A Professors Advice What You Should Know About Islam

don’t

you and i live in a globalized world

from the produce we find on the shelves

of our grocery stores

to the clothes we wear daily to the cars

we drive

our world has become increasingly

smaller

distances are traveled in less and less

time

while the internet has allowed for the

spread of information

instantly and yet there is a striking

paradox

while we consume the products they make

for us

we have very little actual knowledge

about others

even when the so-called other is our

neighbor

if you had a muslim neighbor

what would you know about them

i was blessed to have traveled the world

in a large part

through my research and career i am a

professor in islamic studies

i was born in france and started

traveling at an early age with my family

between what we call

the east and the west i have lived in 12

countries and visited over 50.

deep in my heart is a passion

to build bridges and i am blessed to be

doing this

in my professional capacity as a

professor

a scholar a writer

i see in the classroom on a daily basis

is a mirror into our society

and its most pressing challenges

we in the united states pride ourselves

on our religious freedom but

is this freedom being eroded for some

almost 20 years post 9 11

the prejudice and stereotypes against

muslims

are still present more importantly

they have become deeply rooted

every semester i get new students in my

classes

and the first thing i need to do is help

them

unlearn biased information

and myths they believe is actual

knowledge

as a professor today a main part of my

job is to deconstruct

narratives students have been exposed to

before exposing them to critical sources

of knowledge

for how long

the sad truth is that islam is largely

unknown

most americans do not know a muslim and

islamic studies

is not part of any curriculum prior to

the university level

for the very few who decide to study it

in my first class i always quiz my

students about

what they know or think they know about

islam and muslims what do you think i

hear

the answers i usually get involve

the veil polygamy

jihad

how could this be the common knowledge

about around two billion people one

quarter

of our globalized world

why don’t i ever hear that islam shares

the same

prophets as its sister religions judaism

and christianity

why don’t i ever hear that mary and

jesus

are revered by muslims

why don’t i ever hear about the

scientific contributions

made in the medieval islamic world and

how they led to the european renaissance

for example the invention of algebra by

el huarismi

or the invention of surgical instruments

by azarawin or as known as the father of

surgery

or even

that led to our modern gps system

why don’t i ever hear that muslim

civilization

is based on the israelite prophecies and

the greek heritage

the exact same roots as western

civilization

now you see it’s all this that should be

the common knowledge about islam and

muslims

a student recently asked me in class

with wavering emotion in her voice

why was i never told that islam

shares so many similarities with my

christian faith

yes why

there are two main factors for the state

of affairs

the first is a very long history of

framing islam in the western world

and i will come back to it in a moment

the second is the impact of the

insiduous

loud voice of mainstream media

and political discourses on islam and

muslims

a 2018 study by the university of

alabama

showed that terror attacks by muslims

receive on average

357 percent more attention

than those perpetrated by any other

group

do you think this is random

well no the coverage of islam and

muslims in mainstream media

is the result of a choice the choice

of fear-mongering the choice of the

islamophobia

industry yes an industry

an in-depth investigation was conducted

by the center for american progress

on this industry they demonstrated that

this was

an organized network with specific

funders and professionals with the set

goal

of vilifying islam for political gain

they also demonstrated that between 2001

and 2015 eight identified

donors gave 57 million dollars

to this network

have you ever wondered who

benefits from hate

it is not you and me it is those who

financially gain from it

from tearing us apart

now at times the paranoia

fomented by the media leads to

fantastical results a 2015

public policy poll showed that

a constable number of americans were in

favor of bombing

agaroba do you have any idea

where agrabah is located

well me neither it’s the fictional city

from disney’s aladdin

and this leads me to the first factor

as a historian i teach my students about

how we got here

a very long history of framing islam in

the western world

as early as the 7th century islam

was perceived and presented in europe as

a medieval

fallacy and a threat

in the following centuries muslims were

seen through the lengths of

orientalism as monsters

but also exotic and sensual others

in the words of scholar eduard saeed

it is europe that articulates the orient

in the ottoman and colonial periods the

muslim world

was seen as a threatening other to be

subdued

dominated civilized

following the cold war muslims replace

the communist enemy as convenient

scapegoats

today there are still traces of this

prejudice

on our own streets if we paid attention

but do we see these symbols

for example the turks heads

in these photos of british streets

in medieval europe a turks head spy

was a popular dish one symbolically

ate and devoured the head of a turk

in that time period turk was synonymous

with muslim

i wish this were all history behind us

but it’s not today

muslims are still constructed as a

violent

and threatening other recent studies

have shown

that muslims are by far the most

discriminated against

faith group in the united states

and here is another paradox

muslims are in fact one of the earliest

religious groups in the united states

many enslaved people were muslim

there has never been an america without

muslims is the first sentence of a book

by scholar emir hussein entitled muslims

and the making of america

if we knew our history we would know

that muslims are an integral part of the

american

social and cultural fabric from

sports music to culture

muslims have shaped american identity

the benefit of being a historian is that

you see how

certain facts have been erased

from our collective memory

we seem to suffer from collective

amnesia

but the problem is not just amnesia

about how muslims belong in our nation

it’s how they are dehumanized

the hollywood industry is a perfect

example

when i examine movies with my students

they are often perplexed

by the tropes and negative portrayals of

the muslim villains

they had never paid attention to before

again i asked you do we see prejudice

or have we become too desensitized

to notice

now our prejudice against others

has consequences

did we not see this in the 1940s

today islamophobia and targeted killings

of muslims have been on the rise

both in the united states and worldwide

did you know that in august 2020 an

entire family of

five was killed in denver when their

house was set on fire

do you know their crime

they were muslim

in china up to 1.5

million uighur muslims are in

re-education camps

their women are being sterilized by

force as we

speak and there are many

other examples in our globalized world

in myanmar india etc

there is currently something called a

muslim ban

today in the united states of america

there are laws

targeting muslims

experts advising governments say that

the change

will not happen from the top down

because of vested interests in the fear

industry

that means that it is upon you

and me to transform the status quo

we as a civil society have a collective

responsibility

to counter mainstream narratives of hate

and bring our own leaders to

accountability

when they dehumanize a group of people

so what is our role

here are four easy steps i share with my

students

number one build relationships

with local muslims make friends

with your muslim neighbor meet a muslim

genuine friendship is the answer to hate

and prejudice

several studies have recently shown that

americans who interacted with muslims

held more positive views of islam

so it’s time to expand your circles

every semester

i take my students to the local mosque

it’s often a transformative experience

for them to meet muslims for the first

time

muslims were not defined by the media

not defined by the autocritic regimes in

the muslim world

but speaking for themselves

if you don’t know where to start visit

a chapter of care the council on

american islamic relations and learn

about the muslim communities near you

if you go to new york city join a tour

that maps out the history of muslims in

the city

number two inform yourself

and do some fact checking

many news networks have an agenda they

color the facts they present to you as

their audience

ask yourself what is the agenda of your

favorite news network

have you considered other sources of

information

experts say that we shall try to rely