Stereotypes

Islamophobia, the fear of Islam or Muslims. This is a real fear and it is very common throughout the world, especially in the United States. Stereotypes are also very common in the United States and it’s not unusual to look at someone differently based on a stereotype. Stereotypes are formed mostly through the media. Major stereotypes at the moment are about the presidential election and about Muslims or Islam. There are a lot of stereotypes formed about Muslims. For example, all Muslims are bad people, all Muslims are part of Isis or that Muslims have some evil plot to kill. From my experience all those stereotypes are wrong and there is no reason to be scared of Muslims. The people I have met in Morocco and the people I see in the streets of Rabat happen to be Muslim and they are the sweetest people I have ever met. In school each class has a personal translator to help you to teach the kids and Wissam is mine. Not only does she help me in class but she helps my fellow group of teachers get home through the narrow and vast streets of the Medina. She comes to our house every day with a smile and is ready to help us and others throughout the day. Wissam has also helped me learn Arabic to go buy food for the house in the market. It is very sad to know that people would look at her and immediately say or think she is a bad person just because she is Muslim and wears a Hijab. The people here are welcoming and kind, they are also open to everyone no matter where they are from or what they believe in. They believe that Isis or other Islamic terrorist groups are not true Muslims. This shows that people here to do not agree with the actions of these terrorist groups. A girl in my class whose name is Lemmia has a very bright future and is always telling me she is happy. Her desire to learn English is big. The thought of Lemmia or any of my students hurting somebody has not even crossed my mind as a possibility.  Unfortunately, I know that someone out there would see that she is a Muslim and instead of thinking of her future being bright and prosperous, they may think of her future as dark and gloomy. Gayle, Ciera, and I had a big discussion about this with a family on a home visit. Just as Americans are scared of Muslims, Muslims are scared of Americans. The family I talked to would love to travel to America, they dream of it. Despite the fact they would like to visit America the family said they would never go under these circumstances. One of the circumstances being our president (They don’t like him, seems common here.) Another being how Americans treat Muslims. The last being the stereotypes formed about Americans. A stereotype that has formed about Americans is that we are all against Muslims. This is because of the negative connotations of our current president and the things he says about Muslims. The Muslims here think that all Americans think the same way as our president, and believe the same things. I know from both sides that all Americans do not treat Muslims poorly and that all Muslims are nowhere close to bad.

So instead of listening to the news which only highlights the bad things that are going on in this world, why don’t you do your own research to see for yourself that bad people, who happen to be Muslim, are scarce and good people, who happen to be Muslims, are actually real and numerous. I hope this sparks the idea that you should experience scenarios first hand before you make judgments about other people or places.

Shukaran,
            Karsen