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KhurramDaraFirstPaper 13 - 17 Jun 2012 - Main.KhurramDara
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Using Law and Social Control to Improve Islam's Image in America | | | When the Park51 project, commonly referred to as the "Ground Zero Mosque" was being protested just a couple of years ago, there was a sign that I saw a protestor holding. Initially, it had caught my eye because of how many words had been scrunched onto this little piece of cardboard. The sign said "All I Need to Know About Islam I Learned on 9/11." All he "needed" to know about Islam, he had learned on 9/11. | |
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< | For that man holding the sign, and for the many others, 9/11 was a natural consequence of Muslims carrying out Islam. For them, Islam is inherently promotes violence. While the rhetoric may appear extreme to some, the combination of organization and money, in conjunction with the fact that there are terrorists carrying out heinous acts supposedly in the name of Islam, can have an actual impact on our politics. It could explain why Congress held hearings on Muslims in America, why 22 state legislatures considered passing anti-Sharia legislation, why the NYPD has been surveilling college students across the country. | >
> | For that man holding the sign, and for the many others, 9/11 was a natural consequence of Muslims carrying out Islam. For them, Islam is inherently promotes violence. While the rhetoric may appear extreme to some, the combination of organization and money, in conjunction with the fact that there are terrorists carrying out heinous acts supposedly in the name of Islam, can have an actual impact on our politics. It could explain why Congress held hearings on Muslims in America, why 22 state legislatures considered passing anti-Sharia legislation, or why the NYPD has been surveilling college students across the country. | | | American Muslims have employed two primary ways of combating this anti-Muslim sentiment. One is cooperative, the other adversarial. First, we want to educate other Americans about Islam, . The second approach is organized protest and litigation. | | | What about the second approach? A protest or a counter protest can be a sign of strength. But again, there is a targeting issue. Typically, you aren't protesting with the expectation of persuading the opposition; your target is the independent and uncommitted. So here you lose the man with sign again. Similarly, it's unclear how we would convince an average American to be interested in the subject. | |
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< | And litigation? We are entitled to practice our faith freely in the United States. A lawsuit to prevent a local government from preventing the building of a place of worship could work at achieving the short term objective: building a mosque. But a court order, for example, is unlikely to persuade naysayers that the result is the right one. | >
> | And litigation? We are entitled to practice our faith freely in the United States. A lawsuit to enjoin a local government from preventing the building of a place of worship could work at achieving the short term objective: building a mosque. But a court order, for example, is unlikely to persuade naysayers that the result is the right one. | | | What hurts? For those who have negative perceptions of Muslims, what hurts is Islam. For them, Islam is abstract in some cases, and general in others. It is never specific, never a person. It's always an "ideology." For social control to succeed, it must be able to appeal to the non-rational, unconscious motives of humans. |
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