{"id":2880,"date":"2012-02-24T16:35:08","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T08:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muzlimbuzz.sg\/?p=2880"},"modified":"2012-02-24T16:35:08","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T08:35:08","slug":"islam-week-students-prof-analyze-stereotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/islam-week-students-prof-analyze-stereotypes\/","title":{"rendered":"During Islam Week, students, profs, analyze stereotypes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The diversity of students celebrating\u00a0Islam Awareness Week<\/a> reflected the core of the message the Muslim Students Association hoped to convey: Nothing can be generalized about Islam.<\/p>\n

Over the last week, MSA hosted lectures and performances to dispel misconceptions about Islam. Irem Bilgic, SEAS \u201912 and president of MSA, said he hoped the week would \u201cinform people about the different backgrounds individuals bring to their faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA certain culture can not really represent all Muslim cultures because there are a lot of differences among Muslims themselves,\u201d Bilgic, who is Muslim and of Turkic descent, said.<\/p>\n

A common thread to the events over the last week was a call to action for those within the Muslim community to educate those who do not understand that Muslims come from a variety of backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Alay Syed, BC \u201915 and an organizational committee member of MSA, recalled being subject to verbal abuse from patrons of her family-owned store on Staten Island in the wake of 9\/11.<\/p>\n

Her sister was often yelled at for wearing her hijab, she said. Classmates blamed her. \u201cPeople started asking me, \u2018Why did you do it?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018I didn\u2019t do anything.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s event, \u201cThe Muslim Next Door,\u201d panelists addressed assumptions and generalizations often made about Islam. Anthropology professor Lila Abu-Lughod criticized what she described as an increasingly popular genre of writing in which Muslim women are portrayed as helpless property, putting Muslim men in a bad light. Many of these books, she said, portray events that did not happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to ask, \u2018What does this do?\u2019 These books are sold to millions. It\u2019s creating an emotional bedrock about Muslim women and how they are treated,\u201d Abu-Lughod said. \u201cThese books, these representations, define views and structure feelings about Muslim women and their rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

[pullquote_left]Ali urged Muslims to \u201cbecome participants, not spectators.\u201d[\/pullquote_left]<\/p>\n

Wajahat Ali, author of \u201cThe Domestic Crusaders,\u201d a book about the media\u2019s influence on the American perception of Islam, spoke out against generalizing Muslims.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not him and he is not me,\u201d he said. \u201cHe does not represent all of my community.\u201d Ali urged Muslims to \u201cbecome participants, not spectators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although 63 percent of Americans say they don\u2019t know a Muslim person, according to Ali, Islam has a lower favorability now than it did immediately following 9\/11. This has led to an increase in bullying that Ali said has become more sophisticated since he attended high school in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Imam Khalid Latif, chaplain for the Islamic Center at New York University, spoke at Thursday\u2019s \u201cColors of Islam\u201d panel.<\/p>\n

Addressing Muslims in the room, he said, \u201cYou represent a unique segment of our population. If you all sat down and put your minds together, I\u2019m sure you could get people to understand that the Muslim community is not a hegemonic community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there are some within the Muslim community who are uncomfortable with spreading more accurate knowledge about their faith.<\/p>\n

When Nourah Alhassoun, a graduate student in SEAS, wears a necklace with a charm of the Qu\u2019ran on it, she often hides it rather than face the inevitable irrationally angry response to it.<\/p>\n

She has her doubts, though. \u201cI get afraid,\u201d she said. \u201cBut then I feel this is my religion, why should I hide it?\u201d<\/p>\n

MSA Vice President Maliha Tariq, BC \u201913, hopes that Islam Awareness Week has been able to fuel discussion and give the campus more information about Islam than the media does. But she recognizes that the effort goes far beyond just holding a week of events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard to get people who should be coming to these kinds of events to come, but we\u2019re hoping that by just holding them we might pique curiosity in people who wouldn\u2019t necessarily come,\u201d Tariq said.<\/p>\n

[divider]<\/p>\n

Source: Columbia Spectator<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The diversity of students celebrating\u00a0Islam Awareness Week reflected the core of the message the Muslim Students Association hoped to convey: Nothing can be generalized about Islam. Over the last week, MSA hosted lectures and performances to dispel misconceptions about Islam. Irem Bilgic, SEAS \u201912 and president of MSA, said he hoped the week would \u201cinform […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[10,173,1373,1372,1369,1371,1370,1368,80],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","tag-islam","tag-islam-awareness-week","tag-islamic-awareness-week","tag-msa","tag-muslim-society","tag-muslim-students-association","tag-stereotypes","tag-wide-leg-pants-muslimah-fashion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2884,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions\/2884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}