Phuong Nguyen
Religious Intolerance
March 17, 2016
Intolerance in Our Midst
Four years ago, I chose the USA as the place to study and live because of many reasons, including that it is a country of freedom, where the people have every right to follow and practice any religion that they decide to believe in. Living in Cincinnati, I observe this privilege myself every day because I can see people with different religions living together in the same community. For example, I can find a Christian church, a Buddhism pagoda and an Islamic mosque easily in the same community, which I believe that this is a particular trait of America that I cannot find anywhere else in the world. However, religious intolerance activities caught my attention last year when I received an email from University of Cincinnati Department of Safety about a possible hate crime aiming to a Muslim student walking on a street close to campus. At that time, I were surprised that there were still people today who discriminate others based on their religions and that their actions could happen right at the community I live in.
The incident that made me aware how closely religious intolerance activities could happen in my daily life was on November 23, 2015, when an UC student, Haneen Jasim, a female Muslim, walking across the Calhoun Street and Clifton Avenue get cursed and yelled “terrorist” at and also almost got hit by a driver traveling nearby (Fighting Intolerance). The event was an embarrassing evident showing how close-minded people can be because they could judge a person based on his or her religion and did not afraid to hurt others just because they dressed differently with a hijab on their head. In addition, it shows that religious intolerance, especially Islamophobia, is a real problem in America today and can get more dangerously since the recent attacks in Paris by ISIS militants, taking the lives of one hundred and thirty innocent people and the mass shooting by Islamic radicals that left fourteen dead in San Bernardino, California. Because of the lack of knowledge of Islam, many people see the religion as an evil belief that anyone who follow it should be considered a “terrorist” without knowing that just because there are some Islamic extremists in the world who used religion as the reason for their action, it does not mean that every Muslim supports terrorism. In my opinion, the driver trying to attack Jasim was brainwashed by social media with massive amounts of misinformation, Islamophobia and the mistaken belief that Islam is a monolithic religion in which its followers all have the same beliefs and behave in identical way. It is so easy to turn on the television nowadays or getting on the internet and see disinformation about the action of a small fundamentalist, violent minority within Islam wrongly representing typical of all Muslims everywhere. People, like the attacker in the above incident, do not know that Islam simply means “submission to the Will of God”, and that “Islam” and “Muslim” both derive from the same word as the Arabic for “peace”, and the traditional Muslim greeting is” Peace be unto you.” (Beliefs about Islam). Personally, I think it is unfair for any Muslim-American like Haneen Jasim having to be afraid of other people instead of the real terrorist ISIS just because they share the same religion, which is not what being American should mean.
In addition, I did further research on Islamophobia in Cincinnati and see that Jasim was not the only victim of Islamophobia in the local community recently. The “Covered Girl Challenge”, a cultural awareness event by Mason High School Muslim students in April 2015 was turned into a forty eight-hour debate of adults about freedom of religion in public schools. The challenge was student-sponsored and voluntary, aimed to fight the stereotypes that young girls may face when wearing hijab to school and to show that every religion is equal and should be accepted in the community. The challenge was canceled since it received many negative messages by both parents of students and adults outside the school who know about the event. In those messages, people called the event “ridiculous” and “wasteful” to spend money to support Islam. More seriously, one of the email stated that there was no reason to do this because it “down played” the horrible thing that have occurred at the hands of Muslims (What Mason's Hijab Battle Tells Us). According to Shakila Ahman, president and board chair for the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, those negative response to the hijab challenge was a disappointing message to the Muslim community in Cincinnati because it goes against all the effort that people are trying to do to raise the awareness about religious tolerance. In my opinion, it is acceptable for people to have different perspective on any matter in life, but it is completely wrongful for adults to send hate messages to a student-led challenge that its goal is to promote cultural understanding, not try to convert students to follow Islam. The school should have every right to conduct the event because it is a place of learning, where students can freely practice what they believe without having to worry about that what they do can offense someone else just because it is different from traditional religion. Furthermore, it is extremely shocking that this is not Mason’s first controversy over Islam. Over ten years ago, the school was criticized by the school board for having fasting area during Ramadan for Muslim students. Fasting is a way of Muslims to appreciate Good and give thanks for pleasures, avoid the things that God has forbidden, feel compassion and empathy towards the poor and remember Allah is watching them. Therefore, in my opinion, there is absolutely no reason for people to blast school officials for having fasting area because it helps Muslim student more conveniently practice their religions and also promote religious diversity at schools. However, many people do not see these activities of Mason school as an improvement of learning for future generation but rather as a clash to the American values. They argued that “I do not recall ever getting an email announcing a Christian Cross Wearing day or a booth for information about the Christian persecution from Islamic terrorists. What happen to the argument of the separation of church and state?” (What Mason's Hijab Battle Tells Us). This example shows that although schools such as Mason high school are trying to help student understand more about different religions and fight back religious intolerance, a part of the Cincinnati community is still close-minded and still have racism and bigotry toward people from different cultures inside them. This example really make me think about the community as a whole because its proves that there are two sides of Cincinnati: one side trying to promote and build understanding about one another; the other keeping on hating and refusing to accept different religions and cultures while living in a nation of immigrants.
Learning about these examples of religious intolerance helps me understand that discrimination toward religions can happen anywhere, anytime and even in your local community that you may not know about before. It is sad to see that a lot of people still hate on some religions such as Islam just because a minority of followers are extremists conducting violent actions, making the view on the whole religion become ugly. It is our job today to not only educate ourselves about different religions around the world but also turn to others to help them understand more about religious tolerance. According to my professor, Dana Gregory Griffith, “we will not be able to change those in the world who are sociopaths, who are so diluted they cannot be reasoned with, but we can isolate them by being knowledgeable, by knowing the facts, by spreading knowledge and fact and truth.” It will certainly take a long time for American people to completely accept other religions beside Christian into their community, but that does not mean that people should stop fighting harder for what they believe in because as long as there are still voices raising religious awareness in the community, those incidents that happened to Haneen Jasim or Mason school will likely not to repeat themselves in the future. The recent rally against Islamophobia following Jasim’s event or Fountain Square Interfaith Prayer Service by the American Jewish Committee, Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati and Christ Church Cathedral in December 2015 proves that there are still hope in the community for a better future, where every person, no matter what race and religions, can live together in harmony.
Work Cited
Butts, Rebecca. "'This Is America': Religions Unite on Fountain Square." Cincinnati.com. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
Masud, Enver. "Part 1: Beliefs about Islam, Expressed by Muslims." Religious Tolerance. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
Krebs, Natalie. "Fighting Intolerance." City Beat. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
Sparling, Hannah. "What Mason's Hijab Battle Tells Us." Cincinnati.com. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
Religious Intolerance
March 17, 2016
Intolerance in Our Midst
Four years ago, I chose the USA as the place to study and live because of many reasons, including that it is a country of freedom, where the people have every right to follow and practice any religion that they decide to believe in. Living in Cincinnati, I observe this privilege myself every day because I can see people with different religions living together in the same community. For example, I can find a Christian church, a Buddhism pagoda and an Islamic mosque easily in the same community, which I believe that this is a particular trait of America that I cannot find anywhere else in the world. However, religious intolerance activities caught my attention last year when I received an email from University of Cincinnati Department of Safety about a possible hate crime aiming to a Muslim student walking on a street close to campus. At that time, I were surprised that there were still people today who discriminate others based on their religions and that their actions could happen right at the community I live in.
The incident that made me aware how closely religious intolerance activities could happen in my daily life was on November 23, 2015, when an UC student, Haneen Jasim, a female Muslim, walking across the Calhoun Street and Clifton Avenue get cursed and yelled “terrorist” at and also almost got hit by a driver traveling nearby (Fighting Intolerance). The event was an embarrassing evident showing how close-minded people can be because they could judge a person based on his or her religion and did not afraid to hurt others just because they dressed differently with a hijab on their head. In addition, it shows that religious intolerance, especially Islamophobia, is a real problem in America today and can get more dangerously since the recent attacks in Paris by ISIS militants, taking the lives of one hundred and thirty innocent people and the mass shooting by Islamic radicals that left fourteen dead in San Bernardino, California. Because of the lack of knowledge of Islam, many people see the religion as an evil belief that anyone who follow it should be considered a “terrorist” without knowing that just because there are some Islamic extremists in the world who used religion as the reason for their action, it does not mean that every Muslim supports terrorism. In my opinion, the driver trying to attack Jasim was brainwashed by social media with massive amounts of misinformation, Islamophobia and the mistaken belief that Islam is a monolithic religion in which its followers all have the same beliefs and behave in identical way. It is so easy to turn on the television nowadays or getting on the internet and see disinformation about the action of a small fundamentalist, violent minority within Islam wrongly representing typical of all Muslims everywhere. People, like the attacker in the above incident, do not know that Islam simply means “submission to the Will of God”, and that “Islam” and “Muslim” both derive from the same word as the Arabic for “peace”, and the traditional Muslim greeting is” Peace be unto you.” (Beliefs about Islam). Personally, I think it is unfair for any Muslim-American like Haneen Jasim having to be afraid of other people instead of the real terrorist ISIS just because they share the same religion, which is not what being American should mean.
In addition, I did further research on Islamophobia in Cincinnati and see that Jasim was not the only victim of Islamophobia in the local community recently. The “Covered Girl Challenge”, a cultural awareness event by Mason High School Muslim students in April 2015 was turned into a forty eight-hour debate of adults about freedom of religion in public schools. The challenge was student-sponsored and voluntary, aimed to fight the stereotypes that young girls may face when wearing hijab to school and to show that every religion is equal and should be accepted in the community. The challenge was canceled since it received many negative messages by both parents of students and adults outside the school who know about the event. In those messages, people called the event “ridiculous” and “wasteful” to spend money to support Islam. More seriously, one of the email stated that there was no reason to do this because it “down played” the horrible thing that have occurred at the hands of Muslims (What Mason's Hijab Battle Tells Us). According to Shakila Ahman, president and board chair for the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, those negative response to the hijab challenge was a disappointing message to the Muslim community in Cincinnati because it goes against all the effort that people are trying to do to raise the awareness about religious tolerance. In my opinion, it is acceptable for people to have different perspective on any matter in life, but it is completely wrongful for adults to send hate messages to a student-led challenge that its goal is to promote cultural understanding, not try to convert students to follow Islam. The school should have every right to conduct the event because it is a place of learning, where students can freely practice what they believe without having to worry about that what they do can offense someone else just because it is different from traditional religion. Furthermore, it is extremely shocking that this is not Mason’s first controversy over Islam. Over ten years ago, the school was criticized by the school board for having fasting area during Ramadan for Muslim students. Fasting is a way of Muslims to appreciate Good and give thanks for pleasures, avoid the things that God has forbidden, feel compassion and empathy towards the poor and remember Allah is watching them. Therefore, in my opinion, there is absolutely no reason for people to blast school officials for having fasting area because it helps Muslim student more conveniently practice their religions and also promote religious diversity at schools. However, many people do not see these activities of Mason school as an improvement of learning for future generation but rather as a clash to the American values. They argued that “I do not recall ever getting an email announcing a Christian Cross Wearing day or a booth for information about the Christian persecution from Islamic terrorists. What happen to the argument of the separation of church and state?” (What Mason's Hijab Battle Tells Us). This example shows that although schools such as Mason high school are trying to help student understand more about different religions and fight back religious intolerance, a part of the Cincinnati community is still close-minded and still have racism and bigotry toward people from different cultures inside them. This example really make me think about the community as a whole because its proves that there are two sides of Cincinnati: one side trying to promote and build understanding about one another; the other keeping on hating and refusing to accept different religions and cultures while living in a nation of immigrants.
Learning about these examples of religious intolerance helps me understand that discrimination toward religions can happen anywhere, anytime and even in your local community that you may not know about before. It is sad to see that a lot of people still hate on some religions such as Islam just because a minority of followers are extremists conducting violent actions, making the view on the whole religion become ugly. It is our job today to not only educate ourselves about different religions around the world but also turn to others to help them understand more about religious tolerance. According to my professor, Dana Gregory Griffith, “we will not be able to change those in the world who are sociopaths, who are so diluted they cannot be reasoned with, but we can isolate them by being knowledgeable, by knowing the facts, by spreading knowledge and fact and truth.” It will certainly take a long time for American people to completely accept other religions beside Christian into their community, but that does not mean that people should stop fighting harder for what they believe in because as long as there are still voices raising religious awareness in the community, those incidents that happened to Haneen Jasim or Mason school will likely not to repeat themselves in the future. The recent rally against Islamophobia following Jasim’s event or Fountain Square Interfaith Prayer Service by the American Jewish Committee, Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati and Christ Church Cathedral in December 2015 proves that there are still hope in the community for a better future, where every person, no matter what race and religions, can live together in harmony.
Work Cited
Butts, Rebecca. "'This Is America': Religions Unite on Fountain Square." Cincinnati.com. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
Masud, Enver. "Part 1: Beliefs about Islam, Expressed by Muslims." Religious Tolerance. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
Krebs, Natalie. "Fighting Intolerance." City Beat. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
Sparling, Hannah. "What Mason's Hijab Battle Tells Us." Cincinnati.com. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.