Muslim stereotypes challenged in US

BBC ^ | 2-6-04 | Jacky Rowland

[Indy Pendance]

The US Department of Justice is trying to combat racial stereotypes surrounding the Muslim community since the 11 September terrorist attacks.

A training programme aimed at police officers and other public officials is seeking to increase understanding of Muslim culture, in the hope that this will defuse tensions.

Lobna Ismael is the daughter of Egyptian immigrants to the US. She is a Muslim and she wears the traditional headscarf, the hijab.

"There's been a range of backlash toward Arab and Muslim Americans," she says.

"It has included verbal assaults, it has included physical assaults. We had a woman who just recently was walking down the street and wearing hijab, and was stabbed and called a terrorist. We've had our mosque defamed with graffiti and people shooting bullets into the windows of our mosque."

Now Ms Ismael is challenging those stereotypes, by carrying out a series of training workshops for the Department of Justice.

Learning curve

I met her at a police station in Montgomery County, Maryland, where she has been training officers from the local force.

Captain Edward Coursey was one of her trainees.

Driving me around his Takoma Park beat, he acknowledged that there had been a tendency to view Muslims as potential terrorist suspects.

"Particularly after the 9/11 attacks, we in the law enforcement community have obviously geared up to be on the lookout for terrorism. And I guess the immediate reaction might have been to look at Muslims in a sceptical way," he said.

"This training allows us to realise that the vast majority of people in the Arab American community have nothing to do with terrorism. They are peace-loving people like ourselves, and they may need our protection."

Scepticism

But a lot of Muslims are unconvinced by the Department of Justice scheme.

They are less concerned about how the police treat them than they are about attitudes high up in the Bush administration.

After Friday prayers at the Islamic Center of Maryland, I sat on the floor of the mosque and chatted with a group of young Muslim men.

They think the Bush administration is sending out mixed messages to the Muslim community - with police sensitivity training on the one hand, and racial profiling on the other.

"You have sensitivity training for police, because they have to deal with criminals," said Hanif Khalak.

"Are all Muslims criminals? Why not sensitivity training for government? Do they think we're all going to jail so we may as well make it a nice experience?"

"And for what purpose, if our brothers and sisters can't get due process?" added his friend, Wael Elkoshairi.

"We don't need sensitivity training, we need our rights. And I think that's what we are looking for as a community, more than anything else."

But senior people at the Department of Justice defend the programme.

"A lot of people don't know a whole lot about what's going on," said Sharee Freeman, the director of the Community Relations Service with the Department of Justice.

"But I know the work that's being done by the Bush administration, so I don't think it's lip service at all."

Muslim Americans are wary of the President and his overtly Christian administration, and they feel they have been unfairly singled out for monitoring since 11 September.

But community leaders appear to recognise that the government is trying to build bridges, and that it is probably in everyone's best interest to meet them half way.

[Valin]

Don't want to be stereotyped? Quit behaving that way.

What way?

[PattonReincarnated]

>> We should leave the poor muslims alone and let them plot in peace.

We should leave the muslims poor and give them a plot to rest in peace.

[Monty22]

No kidding, they act like we are irrational for hating them.. Even though they do not a DAMN thing to reign in jihadists.

Too bad islamics. You are asking for it and them some. And you'll get yours.

[thoughtomator]

Are you aware of the meaning of the hijab? It has a political, not a religious meaning. And that political meaning is that the wearer is a supporter of murder in the name of Islam.

The hijab never existed before the Muslim Brotherhood introduced it into Egypt in the 1970s.

[CalKat]

Do you honestly think Muslims are going to invade the US?

[CalKat]

There are Indonesian jihadists and even the moderate Muslims in Indonesia are becoming more militant and anti-US.

[calljack]

The invasion began almost 20 years ago,it is going full speed as we type. There is but a few years left to save our country as we knew it. Our government, both parties, have no interest in saving us because to speak and do the necessary things would cost them the next election. 15% of the electorate can control a country. Lots of polititions in lots of countries are currently afraid to alienate the muslem population because they would lose the next election. It will soon be the third rail of politics here then all will be lost. Devide and conquer. Have we ever been this divided?? We are getting close.

[CalKat]

When have Muslims ever been a significant voting block in federal elections in the US? And even the cheese eating surrender monkey, as he's called here, Jacques Chirac, is alienating Muslims in France by outlawing the hijab.

[IronJack]

If you listen really carefully, you can hear the sound of the world's smallest violin playing a dirge for the poor misunderstood Muslims.

[blam]

" That day is coming as sure as the terrorist incident that will trigger it."

Bet on it.

[sneakers]

"A training programme aimed at police officers and other public officials is seeking to increase understanding of Muslim culture, in the hope that this will defuse tensions."

Sorry, this is the farthest I got. I have an idea; how's about the muslims learning and understanding American culture - yeah, that's what they should do - after they have sincerely expressed an apology about what happened on 9/11! That might help to diffuse tensions.

[StopGlobalWhining]

Much of this tension between Christians/Jews and the Islamic community in the US and the rest of the world could be eliminated if we would just accept Allah and convert to Islam.

[calljack]

They are not yet, that is exactly my point. They will be eventually if their birth rate continues to climb and ours continues to fall. Think of how laid back we were in 1970. Now think Mexicans + California + 40 years. They win via superior breeding. Whites are a minority here.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

A training programme aimed at police officers and other public officials is seeking to increase understanding of Muslim culture, in the hope that this will defuse tensions.

Frankly, I think a program that helps increase understanding of the "real" culture of Muslims will increase tensions. Most people don't know how dangerous the extremist Muslims really are. A quick course on Sharia law or honor-killings is just the thing to open someone's eyes...

[Hank Rearden]

Personally when I see any woman wearing one of those hijabs, I am turned off.

Yeah. It's sort of prima facie evidence of gross stupidity, isn't it?

[RLK]

Idiots who worship at the feet of an aggressive psychitic from 1,400 years ago deserve all the disgust and ridicule they get.

[Jorge]

Are you aware of the meaning of the hijab? It has a political, not a religious meaning. And that political meaning is that the wearer is a supporter of murder in the name of Islam.

Wow. If this is true it more than explains the creepy feeling I get when I see one.

[Frank_2001]

The Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation couldn't resist a little Christian bashing there...not so tolerant themselves, eh?

[Siamese Princess]

Frankly, I think a program that helps increase understanding of the "real" culture of Muslims will increase tensions. Most people don't know how dangerous the extremist Muslims really are. A quick course on Sharia law or honor-killings is just the thing to open someone's eyes...

It would be a good idea to understand what Islam is really all about, but the police will be taught a sanitized, phony Islam that few Muslims actually believe in. The important thing is that the infidels believe that the sanitized, phony Islam is the true Islam and that the fundamentalists are "perverting" their religion. Of course, the Muslims will laugh at the infidels behind their backs for their gullibility and ignorance.

I might add that stereotypes are usually based in reality.

[thoughtomator]

Not surprising, when the message is a very direct "I am just waiting for the moment to kill you and everyone like you".