring Islamophobic sentiments is camouflaged and wrapped up in
such statements." From the post on the Conversation Company news headline, author Ahmed decrees an
idea that is exactly what students face and what Muslim students go through during an Islamophobic time
in school.
The best way how to just avoid racism altogether, is to share all sides of a story or a news article.
Author Ahmed also writes: "Yet something strange happens when they process the all-too-often negative
narratives of Muslims in the media as suspicious, dangerous and backwards." She continues on with how
teachers (specifically in Canada) claim that since Muslims live in the West they are being "civilized",
therefore allowing the fact that 'Muslims are supposed to be violent' roam through the minds of students
who don't know the truth. A teacher who cares about students, and cares about the truth, would not let this
message spread throughout the classroom and would most certainly not base off an instance from a
headlines article. The media has its own way of spreading the image that they love to portray fear or
negativity towards other cultures for the sake of amusement and sadly- entertainment. This is not to claim
that all media coverage doesn't act responsively, this is to merely state the truth for a good majority of
them.
It has always meant so much to me when a teacher will take the extra effort to point out certain facts
that are false on the coverage of Islam or of Muslims in general. Even when I wasn't wearing a scarf, and
there were no visible Muslims within the classroom, and a teacher still took the time and effort to properly
portray the scene and display it with the rightness of clarity, my heart would feel extremely spontaneous.
Especially if there was nothing for that teacher to gain in the first place.
*Let's just take a moment here to give a round of applause for those amazing teachers.*
As for students, I can recall many of my classmates expressions when I turned on my camera for zoom
and they saw me wearing a scarf. Because I had started coming to The Arbor since fifth grade, everyone
practically knew me, so there was nothing new to my character, but to my appearance... There was a lot!
However, instead of getting that whip-lash response that I had originally thought would be my fate, I
discovered that no one minded. And that no one cared to protest the fact: that I decided to be who I am.
And that meant so much.
One of my own friends who I hadn't talked to for years, even commented on how pretty it looks on me.
And so many more of my friends who I hadn't been fluidly communicating with, all of a sudden, decided
to start messaging me back and talking to me more often. It felt really weird, and even funny within its
own way. That because I stuck to the truth, of what I love and of what I represent, more friends of mine
were attracted to me and more people started to take an interest in what I had to say.
And, this of course- is just a personal experience.
The best parts were when teachers had no problems with my change of mind and decision. And
even though I had declared myself to not be a racist, I had thought that my male, old, white, Christian
teachers would be the worst upon me, but I was completely wrong. They were the nicest ones!!! This in
itself, is racism that still possessed my heart- with reason of course- but still racism and a stereotype
nonetheless. That's why it is so important to convey true feelings and meanings within the victims of
Islamophobia, and to help spread awareness of how a little kindness can completely change everything. It
changed my meaning on old, white, male, Christian men, so I bet it could do the same for others with even
harder problems.
There are still incidences happening all over the world that can be triggered by hate and bigotry, such as
the New Zealand Mosque shooting, where 51 Muslims were killed in the country's deadliest shooting,
sourced from Reuters Company. Or during the time period of the San Bernardino incident of the Los Osos
High School in Rancho Cucamonga, changing the name of one of their scarf-adorned students' to
"Isis Phillips", instead of her actual name to just spread injustice and misinformation and claim that she
'somehow' is related to the extremist group run by fundamentalists, and later acclaimed that it was a just a
'joke' and that they made a "typo", rather than apologize to their eleventh grade student. And right now, in
France there was a ban passed in 2011 to not allow Muslim girls to wear Hijab in public schools, this
law also affected Jewish boys who were not able to wear their Yamakas either. These are topics that
should be hard-core discussed within the media as well as education in schools, Islamophobia should
never be tolerated and so shouldn't racism in general. When you want to talk about freedom, you talk
about freedom for ALL. Not just one version.
To basically end this thought bubble, I think that it is important for all peoples to fully understand the
harm of ignoring such topics, and how that can easily be taken to the popular term 'ignorance is bliss'. No
one should ever feel hurt. No one should ever feel harmed or unwelcome. No one should feel the harms of
Islamophobia or be threatened by it. Everyone is important. Everyone is special. And the idea of this post
is to only make others think more and contemplate outside of their comfort space. It did for me!
Sources:
🙈
ReplyDelete