Many people claim American exceptionalism but, at least in regard to fear and aversion of “the Other,” we are just like the vast majority of societies. Over most of our history, a significant majority turned against religious, ethnic or ideological minorities in our own midst accusing them of threatening “us.” To just mention a few: anti-Native Americans, anti-African slaves and their descendants, anti-Catholics, anti-Irish-Americans, anti-Semitism, anti-Italian-Americans, anti-German-Americans, Anti-Polish-Americans, anti-Chinese and Japanese- Americans, anti-Russian or anti-communist, anti-Mexican-Americans or, more broadly, anti-Latino-Americans, anti-immigrants (esp. “undocumented immigrants”), and, the most recent, anti-Muslim (both Muslims born and living in this country and Muslims elsewhere). It is interesting that descendants of some who have been discriminated against now use the very same arguments of experiencing threats against the more recent subject of our phobia that had been directed toward their ancestors.
The way it seems to work is that, on the basis of some negative experience or even merely memories or rumors of negative experiences, we extrapolate to arrive at the notion that the entire group posits a threat to our collective survival. As we overcome the fear of one group, we quickly conclude that this new threat is the greatest ever. Even in a highly individualistic society such as ours, we seem to quickly revert to collectivist/tribal thinking according to which bad action by some from another group makes us jump to the conclusion that all of them are a threat to us and need to be eliminated.
In regard to Islam and Muslims, there are, indeed, some Muslims who, allegedly in the name of Islam, have done and continue to do massively evil things. But they are a tiny radicalized minority of terrorists for whom there is a technical name,”Islamists” or “jihadists.” The followers of the “Islamist” interpretation of Islam are located in many places of the world (esp. groups like al-Qaeda, or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/ISIL) and some can be found in the US. While they have done harm to some of us, they are, at least up to now, nowhere near the damage done by other individuals and groups in our country (or county). If you don’t believe me, read the papers or watch the daily news.
What about the vast majority of Muslims in the US? There may be a handful who are sympathizers of radical retaliation of actions by western nations but the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful folks whose purpose in life is no different from that of most of “us”, namely, to raise their families, earn an education and make a living, enjoy friendship with others, and follow a path of honorable and constructive living.
How do I know that? Not only from common sense observation about the human condition here on earth but also I travelled widely in the Muslim world, had many Muslim students both American-born and foreign-born, have many Muslim friends, helped Muslim refugees, and published the writings of Muslim scholars. I taught Muslims and I learned from Muslims. Many of them struggle with the heritage of animosity toward “others” found in their holy book and in their tradition in the same way that the rest of us struggle when confronted by animosities of our own holy books and religious or secular traditions. If you were to ask would I be concerned about living among Muslims, I would answer, “no more than living among any other people.”
My appeal is not to allow our phobias, including Islamophobia, to make a lie out of the words of our national anthem, regarding the claim that we live in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” If we live in fear either because we are threatened by those whom we despise or feel threatened by those who despise us, we are not free. Nor are we brave when we continue to nurture phobias. The solution is simple. Venture to meet as many Muslims as you can. Get to know them as persons. Will you always have a good experience? No more than meeting people of “our own group.” In every group, there are some people who may not be likable to you, but venturing out of our comfort zone almost always brings rewarding experiences. Then, too, you will be able to appeal to others to drop their Islamophobia (or any other group animosity you may currently have) and truly live “in the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
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r. Paul Mojzes is Professor Emeritus of religious studies at Rosemont College, Rosemont, Pennsylvania, where he used to be the Provost and Academic Dean. Currently, he is teaching a six-week course, “Religious Violence and Peacemaking,” at FAU LLS Jupiter on Thursdays at 2:30 p.m. He also taught in the Holocaust and Genocide Masters program at Stockton College in New Jersey. He is a native of Yugoslavia who studied at Belgrade University Law School, received the A.B. degree from Florida Southern College and a Ph.D. degree from Boston University in Eastern European church history. He is the co-editor of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, and founder and editor of Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe. Author of six and the editor of fourteen books, he has written over 100 articles and chapters in books. Among his recent books are “Balkan Genocides: Holocaust and Ethnic Cleansing in the Twentieth Century,” “Yugoslavian Inferno: Ethnoreligious Warfare in the Balkans,” “Religious Liberty in Eastern Europe and the USSR,” and edited “Religion and War in Bosnia” and co-edited “Interreligious Dialogue Toward Reconciliation in Macedonia and Bosnia.” He lectured in numerous countries and participated in a great variety of interreligious dialogues and Holocaust and genocide conferences.
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Well stated. For those of you who had not been to the Religion and Violence Class taught by Professor Mojzes, get an Explorer ticket – only 3 classes left.
The “problem” of how Muslims are viewed seems to originate from fear. People are afraid of how Muslims are reputed to treat women, afraid of the jihadist vow to kill all infidels, afraid of the burgeoning birthrate among Muslims, afraid of the spread of Islam into areas where it hasn’t had a significant presence until recently, afraid of sharia law, afraid of potential violence, afraid of things that are different, that they don’t understand–and therefore afraid of Muslims. Xenophobia exists.
It is natural to fear the unknown, and until more people understand the true nature of the majority of Muslims as described in this article, and as long as they only hear about the jihadists who are constantly mentioned in the media, that fear will continue. In the meantime, despite the penchant of most Americans for individuality, they really don’t want others to look glaringly different from the mainstream. Muslim women in this country, for example, might attract less negative attention if they tried to blend into American culture by not wearing the hijab which instantly identifies them as “different” –and therefore looked upon as “outsiders” and people to be rejected or feared. Even the Catholics, Poles, Italians, etc. mentioned in the article above weren’t widely welcomed until they assimilated into the prevailing culture so that they could be known as individuals and not as a collective group of outsiders. (“When in Rome…”) It might be a small step toward reducing Islamophobia and acceptance of many talented individuals who will enrich–not threaten– the culture and diversity of our country.
Lisa, you are correct. I came to the USA from Yugoslavia in 1957, am white, Protestant, and dressed very similarly to most Americans (however, I did not want to cut my hair to conform to the crew cuts fashionable among most of the male students at Florida Southern College)–and I was quite well accepted. In fact I never experienced discrimination. But uniformity should not and is not really required. Clergy and nuns don’t always conform in dress, women from India and Japan often wear saris and kimonos, some Jewish men wear yarmulkas or Hassidic clothing, the Dalai Lama is in Buddhist robes, and generally we don’t mind. If you go to Loggerhead Beach in Juno you’ll run into Muslim men and women and won’t be able to tell them apart from other beach-goers. Among my female Muslim students I had those who dressed in traditional dresses and those that looked like Parisian models (often good friends) and I learned that often the one’s in the traditional dresses were more progressive than the majority of the student body. So, we’ve got to stop stereotyping. It should also be noted that the children of immigrants very quickly Americanize unless they are picked on. Much progress could be made if we simply lived up to our espoused American ideals of treating people not by their looks but by the quality of their character.
That is my point exactly–people should not be viewed by their looks, but until you get past their looks, you might not ever get to know the quality of their character. But how do we do this? Most Muslims probably view the jihadist extremists the way most Christians view the Westboro Baptist Church. But convincing those who paint all Muslims with the same brush requires education, openness–and a willingness to learn.
When I was in high school, an ethnic group was being maligned. One classmate said, “Send them all back where they came from!” The teacher asked that student, “Even Pete?” (Pete was of the ethnicity being discussed, and also captain of the football team.) The student replied, “Oh, Pete’s different. We know him!”
Perhaps the answer to the reprehensible and senseless killings that happened last night in Paris requires an effort to get to know those who look different, to reach out and greet them as fellow humans, so that “we know them.” It is harder to hate those we know, and hopefully they won’t feel animosity toward us, either.
Also, with regard to the terrorists who attacked Paris, it seems to be their intent to make us all live in fear. We will thwart those intentions if we continue to live our lives fully. The alternative is to allow terrorists to win even if we are not being shot at.