Muslims face Suspicion in Midwest (14)

1 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-13 13:12 ID:myUWoiyC

Muslims in the Heartland

By Andrea Hopkins
Mon Feb 12, 10:46 AM ET



CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Tala Ali, 25, has seen the good and the bad of being a Muslim in heartland America. People have leaned out car windows to scream at her: "Terrorist go home." But strangers curious about her headscarf have also approached her apologetically to ask about Islam.

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"I love it, actually, when people ask me questions," said the pink-scarved Ali, who came to the United States with her Jordanian father and Palestinian mother when she was five.

"Out here, I'm the only Muslim some people may meet," said Ali, waiting for friends after Friday prayers at a Cincinnati mosque. "I always keep in mind that I'm an ambassador of Islam."

For Ali and other Muslims who live far from America's immigrant-rich big cities, everyday life is a test of tolerance and outreach to fellow Americans who view Islam with suspicion five years after the September 11 attacks and amid bleak and bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The negative perception gets bigger by the day, despite all we do," said Inayat Malik, a doctor and board member of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati.

The center hosts 5,000 visitors a year -- from churches, schools and the simply curious. Tour coordinator Shakila Ahmad is too embarrassed to share the worst things said to her as a tour guide, but insists there are no "bad" questions.

"It's important for people to be able to ask," she said, sitting quietly in the center's empty gymnasium after a tour. Flags of dozens of nations decorate the walls. "We'd rather you ask than have a misconception."

Ahmad, Malik and others sit on inter-faith councils and speak at community forums and strive, year after year, to build bridges within predominately white Christian middle America.

But while they are dedicated to outreach, the uphill battle of educating Americans takes its toll on optimism.

"The deluge of the media coverage with its negative portrayal is overwhelming," said Malik. "I see very little light at the end of the tunnel."

2 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-14 11:37 ID:Heaven

Keeping a scarf on you head costs too much. Its like a slaver mark on your forehead in fallout2. if you have played the game you know what I mean. lol

3 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-15 02:41 ID:myUWoiyC

>>3

What so they should stop being muslim 'cause it pisses off the muggles? They wear Hijabs 'cause they think God said so. I don't agree, but they should be free to practice their religion without the rest of us pissing all over them.

4 Name: King[of]Spain : 2007-02-15 13:02 ID:2ZNnjrWq

Geez.

Can you imagine the kind of hell that would break loose if those people saw a babushka or something? Man...

The midwest is too odd for my tastes. Much too far to the...middle.

5 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-15 20:16 ID:Heaven

O_o;;
Treat people like something long enough, and they will turn into that. GJ on alienating the very people that are vital for supporting you, being important ambassadors for your country to the "sandnigger" countries!

6 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-16 05:21 ID:Emyscp1t

>>Treat people like something long enough, and they will turn into that.

The Moslem world has been treating the rest of humanity like implacable enemies for centuries. We're turning into that.

7 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-16 19:18 ID:myUWoiyC

>>6

>The Moslem world has been treating the rest of humanity like implacable enemies for centuries. We're turning into that.

Unlike the Christian World that never colonized the middle east, africa, asia, or pacific islands...

8 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-16 22:09 ID:olQiRI/Y

Don't forget the New World.

9 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-17 02:52 ID:Heaven

> Unlike the Christian World that never colonized the middle east, africa, asia, or pacific islands...

We didn't treat most of them as enemies though, just subhuman. Unfortunately they never turned into that.

10 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-17 08:39 ID:Heaven

"The Moslem world" is as much bullshit as "The Christian world" or the "The Jewish world".
That's so much stereotyping it's retarded - it isn't about religion. The crusades for instance, they weren't about religion, they were about power. An excuse to take over a piece of land in a politically useful area. Religion often is an excuse for making people drones, but it nevertheless doesn't mean that the religion itself matters the most. If every single person in the middle east, muslims and jews alike, suddenly picked up christianity, do you really think that they'd suddenly turn into peace-mongering hippies? Fuck no, "real" christians aren't automatically that either. The religion is irrelevant. The three large mono-deity religions are virtually the same, if we are to stereotype on that scale. Religion's just yet another excuse, the same way the Northern Ireland conflicts has jack-shit to do with religions, and everything to do with history: power, violence, and land-owners.

11 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-18 08:17 ID:Heaven

>>10
That is all true, but the question that every one should ask themselves is:

There was this Muslim guy watching pokemon in middle east and playing Warcraft II all the time. then he came into this foreign country and now every one says he his more violent.

What in the fuck is that supposed to mean?

12 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-18 23:54 ID:gFiWZFvU

>>11
It means you yanks have a problem with being positive with violence and negative with sexuality. It's something that the french, danish, germans, swedes and netherlanders have been trying to get into your heads for the last 70 years. I don't find it at all implausible that a previously gentle person would become a more violent person than he was before due to american influence.

The warmonger is yuo.

13 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-02-19 08:18 ID:Heaven

>>11
If I've understood you correctly, you're saying that he now is more violent than what he used to be?

I don't know about him specifically, but people often get agressive thanks to frustration, when they constantly keep getting faced with insults and harassments they feel they don't deserve. It's not a good reaction by any means, especially if the frustration is about constantly being called violent, as finally caving in to them will just confirm the abusers' world view. Harassed people sometimes just can't help going "Ah the fuck with it, if they want violence, they'll get violence, and maybe then they'll STFU and stop bothering me."... Not that it's a good thing, but as it sometimes works against schoolyard bullies and such small-group situations, people try it with the hopes of getting the same results, forgetting or ignoring that it'll sound bad to outsiders (e.g. "What? Yet another gook beat up one of our boys? BLOODY GOOKS, RETALIATION!" - please note that I do not endorse racism nor racial slurs, that was merely a very random example) and make it worse for others in the same situation.

quasi-offtopic: My impression is that Ghandi blackmailed GB by making them look like horrible, unhuman bad guys (plus I doubt the troops could keep on killing without finally killing themselves for slaughtering people like that), which was the wise thing to do in that situation. I'm impressed that he was that levelheaded about something as upsetting as the idea of sacrificing a great deal of people. I'm guessing he was aware of that GB couldn't genocide enough of them, making the nonviolent resistance very worth-while. There are a lot of small areas that can't afford that strategi, however. I would however love to see more people use that strategy, especially if they're willing to die for their country anyway. Seems to me as if a lot of people are also tired of "their people" constantly getting killed, and feel that they're going to go anyway, so they might as well kamikaze and possibly save some of their family in the process (riiiiiight...).

>>12
Stop flame-baiting.
"The troll is yuo." :-p

14 Name: Unverified Source : 2007-03-05 09:11 ID:Heaven

>>13
I cast Power Word: Blackmail!

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