After watching the Crossing Borders film (linked at the bottom), I found that listening to the students from Morocco reinforced many of the feelings I already had surrounding the relationship between America and Islamic countries. In a general view, America has an extremely unfair view of Muslims, and that is rooted in how American media villainizes them. Forty percent of Americans have never travelled outside of the country, and that number is drastically higher for travel to Islamic countries (Lane).
Many Americans, especially those who uphold stereotypes and a fear of other cultures, have never actually experienced the cultures they view so negatively. In the film, one of the students told an American student “your government makes you fear everyone outside of the U.S.” and I agree with that. The media engages in fearmongering to push a narrative that all Muslims are terrorists, that even your neighbor could be one, thus Americans with no better knowledge of the world are manipulated into believing that they are in danger. The U.S. government and media constantly exaggerate the danger of “terrorism by radical Islam”, and people react by committing hate crimes against what they believe to be an enemy.
“The think tank New America issued a report today documenting “the lethal terrorist incidents in the United States since 9/11.” It found that a total of 26 Americans have been killed by “deadly jihadist attacks” in the last 14 years, while almost double that number — 48 — have been killed by “deadly right wing attacks.” ”
In reality, less people have been killed by Muslim extremists since 9/11 than people who are crushed by their own furniture every year. Seeing the evidence that contradicts the narrative pushed by the media, it makes no sense to have a fear or hatred towards Muslims.
The Moroccan students expressed that Americans have no interest in learning about other cultures, especially that of Muslim countries. Many different cultures consume American media, but Americans rarely branch outside of American culture. One brought up that as a third-world country, they do not have the power to impose on America the respect for their religion and culture that they deserve. She also stated that because they don’t have the power to impose respect, they express rage. She continued, mentioning that people are different and that she expresses her anger by writing, but in a third world country there are more people who are illiterate and express their rage differently. One of the students, Rochd, said
“Americans, they live on the other side of the world and if the television give them that everybody in Morocco are like Bin Laden, they will never search if there is somebody in Morocco who is like Rochd. Because Rochd don’t exist in America. For them, I’m only a Moroccan. And it’s the same for us, in Morocco. There is no people like David [an American student].”
I think this is an excellent point. If the media only convinces Americans that everyone in Muslim countries are people to fear, then they will never open their minds to people the regular people. It is impossible to make friends and truly experience the people that come from different places if your mind is closed. Going into a place with a preconceived notion of what the people there are like stops you from meeting people like Rochd. It also continues the cycle of ignorance and fear towards people different from you.
Many companies today find themselves having to commit to extensive diversity training in an effort to solve discrimination within their employees. However, it has been shown that this is ineffective in most cases, and diversity training does little to curve pre-existing beliefs. Personally, I believe that intercultural activities can be an effective start to further education on matters, but they can not act as definite solutions to the islamophobia that Muslims are facing. A better approach would be to have more inclusiveness in early education and general media. The best approach in my opinion, is to aid people in travelling to other countries so that they may gain their own experiences and meet people from differing cultures. Personal experience will curve old mindsets much better than classroom settings, and develop a more personal connection towards issues that people may be insensitive towards.
