wfn.org | Muslims still face U.S. stereotyping

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 8, 1999	Contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{074}

By Kelly Martini*

Even as the late King Hussein of Jordan is being remembered as a great
leader, the Muslim community at large is still viewed as a threat by many in
the United States.
	
An article in February's Response magazine, the official publication of
United Methodist Women, cites several examples of media coverage
politicizing Muslims as a U.S. enemy. Prejudice against Muslims is one of
several areas covered in Response's current issue, which focuses on hatred
and the problems it creates.

The article on Muslims cites a Wall Street Journal editorial titled "Why
Stereotypes Are So Hard to Eradicate," which stated: "Virtually every
overseas act of anti-American terrorism in recent memory has been committed
by an Islamic group in the name of its religion." The editorial declared
that "most anti-American terrorists are Muslim."

That negative image contrasts sharply with the reverence being accorded to
King Hussein, Jordan's Muslim ruler, who died Feb. 7 after a seven-month
battle with cancer. The ruler was eulogized both within and outside the
Islamic community as a great statesman and advocate for peace.
	
According to the U.S. State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism 1997
report, 123 anti-U.S. attacks were carried out that year: 97 occurred in
Latin America, seven took place in Europe, and six were in Asia. 

The recent movie "The Siege" portrayed an Islamic extremist group wreaking
havoc in New York City. Although the movie itself showed how the civil
rights of innocent Muslims were abrogated in efforts to quell the unrest,
the original trailer for the movie reflected no such sensitivity. The
widespread outcry prompted the release of a revised trailer.
	
In this climate of mistrust and fear, Muslim workers often experience
harassment at the workplace, especially if they observe daily prayers or
wear hijab - the traditional dress for women, covering the head and the
body, according to the Response article.

The article, "U.S. and Muslims: Creating an Enemy," was written by Jane
Eesley, an associate pastor of Community United Methodist Church in
Naperville, Ill. She serves on the denomination's Northern Illinois
Conference Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.

Anti-Muslim language and images have been building over the years, said
Ghada Talhami, a professor at Lake Forest (Ill.) College. "It increases as
the community becomes more visible. Muslims are more in the mainstream,
which arouses fear and suspicion."
	
While mainstream Christians easily disassociate themselves from fringe
groups that call themselves Christian -- such as the Ku Klux Klan, David
Koresh's Branch Davidians or some militia outfits -- they rarely make
similar distinctions among Muslim groups.
	
"The vast majority of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims are as offended by a
violent act carried out in the name of Islam as most Christians are
horrified by atrocities perpetrated by Serbian Christians or the Real Irish
Republican Army," writes Charles Kimball, chairman of the religion
department at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Within the evangelical Christian community, increasing concern is being
raised about the persecution of Christians overseas. Muslims fear that such
cases are not being placed in their sociopolitical context, according to the
article. 
	 
"We're heading in the direction of saying Islam as a faith is what we have
to fear," said Faiz Rehman, editor of Pakistan-Link newspaper. "We have a
double standard. If a Christian country does something wrong, we don't blame
Christianity. We dropped the bomb in Hiroshima. Was that a Christian bomb?
Absolutely not. But it came from a Christian country, or at least a country
where Christianity is the predominant faith."
 
Increased focus upon religious persecution may well be an excuse for
Muslim-bashing, John Esposito, director of the Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington, has suggested.

Talhami points out that the Muslim extremist persecution of Coptic
Christians in Egypt has been denounced strongly by the Egyptian government
and by Muslim intellectuals, but these denunciations are rarely covered by
the media.
	
One complicating factor in the demonizing of Muslims is the tendency to use
the terms "Muslim" and "Arab" interchangeably, according to the article.
Although Islam was born in the Arabic world and the Koran is in the Arabic
language, most of the 1.2 billion Muslims are not of Arab descent. The
country with the highest number of Muslims -- 183 million -- is Indonesia.
The twinning of Muslims and Arabs in popular culture is an outgrowth of U.S.
foreign policy toward the Middle East.
	 
Muslims in the United States experience a variety of civil rights
violations, ranging from verbal harassment to violent hate crimes. The
Council on American-Islamic Relations' 1998 annual report on the state of
civil rights for Muslims in the United States showed an 18 percent increase
in total cases and a 60 percent increase in reports of discrimination,
especially in the workplace.
	
An oft-cited example of latent prejudice against Muslims emerged in the
aftermath of the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City. Immediately, the
perpetrators were assumed to be Islamic, and Muslims throughout the country
found themselves under attack. Such attacks were spurred by news reports,
such as that by CBS Evening News on April 19, 1995, the night of the
bombing.
	
In the first few days after the attack, more than 200 incidents against
Muslims were recorded by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
	
Amid the backlash against Muslims, hopeful signs emerge in the country,
according to the Response article.  In 1996, Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed
200 Muslims to the White House to celebrate Aid al-Filr, the end of the holy
month of Ramadan.

The revised trailer for "The Siege" is another sign of hope, according to
the Response article. And some corporations are developing fairer policies
toward Muslims. For example, American Industries Inc. in Nashville, Tenn.,
has instituted a floating break so Muslim workers may attend Friday prayer
at a nearby mosque.
	
United Methodist Women is a 1.1 million-member organization that aims to
foster spiritual growth, develop leaders and advocate for social justice.
Members raise more than $20 million a year for programs and projects related
to women, children, and youth in the United States and in more than 100
countries around the world.

# # #

*Martini is executive secretary of communications for the Women's Division
of the United Methodist Church's Board of Global Ministries.

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