Islam and Violence
Currently, the issue of promoted violence by Muslims
has entered the conversation of politics and the media. Listen and read to the sources below to
answer the questions provided.
Audio clips:
Readings
3. Scroll
down to Terrorism and Warfare: Read the
answer to the questions regarding the issue of war, terrorism and Islam. (use
this to support the answers to the bulleted questions.)
4. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/13/opinion/sunday/13kristof-how-well-do-you-know-religion.html (take the ‘religion’ quiz…)
Questions to answer for blog:
a. Where
do you see bias in the ABC video? (pay attention to language) Why do you think this
bias exists in news reporting? How might that effect the viewer’s perception of
Islam vs. Christianity?
b. What
do the following readings and audio clips say in general about the relationship
between Islam and violence? Are they consistent with the findings in WHAP? explain
c. What
is the general point behind the 4th reading? Do you agree with the
opinion of the author of this editorial? explain
d. According
to google search entries, Islamophobia is on the rise since the Paris bombings
and then again since the shootings in Southern California. The increase of hate crimes towards Muslims
is a very real possibility. Do American
attitudes need to change toward Muslims? Explain? Is so how?
a. I think that the ABC video does a good job of stressing the difference between the Quran and violent misinterpretations of the Quran. Often times these misinterpretations "quote" [distorted] Quranic verses that promise jihadists salvation for murdering and terrorizing others in Allah’s name. Several verses in the Quran explicitly state that the killing of innocents and the killing of oneself is prohibited in Islam. Nevertheless, violent jihadists have transformed this belief into a movement that promotes killing innocents and oneself for Allah. The question regarding al-Taqiyya was a bit problematic because it promotes Islamophobia. I also believe that the video does a good job of pointing out some flaws in Christianity during a time of anti-Muslim sentiment in America. In the beginning of the video, a few violent ideas and phrases from the Bible are compared to a few violent ideas and phrases from the Quran.
ReplyDeleteb. In general, political factors (ex. frustration at the Western world) and “intellectual” factors (ex. the rise of Wahhabi Islam) have contributed to the rise of Islamic terrorist groups. Wahhabi Muslims distort Quranic verses to justify violence. The version of Islam that is preached by violent jihadists and militants is far different than the version of Islam that was preached by Muhammad. Muhammad and a majority of Muslims practice(d) a religion that calls for non-violence and peace. The verses in the Quran that call for defending Islam by engaging in war were written in the 7th century, when Muhammad and his early followers were persecuted by non-Muslim Arabs. Jihadists and terrorists preach the idea of a holy war in a modern light when it was clearly referring to earlier events. The Quran also explicitly states that killing innocent people and oneself in the name of God is strictly prohibited. A majority of Muslims believe in religious freedom and tolerance. Several verses in the Quran also preach the equal treatment of women and men and respect towards women. Terrorists continue to distort Islamic beliefs regarding jihad (which many Muslims believe is an internal struggle), peace, respect for women, religious tolerance, etc.
c. I think that the fourth reading was meant to show Americans that the Quran and the Bible both contain violent/oppressive and peaceful verses. It was meant to show Americans, that like Christians, a majority of Muslims choose to follow the verses that preach peace and nonviolence when they follow Islam. It was meant to remind Americans that a vast majority of Muslims are victims of terrorism and abhor the violent terrorist attacks that are being committed in the name of Allah. I completely agree with the author of this article, in that Muslims are not the enemy, “Islamic” terrorists and radicals are.
d. America definitely needs to see Islam for what it really is, a religion that preaches peace and mercy. There are 1.4 billion Muslims in the world, 99.997% of whom continually denounce violent terrorist attacks and 0.003% of whom terrorize others in the name of Allah to create fear and gain power. The 99.997% of Muslims who preach nonviolence have become victims of stereotypes, anti-Muslim sentiments, hate crimes, death threats, and terrorism. Americans need to realize that a vast majority of Muslims are NOT terrorists and simply want to practice their religion in peace while they live peacefully among others. Additionally, Americans need to realize that many Muslims are Americans who are just as confused and scared by terrorism.
Part 1:
ReplyDeletea. In my opinion, there is some bias evident in the movie, not necessarily straightforward but subtly. While ABC does bring up both sides of the argument, some of their word choices, video clips, and more demonstrate partiality. In the first 30 seconds, the interviewer says the interpretation of the scriptures separates “a saint from a savage.” It is interesting that he chooses the word savage rather than sinner or wrongdoer. Savage implies that they are beneath us, uncivilized and barbaric in a way. Furthermore, the video clip with William in Tulsa states that Muhammad wrote the Quran and it is divided into two halves like the Bible. This is not only incorrect but there was no one to correct him when he said it. When the point about ignoring parts of scripture is brought up, the interviewer states that extremists conveniently forget it but he does not remind viewers at that point in time that other religions do the same. As he is interviewing Roya Zaneti from Cairo, the interviewer seems surprised in a way as he states that Roya Zaneti was offended when people associate her with 9/11, yet what other way would people feel when they are associated with extremists? The interviewer also says that Zaneti helps drive radical thought as she holds some resentment towards Westerners but this is hardly true. Overall, though ABC tried to show flaws in both Christianity and Islam, I cannot help but feel that they brought up Christian passages a few times in the beginning and that was the end of it. This bias exists in news reporting because of the we/they concept. We, as Americans, separate ourselves from the “they”, the Muslims. We divide ourselves. This could impact the viewer’s perception because it stresses the vs. part in Islam vs. Christianity. It makes people think that Muslims are separate and not a part of “our” community.
b. In the reading and voice recording, NPR states that Islam does not preach violence in general but the violence that does occur is due to defense against attackers. They also say that Islam (and the majority of Muslims) does not support killing, suicide, or terrorism. There is a difference between jihad and terrorism as the jihad is violence that occurred during war which was legal, yet irjaf/terrorism is not the same. Irjaf is most definitely not permitted. Some leaders twist religious texts to further their own agendas as well as gain more supporters and power. NPR states that politics (i.e. frustration at Americans or Westerners in general) as well as the advancement of Wahhabi Islam both contribute to the increasing violence in the Muslim community. In general, however, Muslims do not support violence or murder, yet leaders like Osama bin Laden pervert scripture to support their actions and gain followers. These findings are consistent with what we have learned in WHAP class so far. As previously stated, Islam does not support suicide, terrorists, or killing. When they were being attacked however, violence did occur which was jihad.
Part 2 Continued in Reply
c. I think that the point that the author in the fourth reading is trying to make is that not one religion is simply black and white, has only one aspect. Religions are extremely complicated and do not preach just one thing, have only one set of beliefs. Furthermore, all those beliefs do not come in agreement with one another. There are bound to be contradictions with religions so complex with so many different ideas. The author also brings up an extremely good point, that humans tend to categorize one another and separate who we are similar to and who we are different from. This is rooted from our fear. Furthermore, although we are scared and have a right to be, we should not blame the 1.6 billion Muslims for the actions of extremists. They should not have to suffer the consequences for the actions of other people, the actions of terrorists who do not truly follow the Islamic faith system and distort religious texts to justify murder. Yet, Islamic terrorists, if they can even be called Islamic, are not the only ones that twist things for violence. We all have flaws in our belief systems, Islam is definitely not the only one. The author conveys the message that now is not the time to separate ourselves from the Islamic community. We may be scared, but so are they. They too are being persecuted and now discriminated against for the actions of terrorists, people they most certainly do not affiliate themselves with. Instead of forming separate communities, we should be forming one all inclusive community.
Deleted. I definitely think that resentful American attitudes toward Muslims need to change. How can we blame the billion Muslims that practice their faith in peace, that advocate against the kind of violence extremists do. Is it right to stereotype them, to group all Muslims together? Can extremists even be called Muslims? Do they truly follow the words of Muhammad or just a twisted version? Then how can we blame the Muslims that practice their faith without violence. These types of stereotypes about Muslim violence are incorrect and we should not allow them to grow and spread. Muslims are not terrorists. Would it be right to blame all Christians when people bring guns to abortion clinics and murder people, would it be right to group people together when they seem similar? It is wrong and in my opinion, we should not be allowing it to go any further. In fact, we should not have allowed it to happen in the first place. Americans may be scared but think about it, so are Muslims. After each terrorist attack, they must face even more discrimination and violence. We say that we are against the violence practiced by extremists yet some of us act violently as we bash Muslims, throw things at them and beat them. I’ll say it again. This is wrong and we cannot allow it to develop any further.
Stephanie N.
NDSJ
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Deletea. At the beginning of the video, when the reporter is introducing Islam and Christianity, he talks about how both have violent texts, but the clips they use show Christians peacefully praying, but the Muslims are being violent. This specific bias in the video may be due to the fact that the reporters do not want to drop the main topic of the video, which is the violence of Islam.
ReplyDeleteAnother instance was when the reporter was talking to Roya Zaneti from Cairo. He was asking her how she felt when she was associated with the people who planned 9/11. When she is offended and stars to call him out for it, he is surprised. Obviously, she did not plan 9/11, and it is also clear that being the same ethnicity as the people who did participate in 9/11 doesn’t automatically mean that she is a terrorist. These biases that are present in reporting affect the viewers because for many of them, the news is how they are educated about Islam vs. Christianity. Due to these biases, many viewers will have the wrong perception of Islam and Muslim people.
b. In the following readings and audio clips, we learn that Islam and violence are linked because of both political and intellectual reasons. When saying political, the NPR audio clip means that those who practice the violent acts are frustrated with the Western world and want to be left alone. Intellectually, there are new interpretations of the Quran that certain people are preaching. These are the interpretations that are violent. The readings and audio clips all say that Islam itself is not a violent religion. The religion doesn’t support suicide or terrorism. In WHAP, we learned that Muslims respected all the other “people of the book” and didn’t fight unless they were provoked, like in the Crusades.
c. I think that the general point behind the 4th reading is to show that no one knows any religion very well. It is not possible for us to know every single word or passage in every single holy book. The message that they are trying to convey is that we cannot judge any single religion because each one has so many different messages that they try to convey. Many people say that Islam is a very violent religion, and that the Quran spreads the message of violence. The author of this article shows us, through the quiz, that, yes the Quran has some violent passages, but so does the Bible. I agree with the opinion of this author because like what he says, we do not know every verse of every holy book, so we should not blame the violence we see on the Quran or on all Muslims.
d. Americans need to change their way of regarding Muslims.The problem with what we think right now is that most Muslims are peaceful and want nothing more than to live their lives peacefully. If we treat them badly, is it fair to blame them for the way they treat us? We have always been told to treat others the way you want to be treated. When we treat the Muslims poorly, they do the same to us. We need to stop being scared of the Muslims, and the Islamic faith. Islam is no different than any other religion practiced, and Muslims are no different than any other human being living. Imagine yourself always being told by your parents that you did something wrong, but you know you didn’t. They keep telling you that you did something wrong, even after you have told them countless times that you haven’t done anything wrong. What happens next? More likely then not, you will do something that you never imagined yourself doing. The same thing will happen with the Muslim people. Almost all of them are peaceful people, but they have a limit of how much hate they can take. Treating them the way we are right now is morally wrong. Why should the Muslims be treated any differently than a person of any other faith?
~Himani P NDSJ
A. The ABC video definitely did have bias, though it's a bit undetectable since it's more "shaded", but it is still there. In the very beginning, the interviewer says that the scholars he asked all "insisted" that it was a "religion of peace but like any other religion it is the interpretation of the scriptures that separates a saint from a savage". The interviewer used the word "insisted" instead of "said" which makes it almost seem against the scholars because it makes it feel like they have to really prove the religion to these people; really prove that it isn't as "horrible" as the masses think it is. Also, the interviewer used the word "savage"; why not the word wrongdoer or sinner? Why savage? In using that word, he has put Muslims into groups, each on completely opposite sides of one another. The language suggests brutality and monstrous things, which is biased since it might lead the audience towards thinking that all Muslims are that way. Also, when the interviewer speaks with a woman, Roya Zaneti, from Cairo, he is shocked and surprised when she gets offended that people associated her and her people with 9/11. There were also some historical errors within the video that no one bothered to correct. When the viewer, William, stated that he was told that the Qu'ran was written by Muhammad and in 2 parts, he was not corrected. But that is not correct. The Qu'ran was not written by Muhammad and it was definitely not written in 2 parts, like the Bible. Like I said, there was definitely bias in the ABC video, even though they did try to compare it "fairly" to the Bible. However, the video really seemed to only highlight little bits and pieces of violent passages in the Bible and move away from that. It also showed many clips of Muslim extremists and not much else. And since the video was trying to focus on the whole Christianity v. Islam ordeal, it might put into a viewer's mind/perception that that's how they should view the world; Christians v. Muslims, which is an extremely we/they situation and is not good because it creates a divide, a split, between all people.
ReplyDeleteB. The NPR audio says that Islam is not violent, nor does it preach violence. It is mainly because of twisted interpretations of passages or published books that skew the religion of Islam, that attacks happen. Also, many people believe that Muslims/Islam see honor and value in suicide, but they do not. That is another interpretation made by people who have taken in the Qu'ran's words through a falsified view. Terrorism is another factor that Islam does not believe in or follow, though most people think it is. NPR also talks about how the progress of Wahhabi Islam and frustration at the US/Westerners are factors for violence occurring, not necessarily the religion itself. I think that what NPR stated and what we've learned in WHAP class are pretty similar and consistent.
(Contd. in reply)
C. I think the author's point is that not one religion is "good". Not one religion is black or white, they're all in a gray area, meaning-- there are complications and contradictions in all religions. The author also points out the fact that humans tend to ostracize/"otherize" people who aren't us, whether that be race, religion, ethnicity, anything of the sorts because we are scared of what might happen if we accept them. I agree with what he is saying because I think he's right. Why are people targeting this specific religion, saying that it is a horrible religion that preaches violence, hate, and terrorism, when Christianity is no better. Many people seem to not remember the Crusades and how the Christians killed and did whatever they could to conquer and have power and control; they basically "practiced" terrorism. Why is it that when Christians did that it's not a big deal, but when Muslims commit acts of terrorism it's heinous and we must kill them all? I also feel like many people who bombard Islam and Muslims, don't even know enough to be saying the things they are. It's important to have all the facts before posing an argument, and this "argument" with Islam and Muslims needs to end. We, referring to the people who want to rid of Muslims, need to stop hating and berating this specific religion when other religions are no better. All religions have good and bad, there is no perfect religion.
DeleteD. I think Americans need to stop associating terrorism with religion. Terrorism has no religion, that is a fact. There is no one religion that specifically wants to terrorize other religions or places. It is wrong of us Americans to be placing ourselves on this high pedestal, when we're no better. It's not like we don't start wars or kill other people for power/control reasons. Why do we get to be the knights in shining armor? Because we're a first world country? Because we have democracy? There isn't a good reasoning behind why Muslims should be attacked and ostracized, because they shouldn't. There are around 1.6 billion Muslims in this world, and because of terrorists we have started to see all Muslims as extremists. Why? The terrorist attacks happened because of a handful of extremists who believe they are "doing the work of God", so why are we shunning the larger amount of Muslims who are not extremists? What have they done that is so wrong to deserve our hate? All they do is follow a religion that isn't Christianity or Catholicism. No one should be punished because they have their own beliefs, it's morally incorrect and also a violation of the Constitution. Also, since Americans seem to tend to group people/things into groups, that might also be a contributing factor towards the hatred of Muslims. Since the terrorist attacks were caused by Muslim extremists, Americans decided to group all Muslims into that one category of "Muslims are bad and we must get rid of them". However, the blame is not entirely on the people, some of it also comes from politics and the people in them. Donald Trump recently stated that he wants to get rid of all Muslims and not let anymore come into our country. Just by saying that, he's strengthening that fear in most people's minds of how all Muslims are evil, which isn't true. Another presidential candidate made a statement of how the reason why attacks happen is because we don't arm enough "well trained" Americans to be able to fight back and kill the Muslims. People look up to politicians or at least listen to what they have to say most of the time; if this is what our politicians are saying to the people, of course, Americans will start to fear all Muslims. Because it's being wired into our brains by these figures that all Muslims are bad and terrorists. Bottom line, I think Americans should stop feeling so much hatred and resentment towards all Muslims because of incorrect stereotypes. Terrorism has no religion, it's time to stop thinking it does.
DeleteNicole Y.
NDSJ
a. Though not completely outright, there is an element of underlying bias present in the ABC video. This can be seen in some of the language used in the video, such as the use of the word “savage” in place of something more civilized, if you will, such as “evildoer” or “offender”. Bias is also present in some facts which, though incorrect, were not rectified. For example, one viewer asked a question which inquired why the “second part” of the Qur’an, written by Muhammad, is more violent than the first. However, the Qur’an was not written by Muhammad– rather, it was memorized and written on scraps of paper and other materials many years after his death– nor was it written in two parts. These uninformed claims unfortunately were not amended by ABC, showing the subtle bias as well as lack of correct information which can be present when looking at Islam from an outsider’s point of view. On the other hand, this video did point out the bias which is seen when looking at the Bible versus the Qur’an. They specified that there is actually more violence in the Bible than in the Qur’an and explained that there are passages in the Bible which advocate the killing of babies and small children, such as Psalm 137:9 – “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones”, among others. The ABC video also mentions that verses in the Qur’an are sometimes taken out of context and misinterpreted in order to fit the needs of Islamic militants and jihadists, despite the fact that these violent misinterpretations represent neither Islam nor Muslims on the whole. I think that bias exists in news reporting perhaps because of the need to appeal to and agree with the public’s point of view, which often times is Islamophobic and/or uninformed. By feeding viewers incorrect and/or biased information, we spread the incorrect and close-minded ideas revolving around Islam and issues like violence and feminism, allowing Islamophobia and hatred to exist and spread.
ReplyDeleteb. These passages and audio recordings show that some scholars agree that Islam is not simply the Qur’an (from which verses are often taken out of context), but rather what each individual brings to it, making Islam neither violent nor peaceful, but what each worshipping person is themselves. On the other hand, some believe that Islam is simply a religion which preaches peace and passivity, and has been distorted and misinterpreted to be violent. Others think Islam is inherently violent, advocating jihad and the killing of “infidels”, while opposing scholars believe that the violence in the Qur’an is only defensive. Some also bring up that the Bible is actually far more violent and bloodier that the Qur’an. Whatever the ideology, the vast majority of the scholars in the articles and audio recordings (save for one, i.e. Andrew Bostom) share a common thread– Islam and the Qur’an do not advocate for unnecessary or unsolicited violence. Rather, they are what you make them, and though there are definitely violent passages, these have to be taken in context of the surrounding passages as well as of the time period and events during the era of the revelation of Qur’anic passages. These ideas do juxtapose with the ideas in WHAP, because we have learned that the prophet Muhammad was not an unnecessarily violent individual, nor was he oppressive to women. On the contrary, his wife was a powerful businesswoman, and he only fought in response to attacks on his home.
(c & d continued in comments)
c. The general idea behind the 4th reading is that it is easier to point fingers and point out the flaws of other people and religions than to look within yourself and find your own flaws. As the author Nicholas Kristof states, “There’s a profound human tendency, rooted in evolutionary biology, to ‘otherize’ people who don’t belong to our race, our ethnic group, our religion.” We, as human beings, are more prone to accepting that others have done something seen as dishonorable or wrong, rather than to accepting the mistakes we or our people have done. This article demonstrates this by showing that when asked who had 700 wives or which scripture ordered the mass murder of heretics, saying to “Kill them all. God will know his own”, we are more likely to blame a different religion than our own. Additionally, the article points out similarities in Christianity and Islam which many people tend to overlook in efforts to justify hatred towards one another due to their differences. The article states, “what counts most is not the content of holy books, but the content of our hearts”. This shows another aspect of its main message– that even though terrorism is a real threat and some Muslims misinterpret the Qur’an and use it to justify horrible things, it is unfair to stereotype 1.6 billion people from the United States to Singapore based on this handful of miscreants. I strongly agree with the article in every respect– I agree that we unfairly blame those whom we do not identify with and that we “otherize” them, I agree that the content of our hearts heavily outvalues the content of holy books. I agree that we need to criticize those who use bastardized versions of religion to justify horrible deeds, and I agree that we need to overlook our differences and stand together during times of hatred and fear.
Deleted. I strongly believe that it is imperative for Americans and foreigners alike to change the hostile attitude too often projected towards Muslims. What we need to realise is that first off, Muslims are our strongest allies when it comes to fighting militant groups such as ISIL, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, etc. The vast majority of people killed by terrorist groups such as these are not Americans. They are middle eastern Muslims. Now is not the time, nor will it ever be, to stand against Muslims in the fight against Islamic terrorism because Muslims across the world are being impacted by these issues on a grand, life altering scale every day. It is easy to sit in the comfort of your Californian home and accuse Syrian refugees or the Pakistani family down the street of being terrorists, but the truth is that only 0.000066% of the Muslim population is involved in Islamic terrorism, and 94% of terror-related attacks on US soil have been executed by non-Muslim organizations (according to a study done by the FBI). Additionally, it is untrue that other religions do not have violent, terror-filled pasts, Christianity included. If we look at the Crusades, which occurred during the Middle Ages, or the Klu Klux Klan, which existed from 1866 to the present, we can see that terrorism is not exclusive to Islam. Despite the fact that these violent groups existed, is it fair to profile 2.2 billion people based on the actions of the Crusaders or the KKK or other Christian groups? Nearly a third of the world is of some Christian denomination– how can we call all Christians [white] religious supremacists? The obvious answer to this is that we can’t. So why is this any different in the case of 1.6 billion Muslims living peacefully from Canada to Paris to Indonesia; why do we think it’s okay to profile nearly 1.6 billion peaceful individuals based on the actions of a few? We as Americans, and as global citizens, have an obligation to stand in solidarity with Muslims around the world against radical groups, by whom they are being targeted constantly. As well as this, by fueling anti-Muslim sentiment in the west, we are fueling resentment against the west as well, inadvertently pushing young Muslims to join militant groups like ISIL and Boko Haram. An example of this is the infamous Donald Trump. By creating so much hatred and fear in the hearts of American citizens, Trump is also creating fear and hatred in the hearts of young, impressionable Muslims who then join militant groups in the effort to get revenge or even the score between the west, which is too often seen as hateful, and the middle east, which meanwhile is too often seen as barbaric.
DeleteMaha K.
NDSJ
A. Bias in the ABC video is shown through word choice, the action of picking out small passages, and the commentary during the interview. The news reporter introduces the topic by stating that “the interpretations separate a saint from a savage”. He had a plethora of words to choose from but ultimately decided to use “savage”. Through this selection, a huge contrast in character description based on passage explanations is implied. In addition, violent passages are exhibited to support the claim that the Qur’an promotes brutality. They are taken out of context, which completely defeats the purpose of the scripture and makes it easier for the news reporter to prove his point. Moreover, during the interview with Roya Zaneti, the interviewer asserts that she shares opinions that radicals have. He also acted perplexed about the offense she took at his questions, which was strange to me, as his method of inquiry seemed to be purposefully driving Zaneti to indignation. I think this bias exists in news reporting because of an intent to separate Muslims from us and pick at the differences between us and them. This might affect the viewer’s perception of Islam vs. Christianity by promoting the belief that the two religions possess no similarities whatsoever and that Christianity is less violent than Islam.
ReplyDeleteB. The following readings and audio clips present opinions that there is no relationship between Islam and violence. Nicholas Kristof states his belief that violence should not be attributed to the teachings of Islam but rather to the “content of our hearts”. On the other hand, in the NPR audio clip, it is said that the violence of Islam is caused by a perfect storm containing both political and intellectual aspects. Politically, the people are angered by the constant interference by the United States in their countries. Intellectually, Wahhabi Islam is expanding and interpreting the Qur’an literally, which allows terrorists to use scripture to fit their agenda. They are consistent with the findings in WHAP because as taught before, Islam does not encourage terrorism or suicide; it only calls for jihad at the time of invasion.
C. I believe the general point behind the 4th reading is that we as humans like to push the blame onto something. Despite the widespread lack of understanding of the Qur’an, non-Muslims tend to accuse it of containing material that supports maltreatment. They are also inclined to cite scripture and explain the words without considering the time, place, and situation. In this way, they are able to separate themselves from Muslims. Moreover, the 4th reading conveys the fact that various holy books have parts with text that challenges the content in another passage. Consequently, we should not take one message and have it represent the teachings of the whole holy book. I agree with the opinion of the author of this editorial because it is a human instinct to disregard our own flaws and find something or someone to accuse. If we can change this habit, we can end this cycle of hatred.
D. American attitudes need to change because as a result of hate crimes, we would lose our strongest allies of moderate Muslims in the battle against terrorist Muslims. Furthermore, all Muslims should not have to take responsibility for the heinous crimes committed by the violent groups. They did not participate in or approve of the attacks initiated. Groups deriving from other religions, such as the Klu Klux Klan, go on killing sprees. However, does that mean that we should hate all believers of Christianity, a major religion in the world? We should stand by Muslims and not ban them from entering the United States. Donald Trump should also stop releasing malicious comments about Muslims. In doing this, he is giving power to ISIS and aiding them in their recruitment.
Jasmine L.
NDSJ
A. In the ABC video, I saw subtle bias in the way that Muslims were referred to, especially within the quotes offered (which we learned some were taken out of context) and in the videos shown. Though they did offer some views into people on the opposite side of their bias, the way that the reporter and ABC felt about the issue was evident through the quotes, language, and videos shown to us. This bias exists in news reporting because the reporters let their own feelings show instead of splaying out the issue fairly. Especially with bigger issues, more people have problems with what is going on, and many people have more personal stories that make their feelings swayed to one side. Sometimes, even with the intention of not letting how you feel show, it happens anyway. I think that is most likely why bias is shown even when it should not be, along with misinformation and not enough education on the subject. Misinformation and not enough education go hand in hand with bias because, especially with the internet, people hear all kinds of things that are not true. If you are not educated enough no a subject, than it is impossible to look at the misinformation and say that it is incorrect, like the passage about 72 virgins actually meaning 72 raisins. All these things could have large affects on how one views Islam versus how one views Christianity. If Islam is portrayed on a respected news channel such as ABC with the kind of bias it had, then it will give certain people the wrong impression of the religion itself, especially if the person is not educated about the religion of Islam.
ReplyDeleteB. Through the NPR voice recording, we see that Islam is not a violent religion. This is evident through the way they show misconceptions, and then have scholars of Islam clarify what the actual meaning is. They show that attack is used as a defence mechanism if someone attacks them first, suicide is not condoned so suicide bombers are therefore also not a part of the accepted religion. Jihad is being distorted- it is being used as a cover up to encourage young uneducated Muslims to fight in areas that have terrorism going on. It is displayed to the world as jihad to get people to blame Muslims, even though ISIS is not a part of Islam, they are an extremist terrorist group. They are not Muslims, and this is not conveyed very well in our media. Muslims have, in WHAP, been linked with powerful empires in my mind, as well as cultural diversity as seen through the Umayyad caliph. This is seen today in the fact that Islam protects other people of the book.
(con't in comments)
C. The general point behind the third reading is that religion is beyond what we see on the surface and we need to look past the surface. I definitely agree with the author of this editorial in all of his points. Trump is not a fringe figure, and the strong anti-Islamic values he is preaching have gone much too far. Although Trump is forthright in this, it is exactly what ISIS needs to make their next move, therefore “proving” Trump’s point on how Muslims should be taken out of America. I agree with this because I can see it happening with my own eyes. If Trump’s support reaches a level where he is very likely to become President, then we need to really put a push onto teaching people more about what Islam really is about, not that we shouldn’t teach that now. This editorial expresses the need for people to look at al viewpoints and put all bias aside before choosing their opinion about things. I understand that, as a human being, this is a hard thing to do, however it is the only way to ensure an opinion is sound.
DeleteD. People do not need to be scared of Muslims. People need to be scared of ISIS, who are not Muslims. In the media there is a selective showing of crimes that are committed by Muslims or ISIS, and I think that media attention is making everyone’s fear rise. In the editorial, it was mentioned how Donald Trump and ISIS are fueling each other. I think this is also making matters worse because Trump is evoking some very strong feelings from people who might not have said anything if he had not spoken so much on the issue. I think that Americans need to realize that the average Muslim is not going to do anything particularly out of the ordinary, and that most of them have nothing to do with any of the terrible crimes committed by ISIS.
Kaelyn Yergin
NDSJ
a. Bias can be seen in the ABC video in many different ways and in many different examples. For one, they can be quoted as saying “…but like any other religion, it is the interpretation of scriptures that separates a saint from a savage.”. Instead of using the word ‘sinners’, which would go better with the previous half of the statement, they chose the word ‘savages’, creating feelings of hatred and disgust towards anyone in that category just because of the characteristics associated with the word savages. Another bias was that all of the videos except for one showing Muslims in the clip from ABC pictured angry and violent Muslims/terrorists. The only nonviolent video showed Muslims praying in a mosque for a short amount of time compared to the other videos. I think this bias exists in news reporting because of the freedom of speech which allows opinions to be inserted in reports without consequence, which then goes on to influence the watchers and readers of the news. Also, another reason bias exists is because when certain topics are so hot and controversial with blame and other aspects, people become very opinionated and often times cannot separate themselves from their opinions and bias. This might affect the opinions of viewers because Christianity in the ABC clip was for the most part talked about only in a good light, whereas Islam was talked about in relation to terrorism and violence, influencing people to believe that Christianity is better than Islam and that it is a violent, bad religion.
ReplyDeleteb. Putting the ABC video aside, as it has already been discussed about the existence of a lot of anti-Muslim bias and opinion that makes it for the most part incredible, the other audio clips and readings state that Islam is against violence wholeheartedly. The first reading can be quoted as stating “[there are] three fundamental Islamic principles as held by us and most other Muslims: 1) respect for life; 2) the right of due process for anyone accused of a crime; and 3) the principle that each person is responsible for his or her own action and that no one, whether an individual or a group, can be held responsible for the behavior of another.” It also states that Islam, in accordance with those three principles, is against acts of killing and violence such as honor-killings, murdering innocents, and other extreme acts. These are consistent with the findings in WHAP, because as far as I can remember reading, the Islamic group mainly focused itself on advancing culturally and academically, instead of warfare and growing the empire through violence.
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c. The general point behind the 4th reading is that yes, Islam and the Quran have many passages dictating violence and other actions along a violent line, but so does the Bible. In fact, it states that the Bible is counted to have more than twice the number of violent passages as the Quran. Also, another aspect of the general point of the reading is that refusing Muslim refugees and generalizing all Muslims into terrorists only parallels what was done to Jews and the Japanese-Americans and many other groups throughout history, and that we are only repeating ourselves if we agree with Trump and ban/ostracize Muslims and refugees. I do agree with what the author is saying in this editorial, because they are saying, basically, that not all Muslims are responsible for the acts of terrorists done by people that call themselves Islamic. I agree with him wholeheartedly when he says, “Yes, the Islamic world today has a strain of dangerous intolerance. And for all of America’s strengths as a society, as Donald Trump shows, so does America.” (Kristof). We cannot pick and choose what groups to focus on when it comes to intolerance, as it only shows that we have the same intolerance in us as a society.
Deleted. I do believe that American attitudes towards Muslims need to change, because if they do not it will end it violence and war. Americans as a society tend to belittle and oppress Muslims because of what a small number of people that call themselves Islamic have done. However, we don’t do that when it comes to other, “more American” (said in a strictly sarcastic way) things, such as when small numbers of Christians and Catholics bomb and terrorize Planned Parenthoods. If we have the ability to not place the blame of those bombings and other events on the group the perpetrator was a part of as a whole, we can bring that same way of thinking and acting to the Muslim community and not blame everyone for the actions of the few. If we continue to act as a society how we have been acting, it will if nothing else begin to feed more and more people into ISIS and other terrorist groups and ways to escape the oppression and hatred enacted on them by America, as they might begin to see terrorism as the only way to get the oppression against them and their community to stop.
-Anna Giubileo NDSJ
a. I see bias from both sides in the clip with the guy and Zoya Raneti. The guy was sort of egging her on, and kept asking her question about Egyptian Muslims and what they thought, and he sounded like America was the top dog and the superior country. In response, the girl asked him why America thought of itself as so superior. This shows the “we/they” perception Western and Islamic society have of each other. I believe that this division and attitudes arise because of the lack of education Westerners have about Islamic society. Thus, Westerners tend to make assumptions, or remain uneducated about the world around them. Bias can also occur out of fear of the unknown. As I stated previously, bias can happen because of a lack of education and understanding. That being said, humans tend to hide and fear the unknown. This can affect a viewer's perception of Islam. As shown in the ABC video, there are many passages that convey violent messages in the Bible, such as “If your brother, child, or wife worship another god, thou shalt surely kill him…”. However, such passages are not focused on by media as much as Islamic text. Perhaps this is due to the large Christian population or a lack of understanding of Islam or the Bible itself. Also, ABC stated that there were 2 books of the Quran that were written by Muhammad, which is incorrect, and goes along with the fact that not many people are educated about Islam and the Quran.
ReplyDeleteb. Based on the readings and audio clips, Islam is only connected to violence in terms of defending the faith and its peoples and holy war, or “jihad”. However, some political leaders have interpreted jihad as something else, and sort of used it as an excuse to kill non-Muslims. For example, Hasal Nidal used jihad to convince his followers to kill 13 people in Hood County, Florida, and Osama bin Laden with the 9/11 attacks. However, this is “irjaf”, or terrorism, which is not accepted in Islam. Such misinterpretation led to the creation of Wahhabi Islam, which used the frustration Muslim society had towards the Western world to sort of encourage jihad/ irjaf. to Also, suicide, the killing of fellow Muslims, and “herem”, or total annihilation, is not condoned. The only kind of suicide accepted by Islam is suicide bombings or attacks done to defend the faith. This ties back to the fact that violence tied to Islam is mostly tied to jihad and defending the faith. This is consistent with what we learned in WHAP in the way that during the Crusades, the Muslim fighters fought back to defend the Holy Land and protect their people.
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-Irene NDSJ
c. The author’s point is that every religion is complex, and that people cannot judge it based on one aspect. However, many people do make judgements based on one part of a religion, leading them to make assumptions and become uneducated about it. Also, as the author stated, when society has to deal with things that are different or unknown, we tend to set ourselves apart from them, or become afraid. I agree with the author on both of these points, as well as the fact that “it is not the content of the holy books, but the content of our hearts”. Tying in the author’s point that religion is complex and should be looked at in a big picture kind of way, we cannot judge or blame the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world for violence caused by radicals and ISIS. Instead, we should learn to be more tolerant and educate ourselves about Islam and its beliefs. I agree with the author that we should stop setting ourselves apart from them because we’re scared or of the stereotypes that surround the Muslim community.
Deleted. Yes, attitudes towards Muslims totally need to change, especially because of the stigmas that surround them after such attacks. Some people are too quick to judge, and assume that all Muslims are bad people, just because of the actions of a part of the Islamic society. I believe this is due to a lack of education, or just the fact that humans naturally fear what they do not understand. What I personally do not understand is why Americans believe that prejudice and acts of violence will resolve issues. If you are trying to find peace and safety, why would you answer back with hate? Isn’t that just fighting fire with fire? Also, Westerners do not realize that the reason that some Muslims resent the Western world, is because of their judgement and intolerance of the Islamic community. As I’ve stated several times previously, I believe that one of the main ways society can change their views on Islam is through education and a better understanding.
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-Irene NDSJ
my favorite part of your post is your focus on the concept of fear. the ignorance, intolerance, and resentment all stir from an underlying basis of general fear for that which we are not familiar with.i agree with your stance that it is through education that western nations will overcome the phobias which plague our society and hinder our interconectedness.
Deletea. Some of the words used to introduce the the article are extremely harsh, like use of the word “savage”. Most of the scenes and videos shown during the report are also violent, showing killings and riots. When they interview the Egyptian girl, the reporters sound surprised when she is upset at being grouped with radicals, and use her words as an example of radicalization waiting to happen. However, the video is geared towards violence in or relating to Islam, which could be the reason the information is focused towards the more brutal side of the religion.The video also focuses on the conflict between Muslims and Christians, but seems to support the Christian side rather than viewing both equally. The bias may be subconscious, because of the way Westerners generally view Muslims, but it is there.
ReplyDeleteb. In the readings and audio clips, we learn that Islam and violence do not have a strong connection. Islam does not preach violence, and is not an inherently violent religion. The materials constantly bring up that it is the twisted words and meanings of the Qu’ran that cause others to turn to violence. Some of these sources mention that the Bible is far bloodier and has more violence than the Qu’ran. Most of the scholars agree that while there are violent and disturbing passages, to fully determine the meanings and interpret the words, we have to take into context the time period. Without evaluating the surrounding circumstances, we cannot accurately determine the meanings of the passages. These views do mesh with those that we have learned in WHAP. We know that Muhammad tried to be peaceful and that he was very forward-thinking in his views on women’s rights. His wife was a successful trader, and he allowed his daughters more freedom than was commonly given in that time period. As can happen with all religions, the violence comes from misinterpretation and a lack of understanding.
c. The author of the fourth article wants to say that we are more likely to want to see the bad parts of a religion in someone else’s beliefs than ours. It is an inherent human nature to distance ourselves from others who are not like us, who do not look like us, or do not believe the same things we do. The author is also saying that although we may be scared, that does not give us an excuse to blame the entire Muslim community for the actions of a few extremists. Holding the entire group responsible is also another way that we keep a “we/they” mentality against people we do not associate ourselves with. We may be scared, but so are they. Furthermore, they are being unfairly persecuted and discriminated for actions they had no part in, and probably did not even want to happen. Instead of succumbing to the fear, we should be joining together, not fighting and causing even more violence.
d. The attitudes toward Muslims do need to change. Violence is often caused by a lack of knowledge. In this case, many people (Muslims and non-Muslims alike) do not know that Islam does not condone violence or oppression. The meaning of the Quran has been twisted by a few people and adopted as justification for violence. While there are some extremists, Westerners need to realize that the Muslims who are terrorists are a small percentage, and that they should not punish the whole group of people for the actions of a few. We should not be hurting the millions of people who practice Islam in peace. Furthermore, we are fighting fire with fire, violence with violence, which makes no sense. Americans claim they work for peace, but they too use violence as a tool. Every terrorist attack is met with more weapons, more warfare, more violence. This is unfair to the peaceful Muslims, who are punished for every extremist attack.
- Anya Moturi NDSJ
I agree with your answer for D, but I disagree whether or not Americans should change their attitudes towards Muslims. Yes, a small percent of Muslims are terrorists and Americans have the right for their current attitudes towards them. But America should change their views towards the peaceful Muslims and get rid of the stereotypes they put on all Muslims, when it's only true for a small amount of Muslims.
Deletea) in the abc video there is a little bias in the way information is told. most of the people speaking on the Quran are American and do not know the Quran as intimately. I think they are bias because it might make for a better news story. but on the other hand some of what they were saying is true the Quran was meant to promote peace and the infidels that Muhammad spoke off where the people he was fighting in mecca and medina. But to most it would seem that the religion itself is extremely violent and that most if not all Muslims lie about their religion status to do harm to others.
ReplyDeleteb)in the video clips and reading most believe that Islam and violence goes hand and hand they even posed the question that if it doesn't why is Islam the only religion promoting terrorism. but that's not true Christians used to be terrorists to any country not Christian in the centuries of the Vatican's extreme power over all. many pointed out the violent scriptures in the Quran but by an expert they soon came to find that was because Muhammad was fighting a war for the right to be religious. whap as said along with the videos that many twists the Qurans words to benefit their cause they hide behind Islam or use is to falsely justify their wrong doings.
c) the fourth reading seems to test how well you know religions even your own. as said that the Quran has many bloody scriptures about fighting infidels but so does the bible. in the bible god even asked a king to commit genocide killing even women and children. people are more likely to see the harm in other religions and not their own the author says and that's is unfortunately true.
d) americans need to see that not all muslims are terrorists. you cant judge every one over the things that some of the billions that follow that religion have done. its not fair to anyone. that's like someone judging you because your country cant stay out of others business if it doesn't follow their agenda.
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DeleteIn regards to your answer to question B, after reading the articles and listening to the audio clips, I felt that most of them were very much against the assumption that Islam is a cause of violence, especially in the New York Times article, in which the author proves that religion is far more complicated than we think. The author states that we generally discriminate against other groups when we are afraid of something, and that it is wrong to stereotype all people of a certain group based on a few people. However, I do think that the ABC video either accidentally or purposefully linked Islam to terrorism through their incorrect information and choice of words, specifically when they said that Muslims can either be saints or savages.
DeleteReva Kakaria
NDSJ
As a response to your answer to question C, I agree with you the the reading proves to us that we ourselves may not even know our own religion all that well. Every religion has its flaws but people often see the worst parts of other religions before they notice the flaws in their own. This is extremely important because this mindset is creating a huge rift between people. Muslims are the victims of Islamic extremists just as much and even more than we are. People often forget that and instead push the Muslim moderates aside even though that is only furthering the hatred between us.
DeleteIn regards to your answer to D, I agree. I think many white americans especially forget to acknowledge the privilege that they have in regards to not having one person represent their entire race. Today no one thinks of the ku klux klan and gets uncomfortable when white men walk around their town and yet replace the KKK with ISIS and people blame every vaguely arab looking person for 9/11. There is a lot of blame that is not only unwarranted and unfair ,but also creating islamophobic acts that kill and main innocent people.
Delete1.Some bias in the video is presented in the video through the language that was portrayed. Throughout the clip, words like "madmen" and "ignorant" was used to describe some of the Muslims actions but in reality, what gives Americans the right to call anyone those names. Bias exists in reporting to make our country look better and to put down people of the opposition. It might effect the viewers perception of Christian vs. Islam because since it makes Islam look bad, more people will be willing to switch to Christianity.
ReplyDeleteB.) They say that Islam and violence pretty much go hand and hand. In the readings and clips, they state that in Islam, the Koran is interpreted in many different ways as some sections promote peace and others promote violence if worship isn't done a certain way. Also, many link terrorism directly to people of Islam. It does not go with WHAP as it says that Islam promotes peace and equity among its people.
DeleteC.)The general point of the reading is to defend Muslims and there preachings from the American views as we view them as brutal terrorists and bad people. I agree with the authors viewpoint as Muslims are targeted for being the culprits of terrorism and bad things, but the Koran teaches peace and tranquility among its people among with Islamic teachings.
DeleteAmerican attitudes definitely need to change towards Muslims. We unfairly down their teachings and practices when we have no room to talk ourselves. America preaches all about Democracy and freedom, but that's not the case in how we treat other countries. We don't practice what we preach in democracy so we really have no reason to judge others
DeleteIn regards to your answer to C, I agree but also respectfully disagree. You are correct that Muslims are seen as "brutal terrorists and bad people" and they are often blamed for terrorism while their holy text preaches peace. There is, however, an additional aspect. Religions are not black or white - they do not preach one thing or all their beliefs do not work together in harmony. With religions so complex and large with so many beliefs, how can something not contradict something else? Overall, I think that the author is trying to say, like you said, that Muslims are blamed for all the violence despite the fact that the Quran preaches peace and nonviolence. However, if you twist religious texts to your own agenda, like many extremists do, then people (both outsiders and believers of the religion itself) get the wrong idea. We cannot judge Muslims for the actions of extremists who twist and misquote religious texts as it happens with other religions. Religions are just extremely complicated so we cannot just pull random quotes out of context and pretend they fit your own agenda.
Deletea. There is some bias in the ABC video, specifically how the words "madmen" and "radicals" are used when describing muslims, even extremist ones. The reason that this news channel is acting biased towards the radicals is because what the radicals are doing is wrong according to both the standards of the west, and of moderate muslims. This means that we can all adopt a bit of a bias towards radicals. However, this may also influence the perception of christianity, because it is not connected with radicalism today.
ReplyDeleteb. The clips tend to assert that Islam condemns violence, which definitely agrees with what we have been learning in WHAP, where we learn about the advocation for peace. However, it is the interpretation of the religion that determines whether its members act rightiously.
c. The fourth reading had the main purpose of educating the public about how Islam and Christianity (and any other religions for that matter) are more similar than people think. They both support peace, and both had periods of violence. I definetely agree with the article, because just like the Quran, the Bible has some violent sections. It is all about how those who read such books interpret them.
d. Americans need to get a hold of themselves. Muslims probably had the exact same opinions about us when the Ku Klux Klan was around, which was the equivalent of terrorism. This Islamophobia is really just creating mistrust and possible violence. If more people were to read articles such as these and stay informed, things would be a lot better. It is very hard to change someones attitude, unless they see the consequences of their attitude. Lets just hope those consequences dont spring up before we change our attitudes.
I fully agree with your answer to question D. I think that the way to change Americans' attitudes towards Muslims is by educating them. The articles we read were very informative and enlightening, and if more people read them, we would be far better of. However, the problem is when people searching for information come across sources of information like the ABC video, which contains some bias as well as incorrect information. People may trust the source and believe everything it says, which could change their opinion and make things worse. If we can spread articles such as the one from ing.com and the New York Times, then people would be taking in factual and correct information.
DeleteReva Kakaria
NDSJ
I completely agree with your answer to B. The actions of (small) groups of "Islamic" radicals do not speak for the 1.5 billion Muslims who believe in peace and tolerance. Only 0.003% of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims believe in radical ideas and violent interpretations of Islam and jihad. The remaining 99.997% simply want to be able to live and practice their faith peacefully because the Quran advocates for peace, faithful living, and tolerance. Often times many Muslims are victims of terrorist attacks in "the name of Islam". To put it very simply, terrorists are individuals who distort Islam and gather supporters by shunning the western world and spreading violent ideas about jihad and Quranic ideas. Terrorists are not faithful Muslims and they are not the face of Islam because Islam, in no way, shape, or form, condones violence. It is time that people in countries all over the world abandon the irrational fear of Muslims and Islam.
DeleteNikhila Kalapatapu
NDSJ
Yes I agree with your answer to A. The abc video is a perfect example on how america’s media often misconstrues ideas and conveys the message to its audience in a way that messes with the audience’s mindsets. The information the americans look for often come in the form of social media and the bias within it often reaches the audience and makes them believe that we really are that different. We absorb these subtle messages and end up with completely twisted mindsets about Muslims.
DeleteC. I agree with what you said in your third answer, it actually made me view the purpose of the article in a different way. I saw it more as an article written to show that all religions have contradictions and grey areas, but your comment on how the reading had a purpose of educating the public made me see it in a new perspective. I also agree with you when you bring up the points about how the Bible and Quran both support peace but also have moments of violence because that is absolutely true. Most people see the Quran has extremely violent and horrible, when in reality it's not and it’s not as if the Bible doesn’t have its times of violence and hate. Also, your point on how it's about interpretation, is something I completely believe in. There isn't a bad religion or one that is all about destruction and violence, it's all in how a person reads and interprets the scripture.
DeleteD. Your ideas on how Americans need to get ahold of themselves and not be so rude and discriminatory are completely parallel to my own. I definitely think that Americans are in no position to be saying and doing the things we are. I never even thought about the Ku Klux Klan and how that was a form of terrorism as well. For me, the Crusades came to mind and how the Christians basically terrorized Muslim lands and cities for power and control.
Islamophobia is definitely an issue that is getting out of hand for honestly no reason. When attacks like the Paris bombing happen, Americans are so quick to judge and blame the Muslims, which is an incorrect mindset and stereotype to have. Not all Muslims are terrorists and it's not okay to blame and hate them. Americans have honestly forgotten that we’ve also done many heinous crimes that are considered acts of terrorism; we only focus on other people who commit such acts and blame them for being spiteful and violent. The only way we can change people's outlooks on things such as this, is, like you said, by showing them the consequences of their attitudes and actions. Many people probably don’t even know they have the mindset of fearing Muslims because it’s become such a social norm, which is so awful. America is supposed to be the land of the free and people are allowed to have freedom of religion, but with this ongoing hatred towards Muslims, we’re stripping away people’s rights. I definitely think that there needs to be a bond of trust between the two sides, otherwise this war will only continue and increase, until something just explodes.
Nicole Yu
NDSJ
I agree a lot with your answer to B. I think how we view religion comes from how we read and interpret it. Many people put the violence of the bible into proper context and talk about what it really means aside from violence. However often nowadays people forget to do this with Islam and so we end up with this perverted view of a peaceful religion.
Deletea. The ABC video was loaded with bias when articulating the misconceptions of Islam and Christianity. The video itself begins with the news reporter stating that the interpretation of the text can separate from a “saint or a savage”. Using such a word like savage brings the idea of the Islamists as barbarians and violent people. The video however does articulate a strong point in the beginning comparing the text of the Bible which was believed to be of the Quran because of its underlying violence. The misconceptions and direct assumptions of Islam creates a bias which was highlighted in the video with violent images in the backgrounds associating with Islam. When Christianity was mentioned however, there were peaceful images of people praying. One man in the video mentioned that Muhammad wrote two parts of the Quran which in fact is a wrong statement because Muhammad never wrote the Quran and there were no parts in it. This indicates that people are assuming things about Islam when they are not even fully aware of the history and context of the religion. Furthermore, Islam is known by the extremists who kill others with suicide bombings which is strictly prohibited in the religion. Islam is just an excuse for these people to proceed with killings but the people who believe their reasons for such actions are not fully educated regarding the subject and so they should not make such assumptions.
ReplyDeleteb. The readings and audio clips say that Islam is not a religion of violence and it does not support violent actions. In fact, all the violent things that have been associated with Islam are all strictly prohibited in the Quran. Terrorism and suicide bombing is not allowed and is considered a sin. Killing others and oneself is not allowed in Islam. Extremists use Islam as an excuse to back up their violent actions but they are just taking the Quran out of context. The result of people being uneducated regarding the religion leads to destruction, misconceptions and violence. This is also consistent to the findings in WHAP because Muslims did not harm other “people of the book” unless they were absolutely compelled to for their personal safety.
c. I definitely agree with the writer of this article. Religious has a lot of depth and it all matters on how the society interprets the text. Text cannot be taken literally and the circumstances in which it was written determines the main points of each passage. People blindly accept what others say about Islam and that leads to various stereotypes for the Muslim community. Though the Quran has violent scriptures, the Bible does too. Yet people seem to only associate Islam with violence. Islam does not provoke violent it actually prohibits it. Current events surrounding politicals are creating a larger issue around the entire Muslim population and is creating divisions in the community.
d. I do believe that, Americans need to change their attitude and perception of the Muslim population. In a country where freedom is a part of its identity, such a rift between religious communities does not make sense. Stereotyping an entire religious community for something only less than a percent of the community has done is very wrong. I think this Islamophobia is created because of the lack of education surrounding the religion. Most of what is considered to be violent about Islam is completely prohibited from the religion. Growing Islamophobia is a predominant issue which is blowing things out of proportion and must be stopped to prevent future disasters and warfare.
Aditi G.
NDSJ
I fully agree with your "B" post, because it is true that simply being uneducated can be a big issue. Just the fact that Americans aren't familiar with any of Islams beliefs was what made them assume all Muslims are terrorists. They saw the twin towers or the Paris attacks and because they were uneducated with other religions, assumed that since those terrorists are Muslims, then every Muslim supports them. Similar things have happened in the US, for example after Pearl Harbor the internment of Japanese. Where did that get us? It led to the breaking of many families and millions of dollars wasted. We cannot let anything like that happen again. The millions of Japanese that resisted internment certainly didn't have good opinions of America after going to those camps. Muslims will have a worse opinion of America if we continue to be ignorant. Then everything will get worse.
DeleteA. There is a lot of subtle bias in the ABC video. For example, the speaker says that the Quran is written by Mohammed; however, that is not true. Saying that would insinuate to listeners that all of the violence they have heard about from the Quran is the law of Islam. The speaker also says that the interpretation of the Quran is what “separates a saint from a savage.” By putting it this way, he says that a Muslim can either be a holy person or a barbaric killer. There is no in between. When he interviews Roya Zaneti in Egypt, he actually acts surprised when she gets offended that he associates Egypt with terrorists. Just because some terrorists were Egyptian, he automatically assumes that everyone in Egypt must have some association with terrorism. However, Roya also seemed to be biased against the US, and views its people as arrogant and superior, even though many Americans are not. Most of the bias in this video is against Islam, and viewing this, a person could unconsciously begin to think of Christianity as better than Islam. They might not even realize how their opinions are changing, because the bias in the video is so subtle. In this video, Islam is talked about mostly in the context of terrorism, which could lead people to associate Islam only with terrorism and think Christianity as a superior religion as well.
ReplyDeleteB. The readings consistently state that Islam is a religion of peace, and that one cannot assume that all Muslims are a certain way just because a few are. The reading from the New York Times goes very deep into the issue of bias against Muslims and talks about how this kind of thing(the banning of refugees and the fear and hatred against a specific race or religion) has happened before. The articles and audio clips are consistent with the findings in WHAP. We have studied many different areas in many different time periods, and we have seen how often groups alienate each other out of fear and insecurity - whether because of religion(such as the different sects of Christianity, and the Crusades), gender, or race. We have also learned about how Europeans first viewed Muslim invaders - as barbarians come from hell to punish them. Just like it said the NY Times article, these things have happened many times before and will probably continue to happen until we make an effort to understand the other group and leave our “we/they” mindset.
(C and D in reply)
Reva Kakaria
NDSJ
C. The fourth reading’s purpose is to make the point that “faith is complicated”, and that we tend to alienate and discriminate against different groups that we are scared of, depending on the time period and situation. Despite this, we should never judge an entire group of people - in the case of Muslims, 1.6 billion people - based on the characteristics of a few people. Another main point is that the thing that matters most is our personal values and beliefs, not the content of scripture. This article points out that the Bible has much more violent content than the Quran to further illustrate the complexity of religion. I agree with all of the points in this article. All of us have made and will continue to make unfair judgements about people; it’s something we can’t help. I also agree that personal morals matter more than the words of scripture, because in the end, I think we should listen to our own consciences rather than words written extremely long times ago with different contexts that can easily be misinterpreted.
DeleteD. American attitudes towards Muslims 100% need to change. Many Americans blame Muslims for all terror-related problems and automatically assume that all Muslims are terrorists. It is this kind of thinking and scapegoating that led to World War II, and unless Americans change their viewpoint and educate themselves, we could head straight into another war. The Americans who do call all Muslims terrorists are also extremely hypocritical at times. Nobody said that all Christians are murderers after shootings such as the one in a Planned Parenthood clinic, and nobody assumes that all Christians are part of the KKK just because it was a Christian organization. Not only that, some Americans hate Muslims because of the violence caused by a few of them, but that does not stop these Americans from committing hate crimes that are often violent themselves. The way to change American attitudes towards Islam starts and ends with education. If everybody was fully educated on the facts - not a warped version of the truth - then we would all be much more tolerant.
Reva Kakaria
NDSJ
According to Purdue, the fallacy you mention in your part "A" is called an either/or fallacy, where the author leaves out other alternatives. It is true; a Muslim cannot either be a saint or a terrorist, which is what ABC has portrayed. This will inevitably "fake out" ABC's audience into thinking that most Muslims are terrorists. The sad thing about logical fallacies such as this is that they are very persuasive to an uneducated public, despite having severe flaws. ABC's portrayal of Muslims truly is not helping with Americans opinions towards Islam.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteA)The ABC video contained subtle but influential, and biased phrases that depicted Islam through a clouded perspective. The news reporter begins the video by stating that the interpretation of the text separates a saint from a savage.” This strong and very biased view gives the inclination that the Islamic people are barbaric or uncivilized which incorrectly portrays Islamic people. The reporter also showed a biased reaction when interviewing Roya Zanetti. He associated all terrorists with Egypt simply because a few terrorist were from Egypt, which is seen when he’s surprised at her offence by this view. The bias doesn’t stop with him, as Roya also has her biases against the U.S. Because the U.S. is portrayed as such a global power, she associated U.S. citizens as finding themselves to be superior. The image in the video also proved to be biased as Islam was depicted with violent and gruesome images despite it being a religion of peace. Meanwhile Christianity is depicted peacefully with no inclination of ay violence. These biases show that where we come from and the information available to us influence our views as seen with Roya and the reporter. Religious bias also proves to be true as seen in this video as people associate one or a few events with the religion. Thus Islam is given a violent and gruesome nature, while people forget about violence that occurred with Christians such as antiabortion violence.
ReplyDeleteB)The readings stress that Islam is a religion of peace and that violence is looked down upon. Religious texts are manipulated and twisted to fit the agenda of certain terrorists, which is the reason why people associate religion with terror. This is the problem, not Islam. Islam allows violence only when defending oneself, which is essentially what Jihad is: violence during war. Yet this violence is associated with terrorism giving people event more incentive to have biases against Muslims. The creation of Wahhabi Islam has also led to a rapid increase of violence in the Islamic world. Yet, the majority of Muslims abhor violence and terror. These findings are consistent with what we’ve studied as well. An event such as the crusade shows how the Christian religion was manipulated to make the killing of Muslims seem just and the word of God. We also see how one event, labels an entire group such as how the Europeans called the Muslims barbarians.
*Cont. in the reply*
C)This reading illustrates the idea that faith is complicated and that there’s more to it than what’s on the surface. Faith is based off of tradition that has developed over lots of years instead of changes occurring now. This fact is often forgotten in times of terror where the Islamic faith has been changed to fit the agenda of terrorists. The result of this is the alienation and discrimination of Islamic people with little regard to the fact that their faith was twisted. Faith is also a very intimate pert of a person’s life and very rarely are worshippers in sync with each other. This fact is also forgotten as we associate acts of terror which may be called “worship” to worship as a whole. Our fear of having an act of terror occur again leads us to take extreme preventative measures which lead to isolation and alienation. But, the instinctual action of wanting to protect ourselves is also present in these acts of discrimination as people see it as protecting themselves. The article as a whole teaches us not to judge the 1.6 billion Muslims on the acts of a few and rather educate and inform ourselves before making these judgements.
DeleteD)Not only do American attitudes towards Muslims need to change, Americans also need to educate themselves before ostracizing people which is essentially the problem. The mentality that terror and religion go hand in hand is one that is very prevalent is society today. This idea poisons the mind of people who find this to be justification to treat a group of people inadequately. Americans simply follow the ideas and biases the media may show without any sort of information which leads to ignorance. Knowledge is the only way to combat ignorance and that is what I think is key in stopping alienation of Muslims. While Muslim terrorists are portrayed more in the media, little is said about the KKK which I also a type of terrorist group. Our media gives one group more attention than the other which is wrong. Being Americans, people may neglect the problems within our own society and try to find the flaws in other areas which starts the alienation in the first place. All people should be objective with their thinking on terrorism and realize that one person doesn’t represent a race.
Binita Pandya NDSJ
A) There is a lot bias in the news reporting when comparing Islam to Christianity. When the news reporter begins to explain the basis of the Quran and quotes the Quran saying" what separates a saint from a savage", what the speaker is interpreting is that Muslims can either be a holy saint or a unholy savage. the speaker also talks of how the words of violence in the Quran come from Muhammad which is also not true. If this were true it would mean the whole of Islamic law is based on violence which is not true. The bias does not just stop at verbal information. when pictures or videos are shown of people from Islam it all of violence while when people who support Christianity and pictures of Americans are shown its all peaceful insinuating that we are more at peace than people in Islam.
ReplyDeleteB)The readings suggest that Islam is a violent religion that is mainly involved in the activities of terrorism. What people start to believe that anyone that supports the religion of Islam supports the idea of terrorism which is not true. This is also the reason many believe Muslims are dangerous when in fact Muslims are against violence and war. This with the evidence seen everyday in the news from reports of religious prejudice shows how much Islam is related to violence.
C)The main purpose of the 4th reading is showing how when someone misunderstands something then it can lead to the misunderstanding of a whole religion. It also shows how complicated a faith can be and how people lose the term of worship. People who aren't Muslims associate there worships with the violence of terrorism which is incorrect.
D) Yes the attitudes AMericans give to Muslims need to change greatly because of the fact most Americans have no idea what is going on. What we do as Americans is tend to judge a race or religion based on popular items seen on t.v or the internet. however, what needs to happen is the understanding of the religion of Islam and the fact that the majority of Muslims have no knowledge of these terror attacks.
I agree with your answer to D in the way that we need to change our conceptions about muslims and their religion. However, I believe, and found evidence of this in my own answer too, that a lot of people forget that not all Muslims are Middle Eastern. Rather, there are millions of American Muslims, and by forgetting or not acknowledging that they are a part of our society, we lose a vital piece of who we are as Americans; a melting pot of different races, cultures, and beliefs that come together to form one unique culture.
DeleteIn response to question A, it is terrible that a so-called "credible" and very popular news source can have such bias and hatred towards a culture/religion as they did. Just in the wording, emphasis, and media shown tells the audience mostly indirectly that Muslims are inherently bad as a people and that they promote terrorism and violence with their actions and teachings, when that is actually the complete opposite of what they teach. As we talked about in my WHAP class, the real thing that they were asking was, "why can't Muslims be like Christians?".
-Anna NDSJ
A. Regarding your answer to the first question, I definitely agree with you. The ABC video was biased when they compared Islam and Christianity. It wasn't blatantly obvious, but the news reporter would slip in words in here and there during his monologue that would lead the listener/viewer towards Christianity because it's being planted into their brains that Islam isn't that good of a religion. Also, you're right, when ABC news showed pictures or video clips of Islam and Muslims, they were all displaying acts of violence and war. Of course that's going to make someone who's watching think: Wow, Islam is a horrible, evil, violent religion, I definitely do not support this. What makes it worse, is the fact that many people do watch ABC news and use it as their source of current events and daily information, which means that the more people who watch, the more they're going to be led on a biased path.
DeleteC. I agree with your answer for the third question, it's pretty much exactly what I had thought and written. Religions are not black and white, they are definitely very contradicting and confusing. Like you said, the article did mention the fact that misinterpreting something such as a verse or scripture in one religion, it can lead to misinterpretation of the entire religion. I think people shouldn't be so quick to judge a religion especially because they probably don't know everything about that religion. Just because there's one verse about killing or blood, doesn't mean that the entire religion is revolved around that. I think it's important that before we make any judgements or get preconceived ideas, it's imperative that we do in depth research and understand all aspects of that religion. All religions are complicated and complex and there isn't one "perfect religion".
Nicole Yu
NDSJ
A. Although the ABC video addressed faults with both Christianity and Islam, it certainly showed more bias towards Christianity and against slam. In the beginning of the video, the narrator points out the difference between a Muslim being a saint versus being a savage. This use of the word “savage” already indicates a negative feeling towards Muslims. Instead of using a word like sinner, a savage simply allows the reader to believe a Muslim is barbaric and uncivilized. In the first minute of the video, ABC is already trying to start the reader’s perception of a Muslim lowly. Additionally, throughout the whole video, there are always violent images of the Islamic radicals in comparison to any Christian-started disaster as to show how Christianity is less violent that Islam. Although they provided several verses in the beginning of the wrongdoings of the Bible, it was never addressed later and never showed any footage of radicals in Christianity as they are certainly some today. When the interviewer asks Roya Zaneti about her religion and relates it towards the radical actions taken by some Muslims, he is surprised that she should be offended. This shows how he expected her to be associated with these people just because they shared a religion. He never thought that a whole, inaccurate belief upon a community is inaccurate to describe an individual. Lastly, the ABC video ends up comparing Christianity and Muslims. “Why aren’t there as many non-Muslim terrorists?” the video asks, and then later says how there are plenty of Christians that take the work in context and are peaceful. This basically asks the question “Why aren’t Muslims more like Christians?” showing how Islam is a religion that should be fixed into the standards of Christianity.
ReplyDeleteB. The ABC video describes how suicide and the killing of others was prohibited by the Quran. However, it also mentions jihad, which is a belief to fight and sacrifice themselves as martyrs in order to eliminate non-believers. NPR again addresses this belief of jihad. They believe that until recently, there was a new interpretation of this which was an internal struggle that Muslims faced instead of physical warfare. Moreover, NPR describes the difference between an irjaf and a jihad. An irjaf is that terrorism seen in the Middle East and is associated with Islam. NPR pointed out the black and white between these two terms and how Muslims condemn irjaf and any innocent killings. Both sources state that violence was intended to be used only in defense instead of attack. NPR also believes that the “perfect storm” allowed for Islam to remain violent: a frustration at the western world and the rise of Wahhabi Islam, started by Osama bin Laden. These findings are consistent with WHAP as Muhammad preached peace and nonviolence. Additionally, he only attacked other people when he was being persecuted for being a Muslim out of Mecca and into Medina.
Continued in the reply
C. The point of the article, “How Well Do You Know Religion?”, is to display the we/they mentality that is apparent between Christianity and Islam. Kristof is trying to show how in America, we naturally like to otherize people who do not belong in the same social standing or religion or race. Because of this, we tend to inflict negative, even false, ideas upon them that are inaccurate. Additionally, he pulls facts and events from the past, the anti-Semitism and Japanese hatred, and tells us not to repeat the same mistake and stop this we/they mentality from taking root. I agree with the opinion of this author because it is simply unfair to generalize Muslims falsely. Less than 10% of all terrorist actions were from Muslims, yet we try to blame it all on the people of this religion. Additionally, 93% of the Muslims today do not support terrorism although we like to believe that all of them are violent. By creating this division between two religious groups and trying to make one inferior than the other, we are not progressing as a society but actually cause us to deteriorate.
DeleteD. Yes, Americans do need to change their attitudes towards Muslims. We need to start practicing what we preach as Roya Zaneti from the ABC video stated. America is supposed to be a place where people are able to freely express themselves, but how is that possible with so many people oppressing Muslims? Persecuting a group of people isn’t just harming the Muslims but is harming our whole society and showing the horrid values that we practice. In order to try changing this, Americans should start looking out for news and media that have a horrible bias towards Muslims. We need to learn how to take information objectively from subjective media like ABC news. Additionally, we need to stop having these books that misinterpret the Quran and allow wrong translations like “twelve virgins” from “twelve raisins.” Having these misinterpretations allow people to turn towards terrorism. Overall, we need to separate this belief of terrorism and religion and use reason and logic to take the course of our actions instead of emotion and false beliefs.
Meghan C.
NDSJ
a. There's bias in the ABC video when they show the clips of the area and all that we see are pictures of the fighting and violence but never the peaceful side of that part. The news reporters and people who talk all try to compare the Quran to the Bible, which shows that the Bible is the basis for everything and therefore shown as "better" than the Quran because people are comparing it. This bias might exist because none of them are that well educated on the topic of Islam and the Quran. Most people think that the Quran encourages violence through out-of-context lines but so does the Bible, when it is also taken out of context. This might make Christianity seem like the better religion because we never say that is a violent religion but only Islam as shown as is.
ReplyDeleteb. We learn in WHAP that Islam is not a violent religion and actually advocates for nonviolence. Islam unified people, increased trade and was economically beneficial throughout history. The only reason that it’s killing people today is about the jihad, which is the legal violence that occurs during the war.
c. The general point is that taking apart both books in context, we can only begin to understand the point of each religion from there. If we try to look at each line separately, we see a we/they situation where we all have bias towards the religion that we most identify with. Terrorism is shown only through the stereotype of Muslims when in reality, that isn’t true and can also exist in other religions. We see how religion plays a role in politics because it influences possible candidates for president, like Donald Trump who clearly opposes Muslims.
d. No, American attitudes should change because according to the first amendment, there is religious freedom. Because, right now, Americans are being racist, we are undermining what the Bill of Rights says. Not all Muslims are terrorist and there are other terrorist groups that are active. We are people and it is discriminatory towards someone, as a person, to hate them just because of their religion. We should change our attitudes because racism can cause stereotypes based on the actions of a few people, and if we ignore these stereotypes, we can stop. Hate crimes do not stop the problem, but in fact, it increases the animosity towards these Muslims, and people in general.
-Tani P, NDSJ
a. Bias was in the video because when the interviewer interviewed a teen from Egypt, he associated her country with the planners of 9/11. This is clear bias, because he is basically accusing the whole country of terrorism instead of narrowing the terrorism down to just those involved. The teen even told him "You get radicals everywhere and in almost every religion." Basically, she was saying that it is unfair to blame a whole country for the wrong of just a group of people by calling them radicals and terrorists. This bias exists in news reportings to sway the thinking of the listeners and to make them see certain things one way. This might affect the listener's views on Islam vs. Christianity by causing them to see Muslim nations as radical and terrorizing, causing them to come to a conclusion that all Muslims are terrorists.
ReplyDeleteb. In general, Islam is a peaceful religion. Violence is only permitted in the case of self-defense. This does not go along with what I learned in WHAP, because I learned that Muhammad purposefully led a war in Medina and was a great war leader who slaughtered many. This shows intentional violence, not self-defense.
c. The point behind the fourth reading is that people in religions other than Islam have a tendency to pick out the violence in that religion rather than considering the violence in their own. He states that we should not accuse 1.6 billion Muslims of the cruel acts of just a few. He concludes with the fact that Americans are just as dangerous as the Islamic nations. I agree with the editorial. It is so true that we shouldn't see all Muslims as terrorists. It's just like accusing all Christians as being pedophiles just because a few pastors/priests were so on the news. My opinion is that we should only be concerned with Muslims we let in, not those already established here.
d. Yes, Americans need to change their attitudes about Muslims. This is because as all these sources stated, Islam is not a violent religion but a peaceful one. The violence from Muslims is because of misinterpreting the Quran. We need to definitely not execute hate crimes, because we are then terrorists to them. We need to show love to them and help them in their efforts to show the world that they are indeed good people with good intentions. As for foreign Muslims who enter the country, there should be background checks placed on them before entering to track their affiliations.
I agree with your responses to A. The interviewer was holding all of Egypt accountable for 9/11 due to the fact that the planners were Egyptian. This is unjust, for the rest of the country did not participate in the event and should not have to take the blame for it. Moreover, regarding your response to C, people of other religions tend to pick out the violence in Islam rather than in their own because there have been more terrorist acts committed in the Middle East than in any other area. However, that certainly does not vindicate their discriminatory actions, as not all Muslims are terrorists.
DeleteJasmine L.
NDSJ
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletea) At the beginning of the news story, the reporter says that the difference from a "savage" and a "saint" is the interpretation of the scriptures. The diction in which he used was inappropriate and inaccurate. He also called the Taliban barbaric when referring to scriptures not from the Qur'an but from the Bible. This all happened in the first minute.
ReplyDeleteb) Islam is not a "violent" religion if a religion can be characterized as one nor does it promote violence. Most of the violent things that are told about Islam in WHAP is the wars that they've fought in which isn't anything out of the normal.
c) The purpose is to show people that if you do not know your religion, how could you judge those who follow another. I agree with the author because this technique of judgment proves people wrong.
d) American attitudes should change their attitude towards Muslims because it's not the religion that is causing this death, but the people who choose to support it. And if Americans take action by committing hate crimes, they're just as bad as the Muslims who committed these crimes. There are always school shootings but you don't see Muslims killing random people, do you?
a) I think you bring up a good point about the video. When I first watched it, I did not notice that. I think that its horrible that people say such things on t.v. where many people are watching. It is also so detrimental since many people don't know much about Islam other than what they hear on the news.
Deleteb) What you are saying is true. In fact in WHAP, we also learn how Islam was one of the most tolerant religions, and they were peaceful with all "people of the book." Its disappointing that people are judging the Muslim religion based on the actions of a few extremists. What we learn about Islam in WHAP, and what we see in the media are two different things. From WHAP, we learn that Islam does not support violence.
c) I think that the article does a good job of showing us that we are not experts of every religion, and in fact, we may not be experts of our own religion. I think you that you bring up another good point that I had not really considered until now.
d) I totally agree with this. I really like your last point. In fact, what you say is true. There are always school shootings, but another point to this is, they aren't always covered as in depth as the crimes that Muslims commit. This is another attitude that the Americans need to fix.
D) I would like to respectfully agree and disagree with your answer to questiond D. I agree with your point saying hate crimes makes Americans just as bad because 2 wrongs don't make a right. But, I respectfully disagree with your point about how people following Islam and who support it are causing death as opposed to the religion itself. Firstly, Islam is a religion of peace that does no condone violence. The terrorist using Islam as justification for their terorr are not following Islam, they're manipulating texts to fit their own agenda. Based on this the terrorists are not really following Islam at all which means Islam is innocent in this situation. The real culprits are the terrorists saying they follow Islam. So, while I see where you were going, I believe that the religion and the people supporting it are not the problem. The problem is the manipulation of texts done by terrorist which is why actual followers of Islam do not deserve to be alienated.
DeleteBinita Pandya NDSJ
Your answer to question c I agree with it but I feel like your missing much more. The author is not talking about people own religion, and how you need to know yours before you can judge another.The author is also saying that most people do not know much of any religion therefore they should not judge any religion.
DeleteI agree with what you said for D, because religion doesn't bring the terrorists, the people bring it. But you are missing the point said in the fourth reading where America stereotypes Muslims without knowing any Muslims. Since even though America is a place for religious freedom, we exclude certain religions by using stereotypes.
Deletea. The ABC video had lots of bias with confusion with the religion of Islam and Christianity. The video states words like saints and savage. A word like savage brings about the idea of the Islamic people as Neanderthals and evil people. The assumptions of Islam create a bias which was in the video with violent images in the backgrounds having to do with Islam. When Christianity was mentioned, there were peaceful images of people praying. One man in the video mentioned that Muhammad wrote two parts of the Quran which in fact is a wrong statement because Muhammad never wrote the Quran and there were no parts in it. This indicates that people are assuming things about Islam like making assumptions that they are terrorists and they participate in bombing and taking over places.
ReplyDeleteb. The readings and audio clips say that Islam is not violent; in fact, all the violent things that have been come with Islam are all strictly restricted in the religions holly book. Terrorism is not allowed and is considered a sin, killing others and oneself is not allowed in Islam. Some people use Islam as an excuse to back up their violent actions but they are just taking the Quran out of context. People being uneducated in their religion leads them to believe this and exercise their religion incorrectly.
c. I agree with the writer of this article he shows that the religion has a lot of depth. You cannot take the text literally and the circumstance in which it was written determines the main points of each passage. People accept what others say about Islam and that leads to stereotypes for the Islamic community. Even though the Quran has violent scriptures, the Bible does too, yet people only associate Islam with violence. Islam does not promote violence it actually restricts it.
d. I believe that, Americans need to change their attitude and perception of the Muslim population. In a country where freedom is a part of its identity they become pretty hypocritical because they are judging a religion in which they know nothing about and are making up dumb stereotypes. Say that they are terrorists and suicide bombers just cause of rumors they heard about. They should change their attitude because they are supposed to be supporting freedom of religion as seen in the bill of rights.
I fully agree with your response to D. It is quite ironic that the people of the United States, a country that claims the freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights, are blaming Islam for encouraging violence and persecuting Muslims for being terrorists. In addition, similarly to your views, I believe that Americans should not take the little information they have on the Qur'an and use it as justification for the stereotypical statements they make. To combat this problem, we should share our knowledge on the subject, such as sending the articles to acquaintances and discussing related issues with them. Through this method, I believe we can clear up misunderstandings about Muslims.
DeleteJasmine L.
NDSJ
A) The ABC video was bias. They made it seem like the Muslims are very violent. For example they show the video of the area were there was fighting and violence but never showed the calm, relaxed, peaceful side of things. Another area that showed they were bias when the reporter was interviewing the teen from Egypt, he associated her country with the planners of 9/11. At this point he just accused her whole country of terrorism. Bias happens in news reporting so that the news channel can make people believe one thing but actually its really not. Due to the bias in that video more people believe that Islam is a very dangerous place and also that the Quran teaches violence.
ReplyDeleteB)In the following readings and audio clips, we learn that Islam and violence are linked for multiple reasons, the main reason why is to help promote Islam. The Quran says fight those who does not believe in God. Also in the second part of the Quran, there was a lot more violence being taught.
C) In the 4th reading the author talked about how little we know about Islam. The author want us to stop criticizing the Muslims because we do not know to much about there religion. I agree with what the author is trying to say. Us as a country do not know enough information to be judging the Muslims. Us Americans throw to many stereotype around and we need to stop because moral its not right.
D)I really do think us American need to change our view on Muslims. We need to all just get along, we cant blame all Muslims for what some individuals do. The more attention, the more hate we give to the Muslims the more likely they will try to attack us. What we should is stop giving these terrorists attention, we cant forget about them but we need to stop talking about epically on the news.
a) I agree with your point about the reporter in Egypt. I found it appalling that he could easily link the girl and her entire country with the few people who planned 9/11. Like you said, it is not good that these biases exist in reporting, and I really like your reasons why.
Deleteb) Like you said, the clips and readings do say that second part of the Quran is more violent than the first, but I don't think that the violence directly correlates with the religion. In fact, I think that there are a few people who take the words too literally, but I don't think that it's the whole religion. Also, we know from WHAP that Muslims were pretty tolerant when it came to religions, and they didn't really fight other "people of the book" unless they were provoked.
c) I don't think the point was just about how little we know about Islam, but about all the religions in general. I do agree with your last few claims about how we Americans stereotype too much, and how we need to stop judging people who we do not know enough about.
d) I agree with what you are saying. I believe that all the negative attention that the terrorists get spurs them to commit even more crimes. I think we do need to start respecting them more, because they too are just like us.
A)Bias is obvious in the ABC video. The ABC video showed clips of mass destruction and violence in Muslim societies. The reporters may not have the same religious views as the Islamic people. This may change the viewers perception of Islam vs, Christianity because the news reporter may make Christianity sound better than Islam if that is the reporters religion or a religion that the reporter is more familiar with. Viewers usually listen to what the reporters tell them, so if the reporter says something negative or something that isn't accurate about Islam, viewers may see Islam as being a bad or violent without knowing all the details.
ReplyDeleteB)The following readings and audio clips describe Islam as being violent and uncivilized. They all talk about how the Quran plays a large role in the actions of the people of Islam.It has been said that misconceptions of the Quran, is the cause of the increase in violence in Islam.
c)The fourth reading said that Donald Trump said the people of Islam should not be allowed in the United States because they are different and are not compatible with the ways of American Citizens. The fourth reading explains that America does not know enough about Islam to make judgments against them and that America and Islam both have their own share of issues.No one is perfect so it isn't unnatural to have issues in a society.You just have to find ways to overcome or resolve the issues.
D)Yes I believe that America's attitude towards Muslims neeeds to change because just because someone is Muslim doesn't make them bad or violent. They may just live in a society that is going through many issues just like the United states.If America's attitude towards Muslims doesn't change this could lead to more issues that will bring upon far more violence than there already is.
In response to your response on question D, I do agree with what you are saying. However, I don't think that it is the society that is to blame for the violent acts that people are blaming on all Muslims. I feel as though it was the beliefs and convictions held by a select few people, influenced by hate and need for blood and war, that caused it. By saying that their society might be to blame is like, in my opinion, saying that it was American society's fault that we had the numerous theater shootings because society was going through a tough time. But I do agree with you in the fact that our society needs to change in order to prevent more violence and hatred growing. As MLK said, "Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that", if our society doesn't start to show love to the Islamic community, there will only be more hate present and nothing will be resolved.
DeleteIn response to B, I disagree. I feel as though several of the following sources, such as #2 and #3, help to show Islam in its true light; that it is actually a religion that denies violence and calls for peace and kindness. Unless I am mistaken, the first link for the readings is from Islamic scholars trying to clarify what their religion actually believes and to get rid of the misconceptions and falsities that litters societies and media all over the world.
-Anna NDSJ
B) I'd also like to respectfully disagree with your answer to question B. Source 3 explains how Islam is a religion of peace and refutes the violence associated with Islam. In source 2, violence in the quran is discussed, but its primarily a defence against attack. The bible is found to be more violent in encouraging genocide, yet this is never mentioned. Also the Quran is not what is causing the increase in violence, the manipulation of its texts and the creations of Wahhabi Islam are creating more violence. But, it's stressed how Islam is a religion of peace and the violence comes from terrorists manipulating it. I also respectfully disagree with your answer to the third question. I believe thatwhile Donalt trump and his ideas are mentioned, he's not the main point of that article. I find the main point of the article to be in the idea of faith iself, and how complex faith is. Yes, American doens't know enough about Islam, but most of the world does not as well. The reading shows how complex faith is, and how our previous ideas can change when looking at faith.
DeleteBinita Pandya NDSJ
a. I feel as though the video was bias. they portrayed Muslims as very violent. For example they show the video of the Muslims fighting and violence but never showed the civilized part of their society and social classes . Another example that showed they were bias when the reporter was interviewing the teen from Egypt, he associated her country with the planners of 9/11.int the video he said her whole country was terrorist. Because of the bias accusations in that video more that the Quran teaches violence.
ReplyDeleteb. in the Islam video we saw that the Quran and violence are is combined to protect Islam and their country and to promote Islam. The Quran says fight those who does not believe in God. it basically talks about how they should be granted access to the US because of the violence and uncivilized behavior. This basically describe that people use their religion and beliefs incorrectly but what is believed by them is their religion of speech.
c. the fourth reading shows that The point behind the fourth reading is that people in religions other than Islam have a tendency to pick out the violence in that religion rather than considering the violence in their own. He states that we should not accuse 1.6 billion Muslims of the cruel acts of just a few.It is so true that we shouldn't see all Muslims as terrorists. because with all the crimes in America it wouldn't be fair to give us the name as terrorist. I think that we should only worry about what's coming into our country and leaving out to protect us and our society.
A) Yes I completely agree with what you said in your response to a. Even though the video pointed out peaceful passages in the Quran, the visuals always showed violence. I think this plays a big role in trying to sway the viewers' opinions of Islam, and it is a clear display of bias. I also agree with your analysis of the interviewer's statements. To add on, when Roya called him out on those accusations, the video said that Roya's thinking was radical; Roya actually had a very valid point that America does not practice what it preaches, but the video just condemned this statement.
Delete- Mahima C. ndsj
a. The video about Muslims and Christians make Muslims seem way more violent and savage then Christians. The video also seemed bias to Christians which is why that image was portrayed. thr viseo said that the quran promoted violence and the the bible was more peacemaking. But how could they know that if fisrt of the cant read the quran and comprehended the words of allah. People often group muslims in the same categories as terrorists because of their preferred religion.
ReplyDeleteb. the second part of the clip also states that muslims are violent because the Quran says to fight those who don't believe in god but they left out the part where they should only do so if "provoked"
~jenneh kanu
c
A. It is very apparent that ABC news has bias as they use strong adjectives such as saints, savages, and dangerous. Many videos and images of war and violent activity in Islamic areas, like two people holding large guns or a group with rocket launchers, for example, were shown. As for the Christians, even though they mentioned the horrible scriptures were from the Bible, they only showed people praying or a video of a soldier, both of which were peaceful. Some of the people even mentioned that the Quran encouraged violence. This makes out the Muslim people to be malevolent because of their subjective analysis. Therefore, this can skew a person's opinion of Muslims negatively.
ReplyDeleteB. The aforementioned details for ABC News, it describes the Quran as violent. The NPR had mixed views. Some parts stated the the Quran was far less bloody compared to the Bible and even go as far to say the murder and killing is explicitly disapproved. Overall, it mentions how anyone can use the religion to their convenience. In addition, ing.org mentioned that killings would go against "at least three fundamental Islamic principles."
C. The 4th reading was a response of a sort to Donald Trump's statement to "bar Muslims from America." It shows how easy it is the nitpick violent passages from religious books. I agree with the editor. It is very easy to form misconceptions without proper research or isolated the negative parts of a passage since religion is complicated. America is also intolerant of most things Islamic. It is very unfair to the majority that are good people.
D. America do need to change their attitudes toward Islam and Muslim people. Instead of forming opinions based off of stereotypes and fallacies, we should research and make intellectual conversations to better understand what is happening. We cannot let someone blame a certain group and categorize them as dangerous people just because of a bad few eggs. Terrorism is a problem; that is an undeniable fact. Not every Muslim is a terrorist. People should not continue to be ignorant so we can prevent an influx of bigoted statements to be spread.
I completely agree with you on all of your points, especially the fact that Americans do need to change their attitudes towards the Muslim community and stop generalizing based on the actions of a small percentage of the 1.6 billion followers of Islam. As you said terrorism is a problem, and to add to that, I believe that terrorism has no religion. Thus, as you also pointed out, people should not be ignorant, and instead educate themselves. As for ABC's bias, I also agree that their comparison of the Quran and the Bible was not completely correct, and that that inaccurate message can negatively change people's views.
DeleteA) Bias is seen in the ABC video because ABC is presenting their point of view of the Islamic people. They differentiate between Christians and Muslims with words such as saints and savages. At the beginning of the video, when the reporter is introducing Islam and Christianity, he talks about how both have violent texts, but the clips they use show Christians peacefully praying, whereas the Muslims are being violent. They only showed one example of christian violence but overshadowed it with views of people who believed the Quran encouraged violence.
ReplyDeleteB)The readings and video clips show the connection between Islam and violence. In the Quran, it is said to fight those who do not believe in God. This goes along with what i learned in WHAP because Muhammad is shown as a general who slaughtered his enemies.
C)The point of the 4th reading is to show that people who don't fully know their religion shouldn't criticize another. You can say one religion is full of violence when you don't know how much violence is in yours. I agree with the author's opinion because people judge and stereotype what they don't know.
D) Americans do need to change towards Muslims. Fear and stereotyping lead to hate and ostracism. It would be wrong for an entire group to be treated unfairly because the actions of the few. People blame terrorism completely on Muslims when there's terrorism in America from corrupt police and criminals.
B) I would like to respectfully agree and disagree with your response to b. Yes, the video clip points out some passages in Islam with violence, but NPR and the ABC video clip also point out the peaceful passages in Islam, those that condone suicide bombings and the killing of others, and only support fighting back in defense. Moreover, the video clips and the reading also show how violent passages are present in other religious scriptures as well, not just the Quran. The quiz in the fourth reading does a very good job of showing how we cannot assume that one religion is more violent than another because religion is very complicated. So yes, though I agree that some passages may be violent, there is also a clear connection between Islam and nonviolence. Finally, in WHAP I learned about how Muhammad was a great leader that united his people, and he only fought against his enemies because they wanted to persecute followers of Islam.
Delete- Mahima C ndsj
c. the point of the 4th article is to say that you shouldn't judge people by their religions if you have n ides what their actual beliefs. I do agree with what the article said about people judging books by their cover. I have seen it happen to plenty of people. it has even happened to me.
ReplyDeleted. The fear americans have for muslims is completely understandable but its not every muslim that comes around isn't a terrorist. The discrimination againt them is very over the top.
Jenneh,
DeleteIn regards to your response to question d, I must respectfully disagree. The fear and contempt so many people have for average Muslims is completely unjustified. Are we afraid of white Christians because of the acts of the KKK? Are we afraid of Buddhists because of the acts of violent Buddhist terrorists in Myanmar? The obvious answer is no-- we are not. So why is it considered "completely understandable" to be afraid of a group of 1.6 billion people based on the acts of so few? 99.999% of Muslims are peaceful, simply wishing to live their lives like any other American citizen, white, black, hispanic, or otherwise. I strongly believe that it is not only unjustified but completely ridiculous to fear a woman in a headscarf or any other Muslim based on the actions of such a infinitesimally small minority of extremists.
Maha Khan
NDSJ
A.) Bias can be found in claims about Islam religion by Christians who do not know facts about Islam just made assumptions based on what they heard and in the speakers defending their own religion because if they believe in it they will try to prove it right. It might change the viewer's perspective because they believe the reporters are telling the truth so they will believe what the reporter says even if its bias.
ReplyDeleteB.) They try to argue that you can find violence in all religions and that the Qur'an does not say that as a Muslim you should practice violence. The verses that speak of violence were written when Muhammad was in war with political figures. They are consistent with what we learn because as they say and as we learn Muhammad wasn't just a religious leader, but also a political leader and he spread Islam with military force.
C.) The general point in the 4th reading is you shouldn't make assumptions about Muslim culture and although its human nature to point out flaws in others and be unwelcoming it doesn't mean you should do so. I agree with this opinion because its wrong to generalize a group of people and hate them because of their beliefs. Everyone is their own person and one persons actions should not reflect how you view and treat them all.
D.) Yes, because not all Muslims are terrorists and bad people. They deserve to be treated with kindness just like we deserved to be treated with kindness.
a. There's bias in the ABC video because of the American reporters who are reporting to an American audience. They're biased because Americans tend to have a preconceived notion that the religion of Islam is violent. For example, the reporter took out contradicting quotes from the Quran and asked, "If Islam is truly a religion of peace... why aren't there that many non-Muslim terrorists?" This question encourages the audience to look at the religion of Islam as violent because of the amount of terrorism that radicals partake in. This effects the viewer's perception of Islam vs. Christianity because Christianity is seen as more peaceful. Especially in
ReplyDeleteAmerica where Islam is commonly associated with violence and the peaceful and holy parts of the Quran are ignored.
b. The readings and audio clips attempt to separate the common thought that Islam and violence go hand-in-hand. They said that there is more violence in the Bible than the Quran and that Americans wrongly assume that Muslims are violent/terrorists. They are consistent with the finding in WHAP because we learned about both military expeditions of Islam as well as the Christian Crusades, which shows violence seen in both religions. We also learned about the tenants of Islam and Christianity and how, today, they both promote peace and the worship of God.
c. The general point of the 4th reading was to test how much about different religion you actually know. Most Americans know very little about other religions including Christianity. Therefore, most people will score low and be forced to confront the fact that they don’t know everything about certain religions and realize that they shouldn’t make judgments based off stereotypes. This is why I agree with the opinion in the editorial. Americans tend to associate terrorism with the religion of Islam and peacefulness with other religions. They ignore the violence written in the Bible and let the actions of a few represent an entire population of people. Americans also, like the editorial said, do not see fault in their own thoughts and actions throughout history, like the 13% of favored “killing all Japanese” in 1944.
d. American attitudes do need to change towards Muslims. It's wrong for Americans to look at a group of radical terrorists and associate them with the religion of Islam when in fact, the terrorist group Isis has killed more Muslims than Christians. Americans should educate themselves about different cultures and religions so they won’t base their opinions on ignorance. They should be more accepting of Muslims because they are simply worshipping their God and following the rules of their religion, just like many Americans do. And lastly, Americans need to disassociate the religion of Islam with terrorism and violence.
I agree with your point that ABC is biased because it is an American network with an American audience. Also, I think another reason that ABC is biased is because of the large percentage of Christians in America that ABC does not want to upset or anger. Thus, ABC's portrayal of Islam was not really true to reality and as clear as it should have been.
DeleteI also agree with your points that Americans tend to make judgements off of stereotypes. Perhaps a way to combat this is through education, and understanding of various other religions, especially Islam. This goes along with your point that Americans should become education and not base their opinions on ignorance. I also like how you pointed out that Americans need to disassociate Islam with terrorism and violence. Even though less than 5% of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world are terrorists, people still assume all Muslims are violence. In fact, violence has no religion.
a)Well one obvious seen in the abc video is that most of the newscasters are American and probably practice some form of Christianity; Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, etc. Also abc is notorious for being more liberal than some of its sister news stations such Fox5 or CNN, so even though they might not agree they still discuss these topics. This no doubt shows through in the tone of some of the comments by the reporters because it is two different cultures and in both people are taught that theirs is the true religion so some reporters will make it seem as if Christianity and Islam are polar oppposites when they really mirror one another.
ReplyDeleteb)Between the readings and audios it seems fairly consistent with what we learned in WHAP, that the Islamist who have a political agenda are the ones who resort to violence while many other practioners are peaceful.
c)The basic idea behind the fourth reading is that the text can be interpreted in many different ways depending on where you get it and how you use it. I agree completely, some passages in the Bible can make Christians look like judgmental, merciless people the same way some parts of the Qu'aran can be twisted to promote violence. One also has to keep in mind when many of these religious passages were wrote for both the Quoran and the Bible people were literally battling in the names of faith and home. They didn't have nuclear warfare and drones, they were warriors who crossed swords with their enemies and it wasn't a pretty result. It was bloody, harsh, and efficient because that's how it was back then and that's what comes through in these religious texts even when they spoke of peace and goodwill. The Quoran just isn't as watered down as the Bible.
d)Yes, Americans do need to change their minds towards because they need to remember they've been surrounded by Muslims their whole lives with no harm to themselves or their families. Not all Muslims come from the Middle East same as not all Christians come out of Italy. Social panics, unfortunately, are common ailments in America like; Homophobia, Ebola, and the stock market crashing again so it might take a while but eventually everyone will get over this tension and won't remember what all the fuss was about. Therefore, there's no point in alienating people, we need to change our attitudes not try and change Muslims.
A.I feel the video was very bias. Bias is seen through out the video they portray Islamic people as violent and untruthful. This type of bias is found in news reports because American is making them seem that way. The bias newscasters always put down the people that don’t look like them. This gives viewers that Islamic people are bad and Christians are good.
ReplyDeleteB.the reading and the audio clips are show a connection of Islam and violence. it shows verses from the Quran that state " fight those who do not believe in God. These articles are connected in my current APWS class by how we have learned in the past how the nation of Islam was violent and that has passed down through out the years.
C.The point about the fourth reading is peacemakers in Islam. I agree with the article that there are men, women, girls, and boys that are trying to promote peace. Islam people are connecting with America to show its not all the Islam people doing bad things.
D.Yes Americans do need to change their attitude towards Muslim people. The way they treat them is horrible by the rude comments they use , the way the one to ban all Muslims from entering American is bad. they way we can solve these problems is to become nicer as people and to stick up for those who cant stick up for themselves.
a) The video did have a lot of bias and the news reporters seem like they are trying to explain the story, but they didn't know the facts. I disagree that the news reporters are trying to put down people that aren't like them because I have seen news that tell the story of different people.
Deleteb) I made the same connection to my WHAP class.
c) I believe the fourth reading was more about how complicated religion is and how two religions can have similar ideas. Islam is not more violent than Christianity and vice versa, though the Bible may be more violent.
d) Yes, I believe this is true. People need to speak up and inform others about the situation and how they are wrongly accusing the Muslims.
Syd Pryor NDSJ
A.) There is definitely some bias in the ABC video, specifically through words like "madmen", and "radicals" when describing Muslims. ABC is bias because what these terrorists are doing is from the perspective of moderate Muslims. ABC influences Christianity through the prospective of Muslims upon their opinion of terrorists.
ReplyDeleteB.) The videos make you think Islam condemns violence which is relevant is what we are learning in AP World History, where we are learning of peace.
C.) The main reasoning behind the article is to educate the public about Islam, along with other religions. Both the Quran and Bible speak of violence, but readers need to analyze as so.
D.) A lot of people in america are truly closet racists, America is built upon the ideals of diversity, instead of persecuting all Muslims for the actions of a few extremists, those ideals of diversity should be celebrated, as they are important to the framework of the american society.
I agree and would like to add on more to your response to C. The reading was also to emphasize the fact that since it's human nature to generalize, most people would get the answers wrong. Furthermore, when people do get the answers wrong on the quiz, it's for the quiz-taker to understand that no matter how much we know about a certain religion, it's not enough to really understand it. Overall, I agree with the quiz/article because it explains that faith is more complicated than we think it is.
DeleteI completely agree with your response to D. We claim to be a country of freedom, justice, diversity, acceptance, and etc, but beneath the surface, America's actions claim otherwise.
a. I thought that the abc video was bias. The video portrayed Muslim people as terrorist. The bias comes from people that don't know facts about how Muslims are and how they believe in there religion. And this gives Muslim people a bad name in the eyes of the American society.
ReplyDeleteb. From the reading and video it states that Islam doesn't condone violence. But when violence happens it is self defense. It is said that Islam do not support killing and terrorism.People think the interpretations of the Quran persuades the attacks that happen. But this is fairly true because of the fact that some Muslim people are violent. These articles are related to what we are currently learning in WHAP class because of the violence that has happen in the past.
c. The point that the fourth reading is making is religion has many different interpretations. Also that religions can confusing and have many beliefs. And Muslims have a different way of doing things. And you can't judge people for what religion you are.
d. Americans do need to change their attitude towards Muslims. You can't blame a person because of the religion they believe in. It isn't right to treat people with disrespect and disgust because of what you hear. You have to treat people the way you would want to. When we treat the Muslims poorly, they do the same to us. Muslims aren't different from any other person.
D. I definitely agree with you. There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and they make up 23% of the world’s population. People are stereotyping and marginalizing this entire population for the .00006625% of them who are Islamic extremists. This is not only unfair but it is very unconstitutional. Islamophobia is a growing issue due to the lack of people educated about the religion. Islam does not promote violence and we as the new rising generation must educate others to stop this discrimination.
DeleteA.I see bias when the reporter shows the questions from the people about Muslims. Also when they showed the quotes form the Quran compared to the Bible. There is bias in this news reporting because everyone always have an opinion on something even if they don’t understand it.
ReplyDeleteB.In the reading and the audio clip Islam and violence has no relationship. It is stated that their against violence. But violence can occur when their country and beliefs. This is consisted with WHAP because we learned how Islam doesn’t encourage violence.
C.The general point behind the 4th article is that Trump is wrong to ban Muslims from America because just because you know what some Muslims did doesn’t mean that every Muslim is like that. Yes, I agree with the author because it’s important to not stereotype people before you know their exact intensions.
D. I think that American attitudes do need to change toward Muslims because all Muslims do is practice their religion and its no need to have an attitude. Not every Muslim is the same, Americans judge them just because of what they witnessed from other Muslims. Americans shouldn’t judge the Muslims when they haven’t seen what they do with their eyes.
A. I completely agree with you. The ABC video shows bias regarding the entire Muslim population. The choice between the word saint and savage is extremely disappointing. Even certain graphic images were unfair. When talking about Christianity, the photos are of peaceful prayer, but when talking about Islam, there are pictures of suicide bombers and terror. The small actions in these videos can leave such a devastating impact on the viewers, something that they don’t know is happening. Like you said, people are commenting about the religion when they don’t even know what exactly they are talking about. A man commented saying that Muhammad wrote the two parts of the Quran. This information is completely wrong because the Quran does not have parts and it was not written by Muhammad, it was written by the hadiths. Instead to educating people regarding the issue, they keep on giving false information.
DeleteA) There is some bias in the ABC news video. The language used to describe Muslims is harsher and differs greatly from the language used to describe Christians. There was bias in this video because it was made by an American, who did their research, but still held their own personal beliefs and opinions about the situation. So of course, describing both parties differently and adding only a few similarities caused there to be a comparison of Muslims and Christians.
ReplyDeleteB)The articles and videos in general say that Islam does not encourage violence unless that is how one perceives it. Like the Bible, the Qur'an has scriptures upholding violence and war in the name of religion. Still the Qur'andisapproves of violence and religious aggression. In fact, the Bible is more violent than the Qur'an. Also Muslims had violence in their holy book because of the time period and conflict at the time it was made. There was violence in the Qur'an because the Muslims were in a war. The violence in the Bible is considered total annihilation.
C)The purpose of the quiz was to show the auidiance that there is violence and conflict in all religions. The author also discusses how people can hold bias and suspicion to people who are different because they fear the unknown. To prove their point, the author used the poll of 1944 that showed that 13% of Americans want to "Kill all Japanese" as an example. I agree with the author's opinion. He makes a valid point that fear controls people's actions and is evident through out historical events such as the Red Scare and The Salem Witch Trials.
D)American's mental outlook on Muslims should change. Americans should be aware of the fact that the Muslim terrorist are harming their own people. So that fact should be enough proof that not all Muslims are terrorist. The United States is supposed to be the land of the free. If more Americans grow to hate Muslims there will be more conflict between Americans and Muslims, and innocent bystanders will get hurt in the process. This can all be resolved when the terrorist groups are defeated and when both Muslims and Christians stop aggravating each other.
A) I feel as though the Abc video had a lot of bias in how they portrayed Muslims and made them seem so violent. It's all based on opinion and how one person made an effect so they aim toward that group of people.
ReplyDeleteB) These readings and videos suggest that Islamic people and Muslims are a violent or or so portrayed as violent people. The Quran seems to be promoting violence in certain parts but it's not how we are to view all Muslims.
C) I completely agree with the author of this article. He states points in which there are flaws in both religion's sacred text, therefore there is really no place to judge one just that. The author put it best when he said "What counts most is not the content of holy books but the content of our hearts."
D) Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So in my opinion I don't think it's needed that people fear Islams or Muslims or any type of religion that is just labeled on their beliefs. Even if they do follow some beliefs you should not be so quick to judge. Americans do not need to have 'islamophobia'. It's not necessary in our type of country considering what our country is suppose to represent.
A. I agree with your response to question A. There is bias especially in the news reporter. He directed that bias against Muslims, especially when interviewing the Muslim woman. Other biases were seen in word choices throughout the video that were said by the others standing up for the Bible and the Quran.
DeleteB. I respectfully disagree with your response to question B. Yes, because of the bias Muslims are seen in a negative light. However, it is only the extremists who are violent. The Quran itself actually promotes peace, and only supports violence if it is purely defensive. It is the mistranslated and misinterpreted versions of the Quran that extremist groups follow that promote violence.
C. I agree with your response to question C. I believe that the author wanted us to realize we shouldn’t judge someone else’s holy book and religion, but instead should judge an individual based on the person they truly are. However, I also believe that the author’s main intention was to show people how little they truly know about other religions, and possibly even the religion they are a part of. I believe instead of pointing out flaws in these holy books, the author was trying to show how similar religions can be and how we as people shouldn’t judge something that we don’t know enough about.
D. I agree with your response to question D. Yes, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, their opinion should not involve punishing groups of people for something they did not they do. They are innocent, and should be treated as any other human being. I also agree that our country should not take an Islamophobic stand as it goes against everything our country represents. We should be helping Muslims and supporting them through this crisis instead of turning them away and persecuting them. They are individual people, and should be treated with the same amount of equality and freedom as anyone else around the world.
D. I do agree that people can be entitled to their own opinions. However, when people begin to act on those opinions that end up wrongly harming others, that’s where I believe a change needs to happen. America does not just have an opinion about Muslims, but there are many cases in which Muslims are being discriminated against by Americans. Furthermore, because negative opinions and claims are being spread about Muslims, it can influences other people, who are not willing to take the time to research, to believe in false statements. I also agree that Muslims should not be fear because terrorism is not connected to religion, and Islam should not be associated with terrorism. Muslims are just like any ordinary person; each is an individual with their own traits and characteristics and should be treated with equal respect and dignity.
DeleteEmily V. NDSJ
a.)The bias in the ABC video is shown when describing Muslims. Whenever the video described Muslims they made it seem like all Muslims were terrorists. I think this bias exists because of the common stereotypes that occur in the states. These common stereotypes all started from the terrorist attacks that happened in the U.S from the past, because these attacks were from Muslims it caused people to assume all Muslims are terrorists. This bias might effect the viewer's perception of Islam vs Christianity by changing a person's view of the Islam religion by viewing it as "corrupt".
ReplyDeleteb.)The video clips and readings are giving a proclamation that the Islam religion doesn't approve of using violence. Whenever people of Islam religion it's not meant to be seen as an act of violence but as an act of self-defense. This agrees with what we have been learning in WHAP since we learn about finding peace within countries.
c.)The general point of the 4th reading is to educate the reader how Islam and Christianity are actually similar in certain ways. Certain ways in which both religions are similar is that they both support promoting peace and both worshiping their Gods. I agree with the article since both religions definitely have a strong opinion on supporting peace.
d.)Americans definitely need to change their opinions towards Muslims. People can't just automatically assume the same thing towards other people of the same religion. Just because negative events dealing with Muslims happened in the past it doesn't give the right for people to always assume that Muslims are all bad. People need to learn that we are no different from each other and we should treat everyone fairly and with the same respect.
A.) The ABC Video showed bias through the word choice, the passages used and the commentary during the interviews. in comparing Christianity and Islam, Christians are portrayed as peaceful whereas Muslims are seen as the violent type because of words like saint and savage. The assumptions of Islam creates a bias in the video, with violent images in the background having to do with Islam and Christianity with people praying in the background. A few inaccurate statements were made in reference to the Qur'an, When mentioning Muhammad, a man said that Muhammad wrote the Qur'an in two parts and one part being more violent then the other. Although Muhammad has a great deal to do with the religion, he didn't write the Qur'an. The assumptions that Islam is more violent then Christianity, are incorrect both holy books contain violent passages and one is no more violent then the other. these assumptions display how people see Islam and think that everyone is a terrorist and their far from it.
ReplyDeleteB.) In the following readings and audio clips, we learn that Islam and violence are linked because of both political and intellectual reasons. When saying political, the NPR audio clip means that those who practice the violent acts are frustrated with the Western world and want to be left alone. Intellectually, there are new interpretations of the Quran that certain people are preaching. These are the interpretations that are violent. The readings and audio clips all say that Islam itself is not a violent religion. The religion doesn’t support suicide or terrorism. In WHAP, we learned that Muslims respected all the other “people of the book” and didn’t fight unless they were provoked, like in the Crusades.
C.) The fourth reading main purpose was of educating the public about how Islam and Christianity and other religions are more similar than people think. They both support peace, and both had periods of violence. I agree with the article, because just like the Qur'an, the Bible has some violent sections. It is all about how those who read such books interpret them.
D.)I believe that Americans need to change their attitude and perception of the Muslim population. In a country where freedom is a part of its identity they become pretty hypocritical because they are judging a religion in which they know nothing about and are making up stereotypes. Muslims would probably have same opinions about us and the Ku Klux Klan during it prime, which was the equivalent of terrorism. This Islamophobia is really just creating mistrust and possible violence. If more people were to read articles such as these and stay informed, things would be a lot better. American needs to open their eyes.
A. There is obvious bias in the clip because of the fact that the newsmen were American and there are major cultural differences between the West and the Middle East. Because of these cultural differences, it is difficult to fully understand each others behaviors or interpretations with their religion; Islam being the predominate religion in one, and Christianity in the other. There is also more subtle bias within the clip that results from cultural differences. The vocabulary used by the Americans ("saint of savage" and "radicals") infer that they have been blinded by stereotypes, which completely alters the view of islam from neutral to bias. This influences the audience to also view islam as violent, forgetting the fact that every religion has their own extremist group.
ReplyDeleteB. The information in the readings are consistent in WHAP in the sense that islam does not condone violence. We learned in class about how islam is a religion of peace, and how extremist muslims give the entire religion a bad reputation. The percentage of extremist muslims in the whole muslim population is extremely small, yet terrorist attacks and hate crimes has altered the perception of islam around the globe.
C. The point behind the reading is to inform how text is interpreted differently based on society. I agree with the author that Islam and Christianity are actually very similar; they both support peace and respecting others, although they both have scriptures written that involve violent acts, such as stoning.
D. It's hypocritical to live in a country that advertises freedom when the actual society within that country judges you greatly depending on your religion. Americans desperately need to educate themselves on religious topics and change their perception of islam because they are creating unrealistic views of muslims based on terrorist attacks from extremists. They need to understand that islam is based off of peace not violence. If we don't learn this, then yes, hate crimes will rise in result to islam.
A) I agree with you that there is major bias in the ABC video because of cultural differences, but also because of the unwillingness to understand others’ ideas. In addition, Americans’ being “blinded by stereotypes” is true, and it hurts efforts to show that Islam is inherently a peaceful religion. I think that it is true that religions have their extremist groups, and people need to be reminded of this fact no matter how much that that dislike it.
DeleteB) Yes, I agree that the information in some readings is consistent with ideas from WHAP, one of them as the idea that Islam is mainly a peaceful religion. Also, I think that another shared idea between the readings and WHAP is that there is a constant tension and comparison between Christians and Muslims throughout history. The Crusades and Spanish Inquisition are some of the few examples of these.
C) I agree that text is interpreted differently based on society, but also that the interpretations are very influenced by how the media also provides information. I also think that the author is trying to talk about how it’s important that people do not stereotype Muslims. That leads to a whole unprecedented fear of a group of people who do not all fit that generalization.
D) I also agree with you that Americans are being hypocritical when they harbor such negative attitudes towards Muslim. Their views are unrealistic, as well as unjustified, because it’s never right to categorize a group of people based off one of their actions. Americans do need to educate themselves on other religions to avoid problems like these.
Margret L. - NDSJ
A. In the ABC Video they pick out random quotes in the Koran and tries to make a conclusion based off of things they found. This bias exists in news reporting because journalists try to prove points within their theories. Based off of that video the people might think Christianity and Islam are similar because they both have texts that have violent parts, but it only has Muslims doing violent acts in videos and Christians praying in them. Some clips have Muslims saying that the people who are hurting people are extremist who arent them.
ReplyDeleteB. I think it was to show America that not all muslims are bad and some are trying to befriend us to show that. I agree with this because I know i would try to get rid of all the stereotypes about me if it put the world against me.
C. I feel America needs to chill out with the attitudes because it isn't all of the Muslims, and innocent people are going to get hurt for no reason, then everyone is going to hate everyone when we're supposed to be making peace throughout the world.
WHS
ReplyDeleteA) I see biased when the reporter is comparing the Quran to the Bible. He's saying even though the Bible has violence in it just like the Quran, the Bible's violence isn't active today while Quran which is not true with all Muslims. There's bias in news reporting to appeal to the audience and gain more viewers. This might affect of Islam vs Christianity because now they might think the that all Muslims are violent and Islam itself is a violent religion.
B)The readings and audio clips in general say the relationship between violence and Islam is based on political reasons. Islamic terror groups take verses from the Quran out of context to fuel their motive of terror. It's a small percentage of Muslims who are actually violent.
C)Many Americans stereotype Muslims as violent people when they actually don't know much about them. The fear cause by many recent terror attacks has caused many to do this. Muslims shouldn't be judged by what the Quran says but by there actions and the majority of Muslims are non-violent.
D)Yes, Americans need to change their attitudes about Muslims. Many feel that all Muslims are terrorists with is not true. Many stereotype Muslims without actually knowing them. If many took the time to understand the true nature and beliefs of Islam, they would realize that the majority of them are peaceful.
2. I agree that Americans need to change their attitudes towards Muslims because it is based on stereotypes that aren’t true or based in fact. They also need to see that Muslims are the same as the rest of us. We all have ambitions and most Muslims don’t agree with terrorism and face the same fears we have about it. We need to stop the we/they between Muslims and the rest of the world.
DeleteGabby D.
NDSJ
ReplyDeletea.In the ABC video, there was bias definitely when the words “savage” and “radicals” were used since the reporter was an American. I believe that this bias exists in this news report because Americans believe that they hold the highest standards. Anything that fall below their standards are perceived as inhumane. The effects this video has on the perception of Islam vs. Christianity is that Christianity seems more peaceful than Islam even though the Bible seems to be more violent than the Quran.
b. The Islamic religion promotes peace. Like any other religion, there is always a group of individuals that have different views towards the religion but still hold on to some key values. In Islam those who have different views towards the religion are the Muslim extremist. It is similar to the similar to how some Christians were still apart of the KKK and committed crimes against African Americans. The readings are consistent with the findings in WHAP because both religions participated in some violent activities such as the Christian Crusade and the Islamic military expeditions.
c. The 4TH article was made in order for people to see how Islam and Christianity are very similar to each other. This opened up American’s eyes to see what Islam consists of and what the Qur’an teaches. This also helped to eliminate the lie that Islam is all about terrorism. In the quiz it could be found that most pf the principles in the Qur’an could be found in the Bible. I agree with the opinion of the author because Americans tend to link Islam with terrorism and violence. It should Americans that we are not as peaceful as we would like to think. The Bible seems to have even more violence than the Qur’an.
d. American attitudes need to change toward Muslims because not all Muslims are violent. If we do not change we are being very discriminating. Discrimination is not what America’s about. We should try to put ourselves in their shoes. We wouldn’t want to be portrayed as violent just because your religion.
1. I agree that Americans need to change their attitudes towards Muslims because it is discrimination which is not only harmful to Muslims, but also our society as a whole. Society can’t function properly if a whole group of people is discriminated against and cannot actively and fully participate in society.
DeleteGabby D.
NDSJ
A. As for bias remarks in the ABC video I notice that the reporters focus more upon certain terrorist groups and their actions and relations to the Qur’an but seldom talk about the mainstream Islamic nation and what they do that is in opposition than these terrorist groups. I feel as though this bias exist in news reporting because of what best fits the title of the report. This report is called “Does the Koran Advocate Violence?” so therefore they are going to draw more conclusions about Islam potentially being violent. This can alter the viewer’s perception in Islam vs. Christianity because it automatically makes Christianity seem the more peaceful and light religion although this report does not show the violence that the bible may have. This report solely focuses on violence in Islam which results in the viewer’s perception to be that Islam is violent.
ReplyDeleteB. The articles and specifically the audio clips gather facts and quotes from the Quran and bible comparing the violence contained within each. Both audio clip and articles claim that the violence in the bible could be just as same as the Qur’an or even worse. With what we were taught in World history the time was not during these modern times that are being reported about today, we were taught more about specific groups that only had one target and one goal which was either religion or power in society.
C. The general point in the fourth reading is mainly about how various religions have the same teachings and that they all may contain some violent sacrificial moments.
D. I feel as if the Americans need to distinguish between the terrorist groups of Muslims and then the Muslims that do no harm and are true to their religion. If we can distinguish those things then I feel like the unity could fight the terrorist. We need to understand that we aren’t the only target or people who suffering because Muslims are suffering just as much or worse because it is right in their backyard. We could even probably take note of their dedication to their religion, race, and unity, to better ourselves.
A. In the abc video I believe there was alot of bias because of all the already bias things that have gone on with Muslim culture. Especially because of all of the terrorist attacks that have been associated with Muslim culture.
DeleteB. The audio articles talk about violence in the Islam culture quite a bit as the quran as there is quite a bit of violence in it. Both the WHAP sections of ore books and the Quran both talk about violence in the Islam culture. It's just a little different because in the Quran it's more open about it, and in the WHAP it's more contained.
C. I believe that the fourth point is showing that the Quran has good parts and it had bad parts. Meaning that some parts show excessive violence among other things while parts are very tame and sometimes peaceful. Also I agree with the editor because I do think her point makes sense.
D. Yes people's opinions of Muslims do have a bad rep because of all the terrorist attacks that have gone on in the region and because of isis rising up on the other side of the country. What people need to understand is that every culture had it's extremist groups such as Christianity with the kkk and other groups. So what Americans need to see is that every group has it's black sheep and that we shouldn't lump every person into a group because they look the same.
a)The ABC video definently had some bias moments because they only focused on certain terrorist groups making it seem like all Muslims are terrorist or violent which isn't always the case. Americans feel as though if things don't mean't the standards of what is considered civilization than the people must be inhumane.
ReplyDeleteb)All the information that I have gathered from these audio clips and readings show the comparison of violence between the two religions The bible and the Quran. Both evidence show that both religions can have a lot of violence within in their beliefs. So I still think it isn't right for Americans to judge Muslims.
c)The main point in the reading is how a lot of religions have somewhat the same beliefs and some of them even contain alittle violence within their religion.
d)I feel as though that people shouldn't have a problem with all Muslims because not all of them are terrorist. We can't judge someone because of something that people are doing within their race because they aren't all bad people. Americans need to stop with this bias thing they have towards all Muslim's because it isn't benefiting anyone at the end of the day either.
a) I agree that the ABC video had some bias in it, but I do not think that the assumption that all Americans believe that people who don't live "civilized" are inhumane.
Deleteb) Both religions do have violence in their scriptures. Actually The Bible has 2 times more violence, but Christians are going through a "holy amnesia" from the violence, as it says in the video. This gives Christians less of a reason to judge the Muslims for their violence.
c) Yes, the reading's main point was that the Qu'ran and the Bible say similar ideas, but it is more specifically how religion is a complicated and semi-confusing subject. The Old Testament, for example, talks about war and genocide for God, whereas the New Testament talks about Jesus wanting us to love thee neighbor. Are Christians suppose to go by the Old Testament, New Testament, or a combination of both? The point of the article is that religion is complex and doesn't have one right answer.
d) I agree with you that all Muslims should not be grouped together under the label of terrorism and that Americans, and others around the world, should stop grouping them.
A. I believe that the ABC video was showing bias subtly in order to persuade the audience to think a certain way. The bias was especially prominent when the man asked a question about Prophet Muhammad; he said that Prophet Muhammad wrote the Quran in two parts. That is incorrect, Prophet Muhammad did not write the Quran nor was it written in two parts. However, the news reporter did nothing to deny the false information. Although both sides of the conflict were address by saying that the bible too says harsh things, there was more negative energy towards the Muslims because of the terrorist video that were constantly being displayed and also when Roya Zaneti was being interviewed, the interviewer seemed astonished when he saw her get upset that she was associated with 9/11. It’s so unfortunate that we live in a world where one person’s action causes society to blame the whole religious community. Bias exists in news reporting because it is meant to influence the way people should think. Everything that we see on tv has been altered so that the audience sees only what news reporting companies want them to see. People may view Islam as barbaric and cruel because of the types of videos that were shown however that is not true, not everyone thinks the same way.
ReplyDeleteB. Islam and violence are not closely related. In fact, it is a religion of peace. People often blame the whole community for actions that small groups were responsible for. Islam should not be associated with violence because every religion has extremists that interpret the words of the bible or Quran too literally. The audio clips suggest that violent actions were not just caused by Muslims but also Christians, so why should Islam have to suffer?
C. The point of the 4th article is to open the audiences’ eyes to show its instinct to attack a different culture other than your in order to feel protected. Also to show that all religions are vastly different because each religion has a different perspective however, the quiz opens the audiences’ eyes to show that many religions area actually very similar. No one knows everything about every religion, it’s impossible, so why should we judge other religions from the little information that we know? I agree with the author because this is a time where Muslims need help so we shouldn’t just shut them out.
D. Of course the negative attitudes towards Muslims need to change! Muslims are human beings too. It doesn’t make sense to treat a Muslim differently because of their religion and beliefs. Americans should be more open minded and realize that of course there are some bad people in the world, but majority of the people are good and genuine. For example, if a student were to be misbehaving in class, it would be unreasonable to punish the whole class. Same goes with all stereotypes and generalizations. Everyone is not the same therefore there shouldn’t be any mistreatment towards others because of who they are or what they believe in.
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DeleteA. I completely agree with your answer to question A. The news reporter was definitely biased, especially when he was interviewing the Muslim woman since he looked so astonished by her reply. The woman herself noticed the bias and called him out on it, but the news reporter continues to ignore this. I believe part of this is due to the fact that he is an American and thinks that he is above other people. As Americans, some people do believe they are above others in different countries. Unfortunately, this causes bias in those people, and results in something similar to “reverse racism”.
DeleteB. I also agree with your answer to question B. Muslims should not be punished for something they didn’t do because of their extremists groups who still associate themselves with Islam despite not following the actual Quran but instead a mistranslated version of it. I also agree that every group of people, religion or not, will have some form of extremists. Your statement “The audio clips suggest that violent actions were not caused by Muslim but also Christians, so why should Islam have to suffer” also relates back to the answer to question A. Because of the bias in this news video as well as bias from around the world, Muslims are the center of the spotlight when it comes to extremist groups whereas the world never hears about Christian extremists or extremists of any other religion.
C. Once again, I also agree with your answer to question C. It does open the audience’s eyes to what little they truly know about religion. However, I also think that part of the author’s intention was to show how people have a tendency to judge people based on stereotypes. Our society is built on stereotypes, and the author shows how ill informed people truly are and how wrong they are for committing certain acts based on that propaganda
D. I completely agree with your answer to question D! We as a global community should not be committing hate crimes towards Muslims just because of the “crimes” they allegedly committed. They are not responsible for it, the extremists are. They are human beings. Why do we treat them like they are garbage? We should be supporting them instead of hating on them. I think in order to change this, we will need to stop having so much of a “we/they” conception of this situation as it just shows how much America puts “the safety of its own country” before the lives of others.
D) I completely agree with your points. It is unfair that so many are being blamed for the actions of a few people. Furthermore, many of the people who doing the blaming have forgotten similar acts of minorities within their own religions. For example, many Christians are quick to associate any Muslim with ISIS, but distance themselves and from the KKK. Like you mentioned, American viewpoints of Muslims need to change quickly, so that innocent people can stop being harassed or bullied based on their religion. In respecting people regardless of their opinion, we can live up to the ideals our country promotes.
DeleteNina Lehr, NDSJ
A.) I see bias in the ABC video where the reporters talk about how Muslims are seen as hostile and dangerous. I feel that they only see them as dangerous.Their is bias in the video because you don't normally hear about Muslims doing good and in the past 20 years you have seen mainly on the news on how they have attacked innocent people and committed ruthless crimes which may make a label as dangerous. This video might effect how viewers think how bad Islam really is in their eyes.
ReplyDeleteB.) The following videos suggest that the Qur'an may only teach recklessness and danger to Muslims. They make it seem as if Islam is all about going with their religious beliefs even if it means killing those who are non believers. They are consistent with the findings in WHAP as we have learned that Islam does not support committing suicide.
C.) The general point in the 4th reading was to compare Islam and Christianity. As you read on about how Christianity is actually closely related to Islam you can now see that Islam is not the only religions that is under these teachings. The reason Islam is under more scrutiny is because of world news covering them more in account to wars and bombings that have happened. I do agree with the author because people are generalizing Islam as reckless and muderous believers when it is only a select few who go to the extent of killings that happen.
D.) I feel that Americans do need to change their attitude towards Muslims because in the ABC video the reporter even talked about how their are books which per curve Islam as being this horrible religion or having bad beliefs when in fact it is not the religion it's self but those who follow it. The best way to change how Americans feel towards Muslims is to actually do more research on the religion than to deem it not suitable and dangerous.
A) I completely agree that the ABC video is biased when the reporters talk about how Muslims are seen as “hostile and dangerous”. I think you bring up a good point that the American media harps on what the radical and extreme Muslims have been doing and don’t focus on what good Muslims have done. In fact, Muslims have contributed a great deal as we have learned in WHAP, and what’s unfortunate is that many Americans don’t know anything about their achievements.
DeleteB) I think that you’re right by saying that the first video does try to show a little that Islam promotes violence because it is biased, but most of the other readings attempt to prove that Islam is a peaceful religion as well. The articles show that the relationship between Islam and violence is mainly one of non-convergence because many Qur’an scholars agree that the text allows violence to be used in self-defense. Yes, they are consistent with WHAP studies as we can see by Muslims’ religious tolerance of Jews and Christians in Jerusalem, and religious minorities in Cordoba, Spain, of the Umayyad Caliphate there.
C) I also think that the author is comparing Christianity and Islam in the editorial. I think that author wants to point out that although people believe that Islam is a violent religion due to events occurring today, Christianity has had, and still has, its fair share of extremist acts (ie. KKK’s murders). In addition, I agree with you and the author of the editorial because it is true that many Americans stereotype Muslims as extremists or terrorists, which is incorrect.
D) I agree with your two statements of many Americans’ needs to be educated on Islam and that the people who interpret the Qur’an in a corrupt manner are to blame, not all Muslims. American attitudes need to change for those two ideas above, and only when they are altered, will it be easier to quash the irrational assumptions about Muslims. The Americans who think that all Muslims are terrorists also need to recognize their hypocrisy in regards to believing in the American ideal of equality but still treating others, in this case, Muslims poorly.
d. I agree with you completely in that Americans need to learn more about the Islamic religion. Currently, many people do not have a full perspective on what Islam is actually about. However, I feel like saying that the problem is coming from the people who follow Islam rather than the actual religion itself makes the amount of terrorism seem like more of a frequent occurrence than it actually is. While yes, some terrorists claim to be Muslim, are they really following Islam? Or, are they manipulating the words of the Quran for their own motives?
DeleteD) I completely agree that Americans need to change their attitudes towards Muslims. Like you said, research is very important in tackling islamophobia. Many people who either fear Muslims or dislike them feel the way they do as a result of a lack of education regarding Islam. By educating the public about Islam and what it truly stands for, American attitudes can change. In addition, by correcting those who say/believe in harmful stereotypes, necessary change can be made in changing views towards Muslims.
DeleteNina Lehr, NDSJ
A. Many Muslims that think Muslims are saints are being interview giving their opinion about Islam and Christianity, They are stating how their culture and religion is with strong key points. Also trying to justify who are the real saint and who are the savage. They 2 clips may change the way people feel about their own religion and second guess Islam and Christianity. The news reporting makes it more bias, because the people being interviewed are using versus from the Qur’an. Defending their religion and exposing other religions to state they are not innocent either. However bias happens everywhere not just the news though.
ReplyDeleteB. The following reading and clips are saying the only reason Islam is doing this is because they are following certain versus from the Qur’an in order for the terrorism to be right. However they are not consistent, because one document gives bias answers. Most of them are not the same answers compared to the other readings .Then try to give a reasonable excuses why they cause the violence towards innocent people.
C. The general point behind the 4th reading is to see other people’s religion and that they’re not so perfect either by using different versus. No I do not agree because the author uses certain versus to second guess Islam and your own religion.
D. No, America does not need to change their attitude, because terrorist are attacking innocent lives because they do not believe in their god or think they deserve to be punish. Hence ever since holy war with Muslims, 9/11, and terrorist attacks .Many Americans don’t feel safe or trust them and I don’t blame them .In contrast not all Muslims are the same. So the day Muslims stop the terrorist attack then America can change their views about Muslims
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DeleteLaNiya, In response to your answer D, I respectfully but completely disagree. I believe that America does need to change their attitudes towards Muslims. Islam is not terrorism. Terrorism has no religion and Muslims are not attacking America. Did you know that 99.997% of Muslims are NOT terrorists and do NOT support terrorism? Thus, I think it's safe to say that Muslims are not attacking America. Did you know that these so-called "Muslims" have attacked more Muslims than Christians? It's completely wrong to think that Muslims are terrorists. It's unfair to lump them all together as you are doing here. I know you said not all Muslims are the same but your actions disagree with your words. You say America does not need to change their attitude but is it fair to blame Muslims for the acts of people who completely pervert and twist the faith for themselves? I think not. Do you know how many Muslims are attacked because of their religion? Do you know how many people have bricks thrown at them, are beaten, or even killed? People throw bricks into school, vandalize homes and businesses. PEACEFUL women and children wearing hijabs are mocked, looked at, harassed, and more. This is wrong, and I'm sorry but if you are justifying their actions because 0.0006% of "Muslims" are terrorists, I must disagree. You say many Americans don't feel safe or trust Muslims but do you know how many Muslims feel unsafe because of their religion? How many Muslims are too scared to even walk out of their homes after terrorist attacks? Muslims are JUST as scared as Americans are if not more. There are "Christian" terrorists out there who also pervert holy texts but you don't see Muslims discriminating against them. You don't see white people harassed for the KKK or the Crusades or the radicals that go and shoot people in abortion clinics. I'm sorry but I just cannot fathom how you can tolerate the amount of violence and discrimination that many Muslims have to face on a daily basis. Violence and discrimination should never be tolerated and can never be justified in any way. Hate crimes are in no way okay. You "don't blame" the Americans that act violently towards Muslims? You're justifying the fear that roots from ignorance and miseducation. Maybe if some Americans became educated about "Islamic" terrorists, they wouldn't be afraid. Perhaps if they looked at real statistics, they would see that the majority of Muslims are not terrorists. The majority do not support it or violence. Therefore, why are we attacking them? I'm sorry but I just cannot fathom the idea of tolerating stereotypes, religious persecution and discrimination. Honestly, its ignorant to think that all Muslims are terrorists and to blame all Muslims. Yes, there are many organizations that "claim" to follow the Islamic faith but they follow an extremely twisted version. They pervert the faith for themselves. There's just so much misinformation going around which is why I think that you should not tolerate this kind of discrimination. Did you know that jihad, while it is holy war, is actually more about bettering ONESELF and a commitment to SERVICE and HELPING people? Maybe if some Americans educated themselves on the topic and did some research with real hard facts that were unbiased, they would see this. All in all, I do not mean to disrespect you in any way at all but would just like to express my own different opinions. There's just so much ignorance in the news, I mean even in the clip it said that the Quran is divided into two parts which is wrong. Its obvious that many American news stations that are reputable, or seem to be most of the time, are wrong about Islam a lot of the time. This is just spreading the ignorance even more. Muslims are innocent and at least in my opinion, they are the ones who should not be blamed.
DeleteLaNiya,
DeleteI must completely yet respectfully disagree with your response to question D in every respect. Though it is true that Islamic radical groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram are very real threats, we as Americans have very little to fear in terms of being killed or harmed by a Muslim. In the last decade, 280,024 Americans have been killed by guns. Meanwhile, in this same decade, 24 Americans were killed by Islamic terrorism. Additionally, in 2013, you would have been more likely to be killed by a toddler than by a violent Islamic radical-- 5 people died after toddlers accidentally shot them, and 3 died in the Boston Marathon bombing. How are we to justify being afraid of a population of 1.6 BILLION people simply based on the actions of a small, small handful of radicals who many say should not even be considered Muslims? The vast majority of people being targeted by these violent radical groups are Muslims themselves-- how can we think that we have it bad when thousands of Muslim men, women, and children are being slaughtered by radical groups every day? We kill more Muslims than they do us when we send troops into places like Iraq to fight bloody, pointless wars and indirectly, we assist in the murder of thousands of Syrian refugees when we slam our doors in their faces. Also, is there not a threat of non-Muslim terrorism in our country as well? Frankly, it would be stupid to think that Muslims are the ones committing the most terrorist attacks; in fact, 94% of American terrorism is NON-Islamic. This utter lack of education in regards to Islamic values as well as terrorism in the United States can be linked to the bias present in the media as well as misinformation floating off of the tongues of so many individuals around the world which, in a sense, can be compared to a game of telephone or middle school gossip. Again, I express these opinions and facts in no disrespect to you, but rather in hopes to educate those who are mislead in thinking that Americans have the right to be afraid of Muslims, human beings with morals and consciences just like you and me, who, for the most part, have been disgusted with and afraid of terrorism themselves. In this fight against radical Islamic terrorists and violent extremism, Muslim citizens are our strongest allies-- we should be standing with, not against them.
Maha K.
NDSJ
Laniya,
DeleteUnfortunately I must (respectfully) disagree to several points that you brought up in D. America, Americans, and people all over the world need to change their attitudes towards Muslims. Muslims do not deserve to blamed and persecuted for the violent acts of "Islamic" or "Muslim" radicals/terrorists who frankly are not Muslims. Muslims are people who believe in Islamic and Quranic values. Terrorists are people who distort and believe in distorted Islamic "values". There is a clear difference between Muslims and terrorists because Muslims believe in peace and religious tolerance while terrorists support violence. Again, Muslims are not terrorists and Islam does not spread violent and radical ideas. Therefore, the fear that America, Americans, and countries all over the world have towards Muslims, people who are simply trying to practice their faith peacefully, is extremely irrational and uncalled for. Terrorists are attacking several more innocent Muslims than Americans. Everyday innocent Muslims are at risk of falling prey to a terrorism attack in several Middle Eastern countries. Furthermore, Americans are more likely to killed by American shootings than "Islamic" terrorist attacks on any given day. Americans are more likely to be killed by Americans than terrorists. That fact, in and of itself, completely shatters any "fear" that Americans might have towards an innocent women in a hijab or an innocent man sporting a beard. I don't quite understand why you share these beliefs while hard and solid facts are able to refute almost every single one of them. Pure ignorance and misinformation fosters and permeates these irrational beliefs and fears. It doesn't take that long to educate oneself about core Islamic values. Five minutes of research can show even the most radical Islamaphobe that Islam is not a religion of violence and brutality. So yes, America does need to change because Muslims are not violent, Muslims are not the enemy, and Muslims are not terrorists.
Nikhila Kalapatapu
NDSJ
Laniya,
DeleteBelow I have attached a link of an infographic that I have created about Islamic stereotypes and Islamophobia. Again, I meant absolutely no disrespect in my comment to your post. Happy reading!
https://magic.piktochart.com/output/10288865-islam-advocacy-project_nikhila-kalapatapu
Nikhila Kalapatapu
NDSJ
A.) In the ABC Video, there were definitely biases, as in any news report, because the purpose was ultimately to persuade the viewers to believe and accept the side that the reporters argued. The video was subtle with the biases by the condescending word choice and the allegations imposed. There will always be a preconceived bias that null and void any argument against the acts of terrorism done by those of the same ethnicity of Muslims because of their acts of violence. There was a clear depiction of the viewpoint of the reporters when the images showed Christians to be peaceful and "saints" while every video shown was of Muslims being violent. Using words such as as "savages" or "radicals" while referring to Muslims in general clearly expressed the views of the West and villianized Muslims through out the video. The interview that was held with the Egyptian woman was the epitome of both sides summed up. The reporter, or the viewpoints of Christians and those in American versus the Egyptian woman who gets categorized with those who acted of pure terrorism, justifying their actions with the Qur'an or secondary texts such as Fatwas. The reporter's reaction showed his surprise of the woman's audacity to make such a bold statement like "who do you think you are" while in reality, this is the view point of many countries and the superiority of America is imposed to all which makes those who America involves itself in fed up.
ReplyDeleteB.) The following readings and audio clips show a lot of confusion, but the over all message relays that Islam and violence go hand and hand because Islam is currently associated with terrorism unlike Christianity. The findings in WHAP show that Muhammed was tolerant, gave women rights, and had many hats on because of the things he had to face at the time period which is why he had to adapt a militant attitude. Findings in WHAP also clearly show Muhammed to be an advocate for peace, but as repeated time and time again through both the reading and audio clips, the interpretation of the text and the requirements of the religion from those who followed the religion.
C.) The fourth readings general idea was to show how Islam and Christianity were similar. This information serves a purpose of educating to eliminate the ignorant allegations of Islam being a religion of pure terrorism. I agree with the opinion in the article because I believe that Americans should be the last to point fingers and to condemn those who act righteously because their religion backed them up on their violent acts. Christianity was shown to be violent as well and the acts of the KKK show that the violent acts being supported by a religious book, such as the Bible in this case, is not an ancient matter that can be overlooked. Every religion has radicals, but the difference comes into play when those acts are directly against America. America has a sense of superiority and fully neglects the previous actions done to make Christianity as popular as it is.
DeleteD.) Americans should alter their attitudes towards Muslims, but being afraid, angry and ignorant is a natural response to violent acts. Americans are discriminatory to anything new, as shown currently and in history, so the attitudes of Americans most likely will not change. Attitudes of both sides, Muslims as well as Americans, need to change to subdue the tensions and the fear. Americans can, should and will always be hypocrites when it comes to fearing people for violent acts because violent acts and acts of stupidity happen everyday from Americans to Americans. Being aware and cautious of radicals and being a bigot are two complete different things. "Islamophobia" can be understandable if you are traumatized by the acts and don't want any risks is one thing, but hate crimes are totally unreasonable because they're most likely performed on the innocent. Anybody can be a terrorist because terrorist is characterized as the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims. Muslims shouldn't have that title because of their ethnicity nor the acts of some that prefer to be radical. Ultimately, there should be some transformation of the attitudes towards them.
Many people fail to see that most common religions have violent aspects to them that are no longer relevant today. The animosity towards Islam is most likely because of a lack of education about the topic, and the existence of common stereotypes that are not accurate about Islam as a whole.
DeleteI agree with a lot of what you say Jasmine. I totally think the bias in the ABC video was uncalled for and that the Quran facts should have been checked. I think Americans need to change their attitudes, but to do Muslims. I agree that through my WHAP studies, I haven't read anything about Muslims being violent in nature.
DeleteI do, however, tend to disagree with you on a few accords. I don't think the articles were necessarily linking Islam with violence. I think they were more so sheltering the peaceful qualities with the more violent ones to create a stronger story for their audience. I definitely think the two readings were relatively positive, the 4th calling for a cease fire from both sides. I don't think that Americans need to be hypocrites and I don't think that we are constantly discriminatory. Where I have grown up, I have been accustomed to a very diverse population of people and I have had the privilege to mingle among many a culture. I absolutely love it. A lot of the historical Islamic Caliphates were also centers of cultural mingling and except for the occasional strife over boarders they were a very accepting group. Yes, the crusades were a strong turning point and are probably one reason that Christianity and Islam are the two religions constantly pitted against one another, but I like to believe we can change. Here at ND we have created an accepting community and I think if we can educate more people with acceptance at the core of their studies, opinions can change.
Only 15 years since 9/11, many Americans are still sad, in shock, or blaming the Muslims, but for us 15 years has been our whole lives! As our generation grows up, I hope that we can be accepting and stop all of the religious blaming ever present in the world of today.
Audrey NDSJ
A.There is bias through out the entire video from the words that are used to the clips that are showed. They all show the Islamic radicals aspect of it. The anchor puts Islam and terrorism within the same group and doesn't try to make a clear distinction between the two. He also doesn't talk to Muslims but to scholars of the religion. Bias within news reporting is used like propaganda its to promote one sides views on a subject and to get more followers to support it and this video is no different. This will only heighten tension. The video does clear up some misconceptions about Islam but focus more on radical Islamic terrorism
ReplyDeleteB.The readings and audio clips try to stress that Islam isn't directly connected to violence. Both readings and clips bring up the point that Muslims don't engage in violent acts without just cause. In WHAP we read a document that had text from the Quran saying that Muslims cannot engage in war.
C.The fourth reading was to see if people were aware of the Islamic religion and if they knew enough about it. Yes, the author is trying to show that everything isn't as it seems and that there is violence within other faiths as well.
D.Americans should change their minds about Muslim. Americans have negative view on Muslims and Islam because of the terrorist attacks. The majority of the Islamic faith doesn't support the radical Islamic views they are completely against their views.
A. Yes, there is an extreme bias against Muslims in the ABC video. Instead of showing the more peaceful Muslims who take the Quran into context, the video only showed the violent acts of terrorist groups. I completely agree that they did not put enough effort to differentiate terrorism and Islam, which makes viewers actually believe that Islam does promote a violent lifestyle. When the interviewer talks to Roya Zaneti, someone from the Middle East, she shows her point of view of how not all Muslims are violent. However, the interviewer was just shocked that she did not believe that Islam and violence were related to each other instead of promoting her belief of separating the two.
DeleteB. I agree that the NPR audio clip and the Kristof reading stress that Islam is not directly connected to the violence. However, I believe that the ABC video really does try to connect violence and Islam, especially with the horrible images they use, even when talking about a positive aspect of Islam. The NPR audio clip and the Kristof reading do show how Muslims only use violence as an act of self-defense or because they were provoked by US intervention (perfect storm).
C. I agree that the author is trying to show how Christianity is violent as well by pulling violent verses from the Bible. I think the overall message Kristof is trying to show is how we naturally like to otherize people and make ourselves seem superior. Although both religions have violent texts, we like to make Islam seem like the more negative, heinous religion and Christianity more innocent. We try to differentiate between these two groups so we do not seem “violent” as well.
D. I completely agree that Americans should change their minds about Islam. Our media mainly shows the negative acts of terrorists, a small, almost nonexistent minority of Muslims, and tries to blend that with the whole religion. Over 90% of the Islamic faith does not support the radical Islamic acts, yet media tries to show that all of them are violent and dangerous. We see other radical groups of many other religions yet we tend not to focus on them or associate them with violence.
Meghan Chung NDSJ
Your answer to question D I agree with it. Us Americans do need to change our views of the Muslims society because we cant blame everybody, of what few have done. Vincent my only thing to you is what are some ways us Americans can change our views on Muslims.
DeleteA.
DeleteYou bring up an interesting point that their are not many Muslims in the video and mainly scholars. I think that this has also affected viewers because they are not able to connect with Muslims. They are also not able to hear their opinions on terrorism or their interpretation of scripture. I also think that what you said about how the anchor promotes Christians is having a negative affect on viewers because it continues to assist them in closing their minds to Islam. This can cause even more bias, and very little understanding of Islam comes out of the video when this happens.
B.
I agree with you how the reporters and writers do stress that Islam is not a violent religion, and that in WHAP we have seen this through the various readings about their values, the five pillars of faith.
C.
I also think that the test was to show people that they don't often scrutinize their religion like they scrutinize the religions of others. I was to give someone a different perspective, and to take a step back. It was for people to realize that maybe their values aren't so different from the values of people of other faith traditions.
D.
I agree with you on how Americans should change their views when is comes to Islam and Muslims. We often only see the negative things that are happening because of Muslim extremists, and we often don't see the realities of what most Muslims believe. In one of the articles it said that the vast majority of Muslims do not agree with extremists and we need to realize that and be more accepting of people of different faiths.
A. ) I believe the bias in the ABC video is that is American and he only knows information as someone who on the the outside looking in. He uses false information like how he said that the Quran was written by Muhammad and that it was written in two parts the "peaceful part" and the "violent part". It is impossible for a news reporter to actually use false information to get their point across about the violent nature of a religion.
ReplyDeleteB. ) The readings and video clips conveys to their readers/viewers that violence prevalent in both religions, Islam and Christianity. There no reason for you to blame one religion without blaming the other for exact same reason. In AP World History,we are taught the beginnings of these religions and the time period in which their sacred text was written.
C. ) The general point of the fourth reading was to show the readers the similarities of Islam and Christianity and to point out the different ways the same text can interpreted. It makes no sense for Islam to have most of the same values and downfalls as Christianity but more often then not Islam will be bshed for those same downfalls. Anything good that comes from Muslim people is swept under the rug and everything bad is magnified.
D. ) The attitude do need to change their attitude because an entire group of people are being judged because of what small percentage of their people did. There are over 1 billion Muslims in the world and they're being judged because it was only a couple of them did. The shootings in Southern California and the bombings in Paris were terrible tragedies but it does not give anyone the right to terrorize people Weren't they had no way of stopping something they knew nothing about. It's impossible to change the mindset of people over night but it can start with Americans knowing more about Islam and its traditions.
I definitely agree with you about the bias in the video. I think that many Americans have a bias against Muslims because they don't have a real source of information that is correct. It is evident in the video that his source of information about Islam leads to his bias and possible misunderstanding.
DeleteA. I agree with you that there was bias in the ABC video. As for using false information to declare Islam violent, it could be that the reporter himself did not know. Bias and discrimination often happens due to a lack of information. People in the West are brought up to think that all Muslims are bad because of the actions of a few. But this is only looking at the tip of the iceberg. Beneath those few extremists are millions of innocent Muslims who did nothing wrong, but are still being persecuted and discriminated. I would also like to point out that the visuals they used during the video were also used to portray Islam as a violent religion because almost all of the clips were of violent scenes.
DeleteB. I agree that the readings and clips tell the readers and viewers that there is violence in all religions. But it also says that there is good and peace. I do not necessarily think that it says to blame both religions instead of one, but that it says extremists are born out of interpretations of these texts. There is no clear-cut way to read these sacred texts, and every person naturally has their own way of thinking about the religion. Whether they view it as a peaceful or violent religion is up to the reader.
C. I agree that the good and bad that comes from Islam and its people is weighed unfairly, but I disagree with comparing Islam and Christianity to be the main focus of the article. I think it was broader, saying that all religions have their ups and downs, and that context is needed to accurately determine what certain passages meant in certain time periods. I also think the article is telling us that we cannot judge something without fully understanding it. To fully understand it, we have to look past the surface that the media gives us and look at Islam with an impartial view.
D. I fully agree that attitudes towards Muslims need to change. Once again, as humans we need to look under the surface of Islam and realized that the people who committed the violent acts were a very small representation of the whole population of Muslims. This whole group of people is being discriminated for the actions of a few. I also agree that knowledge will help dispel some of the uncertainty and misconceptions about Islam.
- Anya M. NDSJ
A. There is underlying bias in the abc videos. Use of words like "savage" and "civilized" makes Islam seem like a barbaric religion. These are also American news reporters who probably also have a formed opinion of Islam. Listening to the words of the news reporter rather than the interviewee could sway the opinions of the viewers.
ReplyDeleteB.The readings and audio clips are basically saying that it's about interpretation. Both the Quran and the Bible have violence incorporated in them. We are taught that Islam is a religion of peace. There are many Muslims who interpret the Quran in the ways of the past and those are the Muslims who give islam a bad name
c.The point of thhe fourth reading is that There is no perfect religion. It is wrong to judge a religion that you do not know much about. Not everyone believes the same thing and it is important to respect that. I agree with this because for all we know, other people could be judging us for the way we do or do not worship.
D. Yes I think Americans do need to change their attitudes. Most people hate Muslims because of 9/11 or because social media and the news tells them to. People do not to their own research and what's more, people are too afraid to ask.
Tapiwa Kaunda Westlake High School
A. I completely agree with you that their use of words such as 'savage' implied that Islam is a barbaric religion. Many word choices in the ABC clip are bound to cause such controversy because of how these terms were applied to Muslims.
DeleteC. I agree that we shouldn't judge a religion that we may or may not know much about. There are always certain things about a religion that we don't know, regardless of whether we practice it or not. We also should not judge other religions because they're different. Clearly, many things under categories such as religion and race are extremely different and people should be able to accept that instead of boasting about their religion and bringing down another.
D. It's definitely agreeable that Islamophobia exists because of events such as 9/11 and the Paris attacks. Many actually are unaware that all Muslims are not terrorists. In my opinion, it's wrong to assign terrorism to one religion when it's not even associated with terrorism.
~Shikha N. NDSJ
A. I agree with you on the fact that there is bias in the words spoken, and that is there because the reporters have a preconceived notion of Islam. I also think that the video clips and photos included in the news report could also cause people to think Islam is bad, as they are all violent clips with one exception. I think that the reporters, and many Americans may be biased against Islam because of their lack of knowledge about the religion. They might think that all Muslims are violent because they do not know about the religion and that only a very small percentage are extremists. It all comes down to a lack of information.
DeleteB. I also agree that the article is about interpretation. Both books have both peace and violence in them, and it is up to reader to determine if they will view it as violent or peaceful. Extremists of any level take this up to a higher level, and tend to interpret the passages violently. But it all depends on how someone weighs the good versus the violent in the religion.
C. I do also think that the fourth reading was about not judging a religion we know nothing about. Often times, we only see the tip of the iceberg when it comes to foreign views or ideas. We do not realize that we have to see under the surface of something to completely understand that. Too often, we only look at the surface before we judge something. I think the article also says that we view differing ideas as wrong to distance ourselves from challenging our own beliefs.
D. It is definitely a fact that hate towards Muslims is around because of the actions of a few. Because of those few, a lot more innocent people are being persecuted and discriminated. It is not fair to call a whole religion violent when only a small portion of the practicers are.
- Anya M. NDSJ
A: I agree that the interviewers seem to have already determined their opinions about Islam. They do not seem to be willing to change them anytime soon. They are seemingly unwilling to consider that what they are saying is based on media perception, rather than fact.
DeleteB: The Bible is, if you are talking about quantity, much more violent then the Quran. One of the articles we read talks about how those who quote it to back up extreme violence are often either taking it out of context, misquoting, or quoting another text all together. This gives Islam as a whole a reputation of being extreme. It is important to acknowledge the fact that not everyone is represented by that group.
C: Judging a religion based on long-held assumptions does not do anybody any good. We need to remember to keep an open mind and to be able to accept that we are not always in the right. Most religions that have been around for awhile have ideas in their manuscripts that are not applicable today and we need to learn to put ideas into context.
D: Americans definitely need to stop only knowing about the Muslim community from what the media tells them. Many people, like the in the ABC clip, already have their assumptions and are not ready to challenge their own ways of thinking. We need to develop a space to educate people on how we can improve upon our ingrained prejudices.
Sydney S.
NDSJ
A.
DeleteI agree with you on his choice of words because I think that the listeners could possibly continue to associate those derogatory words with Muslims, and this can change the way that they perceive Muslims. I think that it was really interesting that you mentioned that reporters' own opinions on a certain topic can often bleed into what they are saying and mix with facts. I had not thought about that, and it has given me something to think about. I also agree with you when you said that people would listen to his opinion more than what information he is trying to give, and this defeats the purpose of the video.
B.
I agree with what you have said about interpretation because many Christians and Jews could interpret the bible quite literally and it could lead to similar problems with extremists. Islam is a peaceful religion, but some people just aren't sure how to interpret it and that leads to problems in certain areas.
C.
I think it is interesting that you say there is no perfect religion, because that is the perfect way of saying it. If you look back into Christian history there was the crusades and that was justified by crusaders saying that it was God's will. It is extremely similar to what terrorists are saying right now. If we look at these comparisons side by side we can see that they are very similar and its just that terrorism is happening right now and not hundreds of years ago. Christianity has made mistakes in the passed and we should not overlook them and blame all Muslims for what is happening right now.
D.
I agree with you because due to the occurrence of 9/11 lots of Americans are hesitant towards Muslims, but as the videos have proved Islam is generally a peaceful religion, and we as Americans need to begin to understand Islam and Muslim faith.
Jasmine C. NDSJ.
A) I agree with you in that the usage of the phrase "saint or savage" is an example of bias. The program's failure to recognize the Klu Klux Klan and other examples of Christian terrorism reinforce the fact that ABC was catering to a largely Christian audience. Furthermore, the reporter's interactions with the Egyptian woman were another example. He was clearly trying to provoke her and to say inflammatory things.
DeleteNina Lehr, NDSJ
A. The bias in the ABC video is shown very vividly through there use of diction ,and in the manner in which they speak in the interview. For example the reporter stated “the interpretations separate a saint from a savage”. In doing this he showed an already noted prejudice. Also these actions might affect the viewer’s perception of Islam vs. Christianity by introducing the notion that the religions share no positive similarities and that Christianity is less violent or better than Islam.
ReplyDeleteB. The Nicholas Kristof and NPR readings and audio clips show views that islam and violence share no relation. Nicholas Kristof states that in his opinion violence comes from the passions of our hearts instead of the sacred text of Islam. While in contrast NPR's audio clip states that the violence of Islam is caused by a perfect storm containing both political and intellectual aspects. In a political aspect the people of Islam are angered by the never ending interference by the U.S in their countries. While also showing how intellectually, some Wahhabi Islam are uneducatedly interpreting the Qur’an literally, which gives go ahead to terrorists to use the word for their own evil.
C. I believe the overall purpose of the 4th 4th reading was to show the ignorance of human kind and their fault in always pushing blame to a widespread unknown "thing" in this case the Quran and its sacred passage. I do agree with the author, in that Muslims are not the enemy, “Islamic” terrorists and radicals are. AKA ISIS
D. American attitudes need to change because as a country we are founded on the idea of the land of free and the home of the brave and right now we're in an ongoing war with terrorism not Islam and if we're going to act like Islam is the total blame for terrorism we need to take a step back in the mirror and look and the number of public massacres by non-Muslims in this country and get back to the issue here and that is terror and not the Quran.
A. I completely agree with you. The ABC video shows a bias against Islam even from the first few seconds of it through the comparison of a Muslim as a saint or a savage. They could have substituted the word savage with a sinner, but they chose this word specifically to show how Muslims were “inhumane.” Additionally, the video asks, “Why aren’t there as many non-Muslim terrorists?” and later points out that Christians are not terrorists and use their scripture in context. This supports your point where the video tries to show that there are no positive similarities between these religions and that everyone should work towards Christianity.
DeleteB. Overall, the Kristof and NPR readings show that the violence of Islam is more for protection for themselves and for defensive reasons. I agree that the NPR audio describes that perfect storm, and how we are actually causing that violence. Politically, the United States somewhat pokes at the flame as we constantly interfere with their own affairs. Intellectually, some of their followers take the Quran literally. It also shows how Islam actually condemns violence to another neighbor and to oneself. However, I do see how the NPR reading does show a connection between Islam and violence as it describes the irjaf, which is that terrorism in the Middle East that is always associated with Islam.
C. Yes, I think that the 4th reading describes the ignorance of humankind by othering groups of people, in this case Muslims. When we divide people and see only the differences between each other, we tend to associate more negative, and even inaccurate, actions against those who are not like us. This is exactly what we do to Muslims, although the majority of them have no relation and do not even support any violence. I agree with you in how we need to focus on terrorism and just the radicals, like ISIS, instead of blaming the whole religion.
D. I completely agree with you in how America really needs to start practicing what we preach, just like the Roya Zaneti said in the ABC video. We promote our country by offering opportunity and freedom, but in reality, we only truly offer it to some people and negate it to others. We cannot associate violence with Islam and blame innocent followers of this religion for atrocious acts. Additionally, we see radical groups in other religions, like the KKK, yet the media does not associate violence directly to them as they do with Islam.
Meghan Chung NDSJ
A: Yes, I very much agree he showed heavy favoring of Christianity over Islam. His word choice definitely betrayed what he really thought, even if the purpose was to explore the reasoning between the prejudice against Islam as a whole. These could affect the viewer’s view of the religion through providing the false idea that Muslims are inherently lesser than Christians.
DeleteB: Violence in Islam is a very small group of people and should in no way represent the whole religion. However, this is how the majority of Americans seem to generalize Muslims as. This is especially bad because more terrorists who say the Koran backs them up are actually misquoting or quoting another book altogether.
C: Yes, I agree that the purpose is to show just how ignorant we are to the people we constantly stereotype as terrorists. Generalizations we make based on assumptions are only hurting the situation further. Only an extremely small number of Muslims are actually wanting to terrorize.
D: Yes, we absolutely need to end the automatic association between terrorism and Islam. We, on an individual level and as a country, need to start to practice what we preach and stop being so close-minded. Education would be a great way to make people realize that we are fighting terrorism, not the Muslim community.
Sydney S.
NDSJ
The ABC video was biased because they really didn’t survey a lot of people. They didn’t necessarily ask many muslims their perspective on the outcomes on USA. To show a different mindset towards the situation and circumstances. The reports try to make things their own way and not tell the whole story or leave of information/details. Its definitely a bad perspective on Islam and Christianity due to the violence they show in the video. The videos and audios don’t show a good understanding of islam and the findings in WHAP. In forth reading he made a prime statement stating that people dislike muslims but really don’t know any of them. To me that’s because the news only show the bad on tv. America needs to change they’re their perspective on muslims but be aware.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletea. A lot of bias in introduced in the ABC video as the reporter talks about Islam. The reporter states that the interpretation of the text can separate a ‘saint from a savage’. Phrases like this give people a wrong idea about Islam. It portrays Islam as barbaric. This kind of bias exist in news reporting because the news reporter is biased himself. He has his own perception about the issue and he tries to intervene this perception into the news, which takes away the purpose of news reporting. The purpose of news reporting is to give viewers authentic information about a situation and when bias is introduced by the reporter, the viewers get a wrong and negative idea about the issue. Here the issue is Islam and his commentary about savages worsens the negative image that is created about Islam in people’s minds. Also in one part of the video it is mentioned that, ‘Muhammad wrote two parts of the Quran’, which is a very false and misleading statement. Because the Quran was not written by Muhammad, he was only the messenger. This misleading assumptions in news reporting is giving people a false idea about Islam and it fuels the Islamophobia that is going on today.
ReplyDeleteb. The readings and audio clips suggest that Islam is not related to violence. While some texts suggest expanding Islam, but it doesn’t preach terrorism. Even Christianity contains texts about wars but it is often overlooked. Findings in WHAP show that Islam preaches peace and Muhammad was a preacher of peace himself and was a very kind and gentle person.
c. The general point behind the 4th reading was to show how Christianity and Islam were similar and that only having texts in the Quran about waging wars does not necessarily mean that it encourages terrorism. The bible encourages, or the previous versions used to encourage wars against non Christians. But the Christians are not associated with terrorism, similarly all muslims should not be associated with terrorism because there are a few texts in the Quran about wars and extremists are taking their meanings too far.
d. American attitudes do need to change about Islam because most of these attitudes come from ignorance. People assume Islam to be a violent even though Islam preaches peace. This is due to the false statements in media about Islam. And besides, these attitudes might also trigger violent reactions by extremist groups which will cause further damage.
A) Yes, I complete agree with this because his rhetoric is really important to how others see Islam. I also agree that media is biased because the people are inherently violent as well. It's definitely unfortunate that media is intended to be the non-biased third-party, but media has long strayed from this idea. I was definitely surprised too that the video mentioned that Muhammed wrote two parts of the Quran. Not only did the video include bigotry, but it also included misinformation.
DeleteB) I agree with you. It's interesting that both religions had violent passages but neither are inherently violent. It is interesting that Christianity had kept its clean image whereas the West has corrupted the name of "Islam" when there are very few "terrorists/violent people" under the name of Islam. WHAP truly shows that Islam was started with peaceful intentions.
C) I agree that a lot of these misinterpretations are one-sided in that people don't misinterpret the Bible but they misinterpret the Quran because they see it to be more violent. It's quite interesting that we as humans like to "otherize" different religions when in reality, the religions are much more similar than we give them credit to be.
D) Yes, American attitudes definitely need to be changed because the media has truly corrupted people's minds and contributed to Islamaphobia. I agree that these differing opinions could result in more violence.
Sapna R., [NDSJ]
I completely agree that the ABC article was biased. The way the reporter mishandled the facts and put the Islamic peoples in such a bad light was really angering in my opinion. I had never thought that it was the reporter that was biased, though that is an interesting train of thought. Usually, I see the media as one big group. I see reporters as the bearers of bad news per say. I do think it was a poor choice by the network to only include questions from white Americans and not to compare Islam to any religion other than Christianity. Though we are founded on ideals of freedom, I think we as a country are getting a little too close to trying to create a Caucasian, Christian community.
DeleteYou have some really insightful thoughts, because I also never took the extremest groups into account when thinking about Muslim hate crimes. I've always thought about individual communities being persecuted, but never the bigger picture. I think we really just need to take a step back and stop fighting in hopes that extremists too will cease fire. Fire and fire doesn't make water you know?
Audrey NDSJ
A. When I watched the ABC video, I saw that there was definitely some bias. The reported even used No matter what your opinion is on a group of people you shouldn't degrade them just because their teachings/ beliefs/ actions don't align with yours or what YOU think I right. "Savage" to describe the Muslim. Also The anchor is placing terrorist and the Muslims in the same faction, so it would effect the view is perception of Islam ( "savages and "radical") versus Christianity (the "saints"); swaying people to believe Christianity is the "right" way to go and Islam is the polar opposite.
ReplyDeleteB. In general the audio clips say the relationship between Islam and violence is thing at the terrorists are behaving in this way is because they are misinterpreting the Qur'an and trying to use it to make their actions to seem like it's following those teachings. However the readings day that the Islam make nation itself is not a religion of violence. They don't support the actions of suicide or terrorism. In WHAP we are taught that Muslims respect everyone unless they are attacked; then it's in self defense.
C. The general point behind the fourth reading was to explain the similarities of Christianity and Islam. Hopefully this will open up some of Americans perception to see what Muslim beliefs really are. When you really think about it you can actually see that both religions respect others and want peace but they each have their faults, which is why I agree with the editorial.
D. I believe that the American attitudes needs to be more open towards Muslims. Most people just piggyback off of what they hear on the news and don't actually think for themselves...you can't believe EVERYTHING that you read or hear; you have to conduct actual research for yourself. Because if you look at the history of Islam's the basis of their teachings is peace, it's just the radicals who are negatively altering American views on who had what their nation is about.
A) I definitely agree that they used very different words to describe the different religions. This is definitely detrimental to Muslims because the rhetoric sets up for oppression and controversy. On top of it, the way that the interviewer talked to the girl in Cairo, Egypt was really condescending in a way that he put the entire burden of 9/11 on "her people". When she was offended, he believed that her resentment with West was truly radical.
DeleteB) Yes, I see the connection between WHAP and these articles and video clips. The entire "perfect storm" instigated the violence in Muslims in different countries and this definitely changes the relationship between different religions. I also think that many terrorists manipulate the words of Islam in order to justify their actions.
C) Yes, I think this article did a really good job with introducing the similarities between the religions, especially because many people like pointing out the differences within the religions. I also agree with the editorial because the quiz was extremely tough, showing us that the religions all have violent passages, but it's important to look at the passages with a new mindset, knowing that the time period is very different.
D) Yes, because America is seen as a "diverse" place, I believe that we should be doing a much better job in being accepting towards other demographics and other people. I definitely agree with you; we need to learn that everything on the news is not necessarily true because media is susceptible to bias. We must go back to the beginning of America, understanding that our nation was founded with the opinions and ideals of many -- diversity has truly impacted the world and we need to re-apply the importance of diversity.
Sapna R., [NDSJ]
I agree that they are comparing Muslims and Christians in a very uneducated way by saying Muslims are savages and Christians are saints. I think that it's because the news reporter knows more about Christians (maybe even be Christian; but I'm not making assumptions) and relates Muslims to terrorists so that he can simply degrade them. On top of that, another woman and he compared the Quran to the Bible, even their lengths and how it's split (although the Quran isn't split).
DeleteC. It did show us a different side, especially since we learned that we could not take citations out of context and expect it to make sense with the right translation. Looking at the Quran and the Bible, both of them have violent passages, but both of them also promote peace, so it would not be fair to only be critical of the Quran and not the Bible.
A. I completely agree with you on this. The language and rhetoric used in the video to compare the religions was definitely degrading the image of Muslims as an entire group for things only a small percentage of them are doing. The perception of the viewer would definitely bring the viewer towards Christianity over Islam, and I feel like a large part of this huge bias was due to appealing towards a Christian audience.
DeleteB. Yes, Islam and violence as a result of literal interpretations of the Quran and using the Quran to wrongly justify the violence was brought up in the audio clips. I also think that the holy amnesia brought up in the NPR audio clip explains a lot of this. I like your connection between WHAP and these readings.
C. I like your perspective on the fourth reading. The quiz definitely proved how hard it is to differentiate the Islam and Christianity, which shows how each religion is similar and has their own faults. I feel like a lot of these faults are mostly part of the past and more literal interpretations, as most of them were lost through holy amnesia that occurred in the past and recently.
D. Yes, I agree with you here. It makes a lot of sense that people should be critical when reading the news and consider various perspectives when forming opinions. Large groups of harmless people should not be all judged and generalized because of a small group of people, and you bring up a really good point when you say to do more research.
Elaine D, NDSJ
a) In general, the media plays a huge role in terms of religious bias. One of the scholars in the video says herself that often religion is used as the shell of many issues, as it is religion that takes the blame for violent conflict. The language in the ABC video as well points towards media bias in a few instances. One of the journalists starts the video by saying, “Islam is a religion that is inherently peaceful, but it is all up to interpretation”. By starting the video in an almost condescending tone, he sets the stage to instigate controversy in the viewers. On top of it, the reporter uses words such as “savage” to introduce background of Islam. This sets up a very subtle sort of disrespect, implying that people of Islam are inferior. The clip with William in Tulsa includes the statement that Muhammad wrote the Quran and that there are two parts, similar to the bible; however, this is untrue, as seen through history. It is quite concerning that a credited source such as ABC has misinformation about a religion that is followed by about 1.6 billion people. When we as society hear misinformation, it begs the question: how many other “assumptions” or “statements” about Islam are similarly misinterpreted or reported in a false manner? The speaker also says that extremists (intentionally) forget the more violent parts of scriptures, when in reality, this happens in many religions. Lastly, there was a bias in the interview between the speaker and Roya Zaneti in which he places the burden of the 9/11 attack on “her people”. After he makes this bold statement, he seems surprised to see that she is offended by this statement, and implies that her wanting to distance from the Western population is detrimental and radical. Bias exists in the media because the reporters, as human beings, have an innate bias which shows through the reports that should be unbiased. A viewer who is not knowledgeable on Islam may have predispositions about Islam after seeing these types of videos that quite visibly lean to one side.
ReplyDeleteb) Islam is often in the eyes of the interpreter which means that Islam isn’t necessarily violent nor peaceful, as it really matters what the individual people do with the backing of the religion. A majority of the scholars in the articles and audio clips agree that Islam is an inherently peaceful religion, but only violence occurs when people are provoked. The NPR brings up the “perfect storm”, portraying the belief that the West’s intervention contributed to the resentment in the eyes of the Muslims in Middle Eastern countries. There is a parallel with what we’ve learned in WHAP, especially when we look at the more violent passages (as the content of the Quran must be seen in different contexts, because the customs of the culture was different back then as it is now). Also, the readings and audio clips reiterate that Islam doesn’t condone suicide or terrorism, and that it simply states that action must be taken in times of invasion. Unfortunately, as we have learned through WHAP as well, there are extremists in every demographic of people, and there will be leaders such as terrorist group leaders who will manipulate the passages of the Quran to justify their actions. However, the Quran, as well as scripture from the Bible as well, must be read through the lens of a different society, and the readers must use context to understand the meaning of the passage rather than the explicit statements of the passage.
(c & d continued below)
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deletec) The fourth reading reiterates the importance of reading religious scripture through a lens of a new time period and a new society. Reading religious scripture must be done in context. There are violent passages in many sources of religious scripture. However, these religions aren’t necessarily violent. Simply, the times in which these scriptures were written were extremely different. I think that often, we as humans try to pick out the differences in religion in order to satisfy the parts in our brain that like to “otherize” other demographics of people. This article as well as this quiz shows that the religions have more similarities than people like to recognize. Throughout the quiz, the reader is faced with trying to decipher religious passages and trying to choose the religion in which it falls under. At the end of the quiz, we figured out that religious passages are very nuanced and many of them are extremely violent, but we cannot deem these religions as violent because the world is different now than it was at the time in which these scriptures were different. I definitely agree with the author of this editorial because context is really important when we are reading things that were written long ago.
Deleted) Islam is one of the largest religions in this world, with more than 1.6 billion people following religion. In the light of terrorist attacks that were instigated through the name of Allah, people around the world are beginning to contribute to institutionalized bigotry. As we’ve seen with history, there are terrible people and terrible groups who follow different beliefs. We cannot put a label such as “terrorists” on a religion that is inherently peaceful as well as one of the biggest religions. Because there are so many Muslims in this world and only a miniscule percentage that can actually be identified as terrorists (0.000066%), the large majority of Muslims are faced with stereotypes, hate crimes, and systematic oppression by people who believe that “all Muslims are terrorists”. In reality, teaming up with Muslims in violence-stricken areas should be the first priority to fighting Islamic terrorist groups such as Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Shabaab, and Al-Qaeda. Another issue is that people associate the name “Muslims” with terrorists, when there are violent people of every demographic. According to the FBI, over 94% of terrorism in the US was carried out by non-Muslims. In history, we’ve seen many dangerous groups of people, but we do not continue to associate these groups with their ancestors in the 21st century. This begs the question: why do we continue to do this against Muslims? In the United States, the mentality is counterintuitive. Often we rather fuel terrorist groups by increasing resentment of the West. Every time the media reports untrue information about Islam or so-called “political leaders” take a jab at one of the largest religions of the world, the entirety of the religion is impacted. A young girl doesn’t want to go to school with her hijab on in fear of getting bullied. People are scared to say their religion in fear of bigotry. As a result, we must work to help people who are facing violence and understand that religion is more multi-faceted than we think.
- Sapna R., NDSJ
A. There were several examples of bias in the ABC news video. The video has incorrect information about the Quran and uses strong vocabulary such as the term "savage". ABC made no effort to clarify or correct themselves or their statements. Also, the interviewer was surprised that Roya Zaneti, a young woman in Cairo, was offended when she and her country were associated with terrorism. However, the video did point out the bias that exists when comparing violence in the Bible and Quran. They video states that some verses form the Quran are misinterpreted and taken out of context. This bias exists in news reporting because this reporting is done by someone who may not be well informed or may have bias themself. This ties in to the concept of "we/they" where people in a community, "we", view others or outsiders, "they", in an unfavorable way. This can create disconnection from others and warp the viewer's perception of the global community. By presenting Islam and its followers as a group that is separate or disconnected from the rest of us, news reporting and media creates negative bias in the way we view Islam and Christianity.
ReplyDeleteB. A common misconception is that Islam as a religion is connected to violence but many articles and our findings in WHAP show that the violence is linked to political issues such as extremist groups and leadership conflicts. The NPR states that the Quran does mention instances of violence and warfare but as a form of defense. The Quran actually condems the killing of innocents, suicide, and terrorism. It is groups of extremists who manipulate the Quranic text to promote violence and political agendas.
C. The 4th reading is meant to show the reader that there is more to religion than we may know and how easy it is to mistake something regarding religion and sacred texts. The articles also talks about how the misconceptions and stigmas that shroud Islam hurt both the Islam community as well as those who form these stereotyped images.
D. Americans do need to change their views toward Muslims. Stereotyping more than 1 billion Muslims by the acts of a significantly smaller group of extremists and terrorists is not correct. Trying to connect terrorism to Islam creates unnecessary prejudice and hate towards Muslims. Information that is presented to Americans is oftentimes biased/selective which leads to stereotypes and misconceptions that can spread anti-Muslims sentiments. Also the media, and certain figures who have a lot of attention for saying hateful things (Donald Trump), are spreading false images and accusations that distort Americans views of Muslims. We as a community need to recognize our ignorance that exists concerning Islam and work towards understanding and respecting Muslims.
- Lara F. NDSJ
a. I really like how you connected the bias to the concept of "we/they". This rings very true, as I could very clearly see ABC presenting Muslims as some sort of "other", rather than a part of our own community. I also agree in your statement that the use of "we/they" creates a warped view of the global community, and that definitely creates the stigma that often shrouds Islam currently.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA) The bias in the ABC video is evident through word choices and visual effects. The video starts off by saying that interpretations of scriptures cause the difference between a saint and a savage, and the use of such a harsh word as “savage” already brings a negative or demeaning tone into the video. The video then goes on to say that the Quran strictly prohibits the killing of oneself and innocents, however the background images and videos of violence from extremist groups do not match the words and tend to sway the viewers’ opinions in another direction. Furthermore, when Roya Zaneti, a girl from Cairo, is upset at how America associates her people with terrorism and hypocritically preaches about freedom, the interviewer is shocked; the ABC video then says that this kind of thinking sparks radicalism, though Roya only articulated a logical, just viewpoint. The video concludes by establishing a we/they perspective by asking “Why aren’t there as many non-Muslim terrorists. After all plenty of poor Christians live in the Middle East and disagree with American foreign policy”; the clip says that this is obviously due to a religious aspect, providing a very biased separation between Islam and Christianity. I think the bias in news reporting comes from personal views and pressure of having to fit the general public’s views as Islamophobia is rapidly rising. Because of this, a lot of stereotypical, offensive views can spread easily through media, and it is our job to educate people with the facts through advocacy.
ReplyDeleteB) The ABC video clip and NPR state that Islam strictly prohibits the killing of innocents and oneself. NPR explains that Islam only supports fighting back to defend themselves when they are being attacked. This is consistent with the findings in WHAP because we read about how Muhammad and his followers peacefully coexisted with the people in Medina, eventually forming the umma. Muhammad only launched attacks on Mecca because Meccan leaders ordered for the persecution of his followers. Moreover, Muslims prohibited having other people of the book (Christians and Jews) as slaves. NPR further explains that though the Quran supports non-violence, terrorists twist the meaning of scripture passages to justify their beliefs and actions.
C) I think that the main point behind the fourth reading is that religion is complicated and has many aspects too it. One cannot just describe a religion in one word or phrase since a lot of the passages in scripture are contradictory because of varying time periods and situations they were written in. However, people are uneducated and make assumptions, whether it be by categorizing religions as “nonviolent” or “violent,” or trying to form a barrier between their own religion and other religions. In doing so, people form a we-they mindset, which can infuse hate crimes. I completely agree with the author in that it does not make sense to stereotype and discriminate against 1.6 billion people just for the actions of a few.
D) Yes, attitudes towards Muslims need to change. America is such a religiously and ethnically diverse country which preaches about freedom and equality, so it is extremely hypocritical of many Americans to link all Muslims with terrorism. The fact that the interviewer from the ABC clip was surprised when Roya took offense at being associated with a terrorist group just goes to show how uneducated we are about all of this. It is completely unjust and illogical to target the entire Muslim community through hate crimes because an extremely small minority of people, claiming to follow Islam (when they actually manipulate the meaning of scripture passages), terrorize others. Americans need to understand that by blaming Muslims and supporting the idea of banning them from entering the country, they are only making the problem worse by increasing violence through hate crimes and helping with ISIS recruitment as the fourth reading explains. Therefore, it is important for people to change their attitudes towards Muslims by educating themselves about the issue.
- Mahima C ndsj
a) There is certainly bias in the clip debating whether Islam is associated with violence. Bias is evident in the reporter’s words when he says, “it is the interpretation of the scriptures that separates a saint from a savage”. Using the word ‘savage’ with regards to Muslims is very controversial as he is practically calling them violent. Another instance where bias was evident was when various clips of Christians praying were shown but when speaking of Islamists, ABC decided to insert clips of gruesome activities. ABC is practically conveying that they think Islam is a religion associated with violence, regardless of them showing the violent phrases found in the Bible. An example of the reporters being uninformed is seen especially when they claim that the prophet Muhammad wrote the Quran, when in actuality, it was written years after his death. Bias is also evident when the news reporter questions Roya Zeneti. Apparently, he’s shocked when she's offended after his questions, especially when he associates Egypt with 9/11. There should be no reason for him to be surprised by her reaction. I think this type of bias is shown in news reporting because they are uninformed and aren’t aware of the background information of the news they’re offering to the audience and because society teaches from the beginning that Islam is associated with terrorism because of attacks such as 9/11. This leaves a negative influence on the person into believing that Islam is not a religion that promotes peace but violence and that Christianity is therefore the peaceful religion. However according to the video, we find that there’s more violence in the Bible opposed to the Quran but the bias that the news creates leads people to believe otherwise.
ReplyDeleteb) The readings and clips emphasize the fact that violence is not greatly evident in the Quran, however it is seen in the Old Testament of the Bible. We find out that jihadists tend to use their religion as an excuse for attacks regardless of the fact that suicide and violent activities are strictly prohibited in the Quran. These are consistent with the findings in WHAP because we have already learned that Islam is a religion that preaches peace. We have also learned that they don’t fight with others unless they are instigated by outsiders to defend themselves.
c) I believe the general point behind the fourth reading is to clarify the findings in the Bible and Quran and to compare our general knowledge of the two with the actual answers on the quiz. The quiz taught me that we shouldn’t judge a religion using the knowledge we have about it because even if we know enough about a religion, how well do we really know it unless we practice it and have read its Holy Book? I agree with the author of this editorial especially because they stress the point that faith is a complicated topic. As humans, we’re further divided into categories which separate us from others (i.e. religion, race, gender, etc). This leads us to believe that we’re the better race or we practice the better religion than the others. What we don’t realize is that all religions have their faults, we just tend to defend our own and give shade to the others.
d) The attitudes of Americans towards Muslims definitely needs to change. To start off, I believe that many Americans associate Muslims with terrorism because they see a consistent presence of Muslim terrorists in some attacks. But when it comes down to a local shooting or other attack performed by a non-Muslim, Americans view them as normal criminals instead of terrorists, even though shootings are considered an act of terrorism. Overall, news reporting and society itself has convinced Americans to believe that Muslims are terrorists solely because attacks such as 9/11 were executed by Muslim terrorists. However, this should be no reason for Americans to believe that just every Muslim is a terrorist just because the 9/11 planners were Muslim. In my opinion, it is wrong to connect the two and hopefully in the future, America will discontinue to have Islamophobia.
Shikha N. NDSJ
A) In the beginning of the video, the question, “‘Is Islam inherently violent?’” is asked. However, the use of the word “inherent” (which means “existing in someone or something as a permanent and inseparable element, quality, or attribute”) shows ABC’s bias against Muslims. By using “inherent” in the question, it points to the idea that Islam has always, and always will be, a violent religion, which is completely untrue. Yes, some Muslims have committed violent acts, but there are also people from other faiths who have done the same. Looking back in history, some Christians have also committed belligerent deeds, in the name of their God, during the Crusades and when the KKK was active from the 1865s to 1870s, 1915 to 1944, and even 1946 to current time. However, today the question, “Is Christianity inherently violent?” is not asked. The narrator also says that Muslims are considered “savages or saints” based on the way that they interpret Islam. However, just because Muslims have different interpretations of their religion, some more radical than others, does not make them either savage or saintly. Such biased language, such as the word “savage”, has multiple definitions (“cruel”, “uncivilized”, “barbarous”, “unpolished”, or “enraged or furiously angry, as a person”) that all put Muslims under a negative view of prejudice. It is also ridiculous to use the word “savage” because it likens people to animals, which are considered “uncivilized”.
ReplyDelete→ This bias exists in reporting because the media wants to appeal to what its audience believes. Many Americans, unfortunately, think that Muslims are terrorists, and this idea is reflected in news today. People’s lack of understanding of a situation, which leads to being fearful and irrational, also may be a cause of this bias.
→ Such a bias may affect a viewer’s perspective on Christianity vs. Islam to lean more towards the former as being “better” than the latter. If the media produces one-sided information, then people who listen to or read it will tend to believe what it says if they have never been introduced to the idea that Islam is not an “inherently violent” religion. This bias only creates more skewed thoughts about Islam, which corrupts what it really teaches.
B) The relationship between Islam and violence, according to the following readings and audio clips, is that Islam does have some points of violence mentioned, but mostly it is a peaceful religion. Contrasting popular American belief, most of the readings—especially the one about frequently asked questions—try to point out that the vast majority of Muslims do not support terrorism and that in the Qur’an, violence is mainly allowed for self-defense. However, when one incident of terrorism relating to Muslims occurs, people have allowed themselves to believe that all Muslims are dangerous people, which is unreasonable. They are mostly consistent with the findings in WHAP because throughout history, there have been different responses to Islam. Muslims, for the most part, have respected people of other religions and remained at peace with them, which was shown by their allowing Christian and Jews to remain in Jerusalem while they ruled instead of forcing them out. The idea that people believe all Muslims were dangerous was common for Christians who lived in Jerusalem after 1009, when Al-Hakim, an Egyptian caliph, ordered the destruction of holy places for Christians there. Unfortunately, this idea is consistent with findings today because many Americans also have the notion that all Muslims are terrorists just because of some radical groups’ actions.
C) The general point behind the fourth reading is to show that Christianity and Islam both are more similar than people believe. Also, the author wanted to reveal to unknowing people that there are more passages—twice as many—about committing violent acts against others in the Bible than in the Qur’an. Another point the author backed was that it is the people of the religion, not the holy book, that make the impression of what the religion is. Even if those people claim to be following the holy text of their religions, their interpretations could be completely different than what the text really means. I agree with the opinion of the author of this editorial because good points are brought up in it. One of them is that people tend to “otherize” those who do belong to the same ethnicity or religion or don’t believe in the same ideas. This also coincides with what we have learned at school about the “we-they” attitude people have toward one another.
DeleteD) American attitudes toward Muslims definitely need to change because they are mainly negative. Many of the American ideas about Muslims are based off inaccurate information and stimulated by fear. Stereotyping all Muslims as being violent and terrorists is unjustified and greatly biased against the Muslim majority that is peaceful and does not wish to harm others. Allowing these kinds of attitudes to be supported in America leads to hate of Muslims and the spread of misunderstandings of Islam. Much of the current American attitude toward Muslims must change because it doesn’t support equality and religious freedom which are ideals that Americans emphasize as those they uphold. Such behavior is hypocritical and irrational, and Americans should be trying to help the cause to prove Islam as a peaceful religion instead of obstructing it.
A. Where do you see bias in the ABC video? (pay attention to language) Why do you think this bias exists in news reporting? How might that affect the viewer’s perception of Islam vs. Christianity?
ReplyDelete- Although the ABC video does bring up both sides of the argument around Islam, it manages to subtly hint at its partiality and lingering prejudice toward Islam. Right off the start of the video, the word “savage” is used. This insinuates the mindset that Islamists are inferior in the same way that the Amerindians were once called savages. Then, a man asks about the two halves of the Quran which is completely inaccurate as the Quran does not have a part 1 and part 2. The man is attempting to make sense of the Quran by looking at it as a Bible and this is almost derogatory as if he could not comprehend a holy book that is different from his or different from what he is used to hearing about. No one from ABC corrected him and let this comment pass showing an indifference to the Quran. Furthermore, when Roya Zaneti was interviewed, the interviewer seemed shocked when she was offended that he linked her to the Islamic terrorists and their 9/11 attack. This would be similar to if people linked all Christians to the actions a few Christian terrorists.
B. What do the following readings and audio clips say in general about the relationship between Islam and violence? Are they consistent with the findings in WHAP? explain
- The video clips and readings all agree that the Islamic perceptions do not agree with violence and is actually quite peaceful and similar to the the writings of many other religions. The terrorism that occurs is often a result of leaders twisting the ideas present in the Quran, taking pieces of the book, and adding some text as well in order to influence followers to do as the leader says. There is manipulation and trickery involved but the Quran itself is actually quite peaceful. These findings are consistent with Whap. The inherent Islamic ideals would never permit suicide, violence, or murder. The problems today are often the result of twisted ideas.
C. What is the general point behind the 4th reading? Do you agree with the opinion of the author of this editorial? explain
Delete- I believe that the author of the fourth reading is trying to explain that religion cannot be seen as a simple set of ideas or one type of idea. Religion is complex, diverse, and has many different types of followers. No one can truly understand what a certain religion is for because there are so many aspects to it that one person would have a hard time comprehending it all. There are so many grey areas and the followers are often so diverse. I agree with what the author is trying to say. We often hold this we/they mindset to separate ourselves from Islam and focus on the difference. However, all religions have problems and no religion is perfect. We often generalize people who follow a certain religion into a group when in fact every person is different from one another.
D. According to google search entries, Islamophobia is on the rise since the Paris bombings and then again since the shootings in Southern California. The increase of hate crimes towards Muslims is a very real possibility. Do American attitudes need to change toward Muslims? Explain? If so how?
- Americans must change their attitude and their perceptions of Muslims. First, how can we, who call ourselves righteous and just, stereotype and generalize a large group of Muslims into a terrorist group. In fact, according to Huffington Post, the terrorists in the United States who have attacked in the past 25 years have been 94 percent non-Muslim. This statistic obviously shows that many of our false perceptions are a result of media coverage. Our media fails to represent non-Muslim attackers well and instead expound the attacks by Muslims. We as Americans must actively look for accurate information since our media often portrays inaccurate information to us so we must not be idle and just sit and listen. We cannot be scared to talk about these issues. It is better to talk about the issues, discuss, and learn the right facts.
A: In the ABC video, I saw a definite bias against Islam. The reporters seemed t be doing everything they could to discredit the religion and its followers, while remaining factually accurate. A lot of their words or phrases carried undertones of feelings of superiority to the Muslim population. It often seemed like they did not believe the positive words they did say. The bias likely exists because of how the media only really reports on the extremists within a religion, so we do not really see all of the peaceful followers. If we continue to only see the violent participants, it compromises our ability to see the religion as a faith rather than an issue.
ReplyDeleteB: The Koran itself is not more violent than other religious texts from the time period. In fact, the Bible can be considered to be far more violent in terms of quantity. Of the six thousand lines in the Koran, only one hundred and nine talk about getting rid of all non-believers. Most extremists are quoting another book in place of the Koran. As in most religious traditions, the violent are most definitely in the minority, yet are shown more often in the media. In WHAP, we mostly study Islam as a religion of with many scholars and intellectual achievements. They are only truly violent when the religion or their lives are threatened, which lines up with what we read in this article.
C: The general point was to show how we like to think we know a lot about Islam, when we really only know its surface level. It also shows how much we assume based on the stereotypes we see of a religion in the media. I agree with the author that our fear of those who are different creates a whole new issue, rather than solving anything. Spreading this fear only makes the object of that terror all the more powerful. We cannot continue to fight against a threat by spreading ignorance. Mistaking the victims of terrorism for terrorists is also an extremely dangerous mistake, as it creates more fear.
D. We need to stop the generalization of all Muslims as terrorists, as it simply isn’t true. A very, very small percentage of the Islamic community actually is involved in terrorism. We need to stop spreading the ignorance that our country seems to be so desperate to hang on to at all costs, even when the expense is innocent lives. I believe this could be changed through more education about the true teachings of Islam and how is has been misinterpreted in the media. Becoming more familiar with the culture will put us on the road to ending discrimination against it.
Sydney S.
NDSJ
a)I agree with you. The reporters were calling out Muslims for the violence in the Quran which supposedly influences its people. However, they fail to acknowledge the terms by which violence can be used.
Deleteb)Muhammad was violent not for self defense, but for retaliation and conquering. This goes against the Quran. I do agree with you on the fact that violence does not occur among all Muslims but only a few.
c)I agree with you. We shouldn't judge all Muslims for a few things we hear on the news. This is a misinterpretation of the whole population of Muslims. Also, we shouldn't spread fear, especially the media. It is so ignorant for the media to be always announcing what terrorist groups do. It is basically applauding their actions.
d) I don't agree with spreading the teachings of Islam to everyone, because that could turn into a crusade or missionary effort. However, I just think the real solution is to be loving to all the people we reside with and to just watch our backs. For example, the government should monitor Isis recruitment over social media.
A. There is bias in the video towards connecting violence and Islam. The bias is specifically evident in how the video displays Islam, speaks of it, and directly compares it to Christianity. This bias exists because so many people are misinformed and they are afraid so they choose to turn their fear into hatred or stigma towards another group of people. The bias serves to give people to blame. This bias will affect the viewers because they only see and hear about the violence people are committing in the name of Islam. This bias makes people take some of the facts out of context and altogether excludes other facts. In doing so people form uneducated opinions and continue to perpetuate stigmas against the people of Islam who the majority of are peaceful and disagree with the actions of terrorists.
ReplyDeleteB. In general, the videos and audio clips say that while there is a connection between Islam and violence it is small and overall not what Islam and most Muslims are. The videos tell us that Islam is a religion of peace that condemns violence unless it is in the case of defending yourself. This is consistent with what we learn in WHAP that Islam was founded by Mohammad who respected people of other religions and was only used violence in necessary situations.
C. The point of the 4th article is to show that we cannot stereotype people we don’t know because of things that we don’t understand. It is hypocritical and intolerant to criticize a faith that we have no knowledge of. I agree with this editorial because it is biased and insincere to make excuses for yourself and ignore the background and facts that someone else gives you. We should be creating informed opinions and not stereotype a large amount of people for something that few people participate in.
D. Yes, Americans need to change their attitudes towards Muslims. Muslims are active participants in the world and should be treated equally and not discriminated against. We have seen what happens in the past when a group of people is singled out and discriminated against. Not only is it unjust to the people, but it is harmful to society as a whole. Muslims are among the doctors, teachers, scientists, farmers, and leaders that make our society. Americans need to changes their attitudes towards Muslims by accepting and welcoming them, as well as showing love and not fear. All Americans must coexist to make this a reality.
Gabby D.
NDSJ
I agree with you about the bias in the video.
DeleteIn my opinion, many Americans have a bias against Muslims because they don't have a real source of information that is correct. In the video is shows that his source of information about Islam leads to his bias and possible misunderstanding.
A) As the ABC video begins, there is already bias as the reporter states that interpretation separates “a saint from a savage.” Saints are worshipped in Christian religions, so may it be understood (from the video) that anyone not a saint - not a Christian - is a savage? As he continues, calling the Taliban brutal and barbaric, when only to reveal that the violent passage being read is Christian, the reporter is unfairly weighting the words in a way making the Muslims seem at fault. He gives no blame to Christians. I believe that the way in which the two holy books are displayed, the bible with a violent verse followed by one of peace and the Quran in the opposite fashion, leaves viewers with a happy Christian taste and one of bitterness toward Muslims. Unequal structure can subconsciously create ideas within the minds of impressionable people, and a sly move like that places Islam in a poor light. I am most bothered by the reporting of the Quran being written by Muhammad in two parts. This reporting is sloppy and not fact checked, for these ‘facts’ are simply untrue. The Quran is a book made of Hadiths, written down by Muhammad’s early followers. These Hadiths were constantly mistranslated and writers would try to impose their own ideas into them, but in creating the Quran they were meticulously read over before being accepted. Though there is no truth to the statement, those who had no knowledge of the holy book may simply accept this as fact, causing further deprecation of the religion. I am baffled by the reporter’s ease as he says militants can easily ignore specific verses in the Quran, while he is conveniently ignoring many facts. The way he is structuring his report buries many of the good qualities of the Islamic religion. He reports facts regarding the myths and misrepresentation of the Quran, however his report continues to focus on the negative and violent religion we see displayed in the media. With few positive facts and an ending statement that poses the question: “why aren’t there as many non-muslim terrorists,” ABC was able to run a story that was not so far fetched to be deemed unbelievable, but was so poorly discussed and displayed that Americans are unable to see the bigger picture.
ReplyDeleteThere is a complaint that the Muslims see Westerners as a militant force trying to wipe them off the face of the planet, but when we really are focusing on only a few negative traits, are we not trying to get rid of them? Are we not enforcing negative thoughts within the minds of our nation? Unbalanced reporting causes us Americans to place ourselves on a higher pedestal than any Muslim, simply because of their religion, but as Roya Zanetti said, “who do we think we are?”
B) The underlying facts are that Islam is not a violent religion, but the way in which some of the reports are phrased, sewn together, and built, say otherwise. In WHAP I have learned that the Islamic religion stems from a group of passionate, pious, educated people. These people fought for land, as all empires did at one point, but were not a violent group as they stayed strong throughout their European persecution. They stood up for their beliefs in their education, religion, and daily lives. In WHAP I learned that these are a group of deeply faith filled people and everyday I relearn the extent of their dedication through Muslim friends. I have never once experienced a passage in a textbook or heard something from a friend framing Islam as violent in nature, but it truly is terrorism that is at the heart of that stereotype. Of course there are extremists, there always are, they will be found everywhere, but they are not a majority. These articles make it clear that it is unnecessary to be violent to be a Muslim, and now the whole world just needs to realize it.
C) The general point behind the 4th reading is that fighting fire with fire doesn’t stop the flames. The author expresses the fact that faith is complex and sometimes hard to understand, and that is why one must have faith in the first place. Faith isn’t something like math, where you can remember the formulas and every person can get the same, correct, answer. Faith is a very individual process, and putting down one another’s beliefs is going against basic human rights. By comparing two “enemies” - Christianity and Islam - we are able to see that differences between the two are not as we would have assumed. I enjoy this article and agree with the author because it is not being biased. Of course, there was a picking and choosing of the passages, but there is not a clear favor for either/any religion. I believe the author simply wants acceptance and peace, and that is all I hope for.
DeleteD) Absolutely. Due to the media’s filtered broadcasting and a general lack of knowledge regarding Islam, Americans are spiteful and bitter over a subject they don’t know much about. Assuming that all Muslims are terrorists or somehow Christian hate is laced within their religion simply makes Christians the hateful ones and the Muslims are left unable to defend themselves. I believe that a strong way to put a stop to Muslim hate and crimes against Muslims is to properly teach about religions. Rather than spending time being Eurocentric, Americans need to have access to and be taught that Islam is not a religion of violence. I cannot think of a way to change the media’s broadcasting until we change what children are given and exposed to at a young and impressionable age. Growing up after 9/11, many youths are faced with constant ethnic stereotyping towards Muslims. I don’t think it’s the Muslim’s job to shy away from their religion or feel too afraid to express themselves. If our country is founded on freedoms of religion, why is that not what we are practicing?
I agree with your point about the ABC video. The reporter started out with callin the Muslims "savages" which clearly shows bias. Your opinion on what you learned in WHAP was interesting as you see Muslims in a totally different perspective through friends. In contrast, your view on the attitude of Americans against Muslim's was eye-opening as you pointed out the general lack of knowledge in America about Islam.
Deletea. The ABC video shows bias through their lack of knowledge about the subject. For example, one question from the viewers asked about different parts of the Quran, though it doesn’t have different parts. The news reporter did not correct the question, either because of lack of knowledge or because it makes the story better. News reporting is about facts, but it also needs to capture people’s attention for ratings, so I believe that some reporting omits or exaggerates the true just a little to make the story interesting, but still mostly true. The news reporter did not seem to be Muslim, so I believe that he carried some bias while reporting. The viewer might pick this bias up as Christianity being better or, at least, less violent then Islam, which is not true.
ReplyDeleteb. The video said that the Quran calls for on-going violence to put the world under the Islamic laws. It also said that religions go through “holy amnesia” where people forget about the violence in their scriptures and interpret it as holy. The Muslims had this “holy amnesia” until recently. The reason that there are more terrorists is because the Islamic states are more religious. Muhammad was alive during a very hard war, and his teachings reflect that. This is consistent with my education in WHAP because I learned that Islam spread through violence and war. It makes sense that people now follow the same way the people who were spreading Muhammad’s teachings were.
c. The 4th reading is explaining that religion is complex and can be seen in many different ways by different people. Some people see the violence in the holy texts, whereas others see the good. It is hard for everyone in a religion to follow one set of “rules” when there are so many interpretations. I agree with this opinion because I believe that there is not just one answer to all the questions. Different scholars have different opinions, and individuals have different beliefs of the text as well. Then, trying to get all these people to agree and follow these beliefs is very difficult.
d. The American attitudes need to change. We need to stop grouping all of the Muslims into one category of terrorists. Not all people that practice Islam is a terrorist not even the majority. This misconception or inability to separate the good people from the bad is why people are searching Islamophobia, and also why the United States is not letting in refugees from Syria. This stereotype that we are putting around Muslims is preventing us from helping innocent people who are running from the terrorists in Syria and enabling to believe that making hate crimes on a religious stereotype is ok. People need to be educated on the matter and need to realize that not all Muslims are terrorists. People need talk about this issue to raise awareness to stop the hate fights and open our borders to refugees in need.
i agree with your blog post. a big part of the newspapers bias was for ratings and personal gain which we must all keep in mind when considering ourselves "informed". its a crucial detail. i also agree when you associate the teachings with a time period. different times call for different ways. the bible contains alot of teachings that are far from socially acceptable aswell. its all in interpretation, lastly, your point about the "bad" being a small portion is important. the Muslims we see being attacked by the media and other people and the population of Muslims who are actually violent are most certainly not the same. western views are having a lasting affect not only on the throngs of innocents but also the mindset of future generations. ignorance should not be hereditary.
DeleteSyd P. NDSJ
ReplyDeleteA. In the ABC video, there is much bias in regard to the reporter himself. Even though the video itself was most likely not meant to have any bias, the reporter’s bias towards being an American showed as he passive aggressively threw racial stereotypes against the people he interviewed. Since he was a proud American, he let his pride for his country block his mind to seeing past the stereotypes. Instead, he turned the conversation with the Muslim woman about Islam into a conversation about Americans being the group that was being persecuted. Also, the people who were brought in to talk about Christianity and Islam were Christians and Muslims themselves. This would cause there to be a bias on both sides of the argument.
ReplyDeleteB. The following readings and audio clips say that Islam does not enforce violence and violence does not mean that Islam is the sole reason behind it. It also says that the idea that Muslims are related to the violence going on in the world is a complete misconception due to the fact that subgroups who follow a misinterpretation and mistranslation of the Quran yet still affiliate themselves with Islam are the true group behind the violence. Muslims who follow the true words of Muhammad actually strive towards peace. This goes along with what we have learned in WHAP. In history, many groups of people who are foreign and who pose a threat cause the people who are threatened to enter a “we/they” state of mind. This causes the threatened people to act without true knowledge of what is really going on, instead listening to propaganda and stereotypes. This can be seen in many places in history that involve expansion and/or contact between groups.
C. The point behind the fourth reading is to show people how much they really know and don’t know about religion, in this case Christianity and Islam. I do agree with the author of this editorial because I agree that it is not our place to judge another person by their faith especially when we have little to no knowledge about it and instead judge it by society generated stereotypes and propaganda. I especially agree with this phrase, “But let’s not stereotype 1.6 billion Muslims because of their faith. What counts most is not the content of holy books, but the content of our hearts.” I agree that we should not judge someone based off of a book that they read, but instead we should judge them by their character, personality, and morals. Also, we should not be grouping a bunch of people together solely based on their faith and calling they all did not do instead of basing our judgement on the greatness of individuality. I also agree with the author that extremist on both sides of an argument is never good. If we combat the extremists of Islam, we should not combat it with our version of extremism Islamophobia. It just goes to show that everyone around the world has their own version of “strain of dangerous intolerance.”
D. I believe that Americans will need to change their attitudes towards Muslims. We cannot combat hate crime with more hate crime as it just generates a bigger problem than what was there to start with. Unfortunately, there were always be some extremists, but we should not let those extremists pave the way for our entire country. We can change our attitudes by ignoring the stereotypes and propaganda and instead looking at the actual facts. We should embrace the Muslims who are being persecuted and support them instead of hating them because of our ill informed stereotypes based off of our fear and hate.
Miyo I.
DeleteNDSJ
I agree with you about how Americans need to change their attitudes towards Muslims and fight hate with hate. This type of view is extremely harmful to the overall perspective surrounding Muslims. Many non-Muslim Americans are extremely ignorant on Islam and its values, without knowing much about the religion to begin with. As global citizens, it is our jobs to educate ourselves and others on not Islam but also islamophobia, and to learn to differentiate between ignorant and biased information and facts that are actually the truth.
Deletea. There was definitely bias shown in the ABC video. Towards the end, they discussed terrorism within religious groups as though it never occurs in Christianity, even though groups like the Klu Klux Klan and the Westboro Baptist Church exist. Also, the reporter seemed very condescending when talking to the young woman from Egypt. It seemed as though he was waiting for her to become frustrated with what he was saying, so that the news station could portray her as a person with radical views. Also, they did not clarify incorrect information. One of the clips shown discussed “part one” and “part two” of the Quran, but there are no sections in which it was written. As a television news network, it is also part of their aim to attract viewers, which is likely the reason behind their bias.
ReplyDeleteb. What the sources show is that Islam is a nonviolent religion. The only time that violence towards others is allowed in the Quran is towards people invading and threatening their lives. Suicide and the murder of innocent peoples is prohibited, which goes to show that it is a religion of peace. These finding are similar to what we have learned in WHAP, as Islam was never depicted as a violent religion. For example, we learned that when Islam was founded, the treatment of women was actually extremely positive. They were treated with respect, and not abused. This differed greatly from other non-Muslim areas, in which women has little to no status or respect. I believe that peace derives from respect, and that the two are intertwined.
c. I think that there are multiple goals within the 4th reading. First, it shows the readers that there are many similarities between religions. Secondly, it exposes them to their own ignorance in terms of religious knowledge. When I took the quiz, I didn’t know some of the questions about Christianity, even though I am a Christian. Also, it shows that people can cherry pick quotes from sources to say whatever they want to say. Often, we are not getting the big picture just from reading a single quote. Groups like ISIS use the Quran to “justify” their terrorism, but they are not reading the words in context and are manipulating sections of the Quran so that it fits their motives. I agree with the author’s opinion in that it is very easy to make a source say what you want. Many people in America are islamophobic, but do not know any Muslims. Typically, they receive all of their information from the media, or from hearing others. It is important to learn a greater perspective, and be cautious of cherry picking for personal motives.
d. American attitudes definitely need to change towards Muslims. Many people living in America have negative attitudes towards Muslims, but have never actually met someone who followed Islam. This type of view is extremely detrimental to the overall perspective surrounding Muslims. Most non-Muslim Americans are extremely ignorant on Islam and its values. As global citizens, it is our duty to educate ourselves and others on not Islam but also islamophobia, and to learn to differentiate between ignorant and biased information and facts that are actually the truth. We also cannot act as bystanders and allow prejudice and discrimination to continue if we witness it. Rather, we need to step in, protect, and educate.
Keahi S. NDSJ
a)I do agree with you about how people barely see the evil acts that so called "Christians" commit. However, the Klu-Klux-Klan thought they were Christians, but were not real ones. This is what goes on with Muslims today as well. Some call themselves Muslims, but do not truly follow the Quran. With your response about the reporter trying to make the teen frustrated or intimidated, it's good that the girl was not afraid of him.
Deleteb)I did not think about the just treatment towards women. That was a good point. I on the contrast believe that the video was against what we learned about Muhammad. He started a war not for self-defense, but for retaliation to an opponent empire. This is totally against the peace laws of the Quran.
c)Oh my gosh!!! You are thinking the exact way that I am. I was so disappointed in the makers of the quiz. When they said that Jesus said "I came not to bring peace but a sword" I was confused, and looked it up. My dad later explained its meaning and it all made sense. Jesus did bring peace, because he is the "prince of peace", but that quote had an entirely deeper meaning other than those words.
d)I agree. We do need to treat all people equally and with respect. Also, just because one "Muslim" bombed a theatre, it doesn't mean that all of them will.
a. Throughout the ABC video, bias is clearly evident. Within the first 30 seconds of the clip, the reporter’s choices in his language already show bias. For example, the reporter said,“Muslim and non-Muslim scholars of the Quran...insist that this is a religion of peace.” By using the word insist, he makes it sound like people need to convince others about Islam being a religion of peace, implying that people already assume Islam of being a violent religion. Another example is his use of the word “savage.” There are plenty of other words he could have used, but he uses the word savage, which implies that Muslims are inhuman and barbaric. Although the reporter discussed how both religions both have texts that support peace, the clips shown of Muslims are mainly ones of violence. This shows how the ABC reporters already had a set mindset towards talking about Muslims because of the clips that were shown of them. It is one thing to talk about Muslims being peaceful, but because so many clips show violence, people may focus on those clips along and ignore what is actually being said. This further damages people’s views on Muslims, which is not only unfair, but hurtful. Another example was the reporter’s interview with Roya Zaneti. He seemed surprised that she got offended when he associated her country with the planners of 9/11. Obviously, not everyone of the same ethnicity or country is associated with those types of people, just like how in America we have our own radical groups, but it is very unlikely that other countries would try to associate Americans with them. Furthermore, there is incorrect information presented about the Quran. There was one man in the video saying how it was written in two parts by Muhammad, which is incorrect. The Quran was not written by Muhammad and not split into two different parts. Because of these things, it gives people the wrong impressions of a Muslim, which can be especially damaging if the person is not educated; it can can fear and resentment to spread.
ReplyDeleteb. The audio clip overall states Islam fundamentally is not a violent religion but because it does contain violent and bloody scriptures, people can use those to distort Islam and justify violence.
The Quran condemns religious aggression and the killing of civilians, but because it contains passages that contain violence, people take that and use it as the evidence that supports their own assumptions. The audio clip also talked about the “perfect storm” which addresses frustration of Western Intervention in the Muslim world, which gives a reason as to why the Quran would be used to justify violent actions. The audio points out the difference between the irjaf and the jihad. The irjaf talks is the thing that condones terrorism, but the jihad addresses legal warfare. In WHAP we learned that one of the main Islam teachings is to do good works in their spiritual and everyday life, which is talked about in the article.
c. The main point behind the New York Times article is that religion is complicated and one cannot decide whether or not a religion is goods just based on its scriptures. Both the Bible and Quran contain passages that are contradictory, which means that one part of book should not be used to represent the entire religion. Through taking the quiz, you learn that unless you have actually studied holy books well, it is extremely difficult to tell the verses apart from each other. This shows how you cannot assume a religion is this one thing because there are so many different messages. Another point the author brings up is that people tend to want to find another person to blame. A reason for this may be because it is easier to push the blame onto someone else instead of facing the issue head on and trying to solve it. I agree with the author because religion is extremely complicated and I do not believe anyone can make a definite judgement on one religion. Many religions teach good values and ideas, but they are not perfect.
Deleted. American’s attitude needs to change toward Muslims because it is wrong to stereotype an entire group of people and religion with a terrorist group that makes up only a miniscule fraction of the Muslim population. By pushing away Muslims, America loses a valuable ally against the terrorist groups that we fear so much. Muslims today are already victims of hate crimes, oppression, and discrimination. Why should the entire population be treated so wrongly when the large majority of them practice peacefully? Media plays an important role in influencing the way people may view Muslims. Because of this, media also needs to change the way they are when discussing the topic of the religion Islam. What makes matters worse is that there are even political figures who are extremely discriminating against Muslims. Because people see a powerful, influential figure speaking badly of Muslims, those who already are uneducated about the subject and have to the same views as that, then feel like it is okay to treat Muslims badly.
Emily V. NDSJ
I agree with your point about the ABC video as bias was clearly shown through the reporter's word choice. I also liked your opinion on the religion quiz and how it was difficult to tell the difference between scriptures. And finally, your view on the attitude of Americans against Muslim's was put together well as Americans see a whole group of people as a bad group when it is such a small factor of the population.
DeleteA.
ReplyDeleteIn the ABC video there is an incredible amount of bias. First of all, the reporter is talking from an American perspective, where the religious majority is Christianity. The reporter also talks about the difference between saint and savage, implying that Christians are the saints and Muslims and people of other faith traditions are savages. The reporter also focuses more on the assumptions made about the Muslim culture and religion rather than the actual facts. He also receives messages from viewers who are not experts in the Qur'an and he doesn't make an effort to correct them when they make mistakes. The video seems tailored to what the American viewers see Muslims as, especially when he uses words like barbaric to describe Muslims. I think that the biases that the news reporter has is partly because of what Americans want to here, because it verifies their thoughts about Muslims and terrorists. This can effect how a viewer perceives both of the religions because using derogatory words to describe Muslims gives the viewers a negative attitude towards Muslims, which can make them discount the important facts of the video, and lean positively towards Christianity.
B.
The clips talk about how Islam is not a violent religion, instead one of peace. The scriptures of the Qu'ran are often mistranslated and not taken in context while being read. Because of this some of the terrorist groups use the Qur'an to justify terrorism. But, clip also talks about how the Qur'an is less violent than the bible and that the Qur'an talks about helping others even if they are of different religions. I believe that this is consistent with what we have been learning in WHAP because we have learned about Islam's five pillars of faith and how one of the pillars is to help those in need. We have also seen how Islam has been a peaceful religion when Muslims respected people of the book because of their shared ancestry with them.
C.
The general point behind the fourth reading was to show people that they are sometimes uneducated about their religion and the religions of others. It was trying to make a point that we often let prejudices become what we think of others, and that we are often wrong. It was also trying to show people that we can't think badly about other religions when we don't know everything about the religion. I agree with the opinion of the author because I really do think that lots people are uneducated about religion, and that that will eventually lead to conflicts and a split in our society. I also think that if we take the time to talk to others about their religion we can have more respect for them and we can begin to eliminate those misconceptions.
D.
I do think the many Americans' attitudes need to change because many Americans are not educated about Islam leading to their prejudices against the religion. Because of this and the hate crimes that are going around it could potentially put people's lives at risk. I also think that Americans need to recognize the faults in their own religion's past, and not discount them just because they are not happening right now. It is unfair to the vast majority of Muslims who do not support terrorism to be stereotyped because of their faith. They are people just like us, and deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect. Right now in the news there are debates about who to let into the country from the Middle East, specifically Syrian refugees, and I do agree that we should be conscious of who we let into America but I don't think that we should discount people because of their religion. I also think that America's attitude needs to change because we are not representing our countries values very well. Those values being, that our country is accepting of everyone and that everyone is equal. We are not showing the values that we hold dear when people talk about hate crimes directed towards Muslims and being prejudice towards them.
Jasmine C. NDSJ
I agree with all the aspects of your blog post. There are some things that you said that stood out to me because they are some of things I should have considered putting in my blog post. One was when you mentioned many Americans being uneducated about religion. I believe that this statement is absolutely correct, and it couldn't have been put better. Another thing that you said and I should've mentioned was about the Five Pillers of Islam and how peaceful it the religion is. I mentioned some of those topics but didn't go into much detail as you did.
DeleteSimone Dixon_WHS
a.The abc video shows a lot of prejudice. First of all there is a lack of research which is shown when the man asks a question and says that the Quran is split into parts which is never connected. While this seems small it shows a lack of caring about giving correct information. Also the reporter when talking to the young muslim girl really seems to try and make her say something bad about islam. He ignore her statement about how the US is also doing terrible things with the military. Instead he tries to make her and her religion the villain and make the US seem good and pure. I think this bias exists in reporting because americans want to show how great america is despite our flaws.I think this could make viewers believe that Islam is more violent than christianity and that christians are better.
ReplyDeleteb. The following readings and audio clips all say that christianity is more violent than islam. I believe this is true because christianity has had much more violence throughout it's history and in the bible. I think this is consistent with what we've found in WHAP because we've learned about many wars like the crusades that we're started by christians, while the wars we have learned about that came from Islam were more about politics and land.
c. The point of the author in the 4th reading is to show that we are letting our own prejudices change our perception of things. The religion quiz shows that there is violence in the history's of any religion if you take things out of context. I agree with the author of this because I do think we're all trying to find someone to blame and that projecting all this hate onto Islam lets americans ignore the awful things our own military has done.
d. Americans really need to change their attitudes towards Islam. The amount of hate is astonishing. It is incredible to me that in today's day and age educated people let race and religion blind them from making thoughtful decisions. Even if all those people googling islamophobic things, they are still becoming more okay with hate crimes. We are supposed to be the land of the free and yet we can't seem to get our heads around the fact that terrorism does not define an entire religion. In a country founded on religious freedom, the amount of bigotry towards this one is horrible and idiotic. Change can only happen through education. We have to teach from a young age that it's not okay to blame the actions of one on an entire group of people, to teach that you can't treat muslims like dirt. if we don't begin to make change, there is the possibility of seeing many innocent lives lost.
ReplyDeleteA)Bias is definitely evident in the ABC video. It may seem innocent because it is supposed to be a neutral party but the bias is still there. Not even a minute into the video the commentator uses language such as “insisted” when speaking of what the Muslims had to say. This type of language is used throughout the video. However, beyond the language even pictures and clips show bias. The Christians are shown praising and praying in church while the majority of the film and pictures of Muslims are portray violence. Bias such as this exist in news reporting s and media in general because they want their audience to take on certain views (and keep up their ratings), but they do this in a subtle way so it seems as if their opinions are their own. The effect of this is all around us. It creates a quiet (and sometimes threateningly loud) hostility and promotes distorted but socially acceptable views on something people may or may not know little about at best.
B)In general, the reading suggest that Islam, like any religion, has its good and its bad parts. However the focus is often placed on the bad, when in reality, the bad is a small minority in a vast population. It lies in the interpretation of what is taught. Which is why the message in the readings do correspond for the most part with what we are taught in APWorld. We saw that Muhammad practiced peace and had a forward way of thinking but violence is almost inevitable as it is seen and repeated throughout history.
C)The purpose of the fourth text was to show just how complicated religion is and that we all aren’t experts on it. And that’s okay. What’s not okay is the way we pass judgement and make assumptions on any side even though we lack complete understanding on it.
D)It is vital for American views on Muslims to change. America has a habit of not changing our ways until things have gone too far or something terrible happens. We’ve seen it with the Chinese, Japanese, African Americans, and Hispanics, any minority or unknown culture really throughout history today. And each instance America has realized their mistake in the long run. Racism and intolerance may never really die but it is imperative that we all become more open minded, educated, and understanding of cultures other than our own. It was martin Luther king Jr. who said “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” The first step is to just listen, and take what we hear with a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteA)Bias is definitely evident in the ABC video. It may seem innocent because it is supposed to be a neutral party but the bias is still there. Not even a minute into the video the commentator uses language such as “insisted” when speaking of what the Muslims had to say. This type of language is used throughout the video. However, beyond the language even pictures and clips show bias. The Christians are shown praising and praying in church while the majority of the film and pictures of Muslims are portray violence. Bias such as this exist in news reporting s and media in general because they want their audience to take on certain views (and keep up their ratings), but they do this in a subtle way so it seems as if their opinions are their own. The effect of this is all around us. It creates a quiet (and sometimes threateningly loud) hostility and promotes distorted but socially acceptable views on something people may or may not know little about at best.
B)In general, the reading suggest that Islam, like any religion, has its good and its bad parts. However the focus is often placed on the bad, when in reality, the bad is a small minority in a vast population. It lies in the interpretation of what is taught. Which is why the message in the readings do correspond for the most part with what we are taught in APWorld. We saw that Muhammad practiced peace and had a forward way of thinking but violence is almost inevitable as it is seen and repeated throughout history.
C)The purpose of the fourth text was to show just how complicated religion is and that we all aren’t experts on it. And that’s okay. What’s not okay is the way we pass judgement and make assumptions on any side even though we lack complete understanding on it.
D)It is vital for American views on Muslims to change. America has a habit of not changing our ways until things have gone too far or something terrible happens. We’ve seen it with the Chinese, Japanese, African Americans, and Hispanics, any minority or unknown culture really throughout history today. And each instance America has realized their mistake in the long run. Racism and intolerance may never really die but it is imperative that we all become more open minded, educated, and understanding of cultures other than our own. It was martin Luther king Jr. who said “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” The first step is to just listen, and take what we hear with a grain of salt.
I agree with your opinion on the ABC video being biased due to the fact that they influenced the audience to believe that Islam/Muslims were bad. Also, when the reporter stated that the qu'ran was written by Muhammad and split into two separate parts. While neither statements were correct about that, Muhammad never wrote the qu'ran and it was not in two parts. This shows the lack of intelligence of Americans when it comes to religion( considering the fact that all Muslims are associated with 9-11 ).
DeleteAndre'E_whs
A. I completely agree with you on this, as the language and clips shown in the video portray Islam much more violent than Christianity. I also agree with you on how this bias exists due to their audience, and I like your point on how they have audience take on certain views subtly. It’s interesting how easy it is to let these subtle methods of imposing bias change how so many people view the world both negatively and positively.
DeleteB. I agree with you about everything. When focus is placed on the bad, the bad gets generalized into everyone who practices the religion and causes problems in the future. I also think another general theme in the readings and audio is how politics is a big part of violence rather than religion because of how violence was used for defense of religious persecution.
C. I think this is true. I agree that it’s not okay to pass judgment and make assumptions without completely understanding something, but I think that it has become so common that it would require people to learn more about religion in order to not have these assumptions. I feel like that part of the reason judgements are so easily made today is because people don’t try to learn more about religion and that the benefits of learning about a topic would outweigh the potential consequences of our tendency to easily make judgements without a complete understanding of something.
D. Yes, I completely agree with you. I like your historical references and advocacy for learning and understanding other cultures.
Elaine D, NDSJ
A)
ReplyDeleteIn this video, the news reporter said that it depends on the interpretation of the script. This means that the news show interprets the material before it goes on air which means bias is on this video. Since everybody has a different opinion, everyone will have their own version of the story. Bias can influence the way a viewer looks at the situation. The news show can make a situation seem not so bad, when in reality it is worse than it seems. Religion is especially a bias subject because everyone has a different view on religion. Some people think Islamic people should be trialed for an inside terrorist attack; others think that it’s not the religion that hurts people, its other people that hurt people. It just all depends if you want to believe the news reporter or not.
B)
According to the audios and readings the Islam religion influences majority of the believers’ actions. Although this may be true that the Qur’an may involve violent ways of getting rid of sinners and non-believers; I think the Islamic people may not see it as a really bad thing to do because it is part of their religion. They may not see it as violently spreading the word of Islam; they may think that they are spreading Islam in their way and that their way can’t hurt anyone. Also, according to the third reading, Islam teachings focuses on the Five Pillars and good works & excellence in character of both the spiritual and everyday actions relationship with God. So this means that terrorist violence does not necessarily come from Islam itself, but from the people that practice it.
C)
The author of the fourth reading is saying that religion gets very complicated very fast when you talk about it. It especially gets complicated when you get the sacred texts involved in the conversation. This is because each verse of the different texts can be interpreted many ways and only certain ways are correct in some peoples’ eyes. So people can get offended quickly if you say the wrong thing. The author also talks about Americans make stereotypes for people that they don’t even know, so they’ll stereotype Muslims when they don’t know anyone that is Muslim. I agree with the author that America makes stereotypes before we get to know those people we put the stereotype on. I also agree that people can get very sensitive with religion because of the varying opinions on different verses or topics within the religion.
D)
I think that Americans need to change their attitudes towards Muslims, because you shouldn’t blame the whole religion for one terrorist attack. The only person responsible is the person who set off the bomb. Yes, the bomber maybe a Muslim but that doesn’t mean that all Muslims are to blame. The Qur’an may have some violent ways to clear the sinners and non-believers, but the violence doesn’t go up to terrorist level. Terrorist level violence is not learned upon through the religion, but is brought to that level by certain people who take it that far. Some Americans are of many different religions, that is what America is for; religious freedom. So Muslims should be able to live freely among us no matter if they were born in America or anywhere else in the world.
a. I think that there is much bias in the ABC video which you can see from the choices of adjectives the reporters use, such as savages and barbaric. The tone of the news reporter also changes when talking about Islam because of the stereotypes that are implicated on Muslims.]. I think bias exists in news reporting because it is hard to stay impartial to one’s real opinion, and by talking about any kind of topic, it is obvious that the language you use will be a little biased toward to your own language. When speaking about any topic, we want our own opinion to be known, and even if it can’t be explicitly stated, we will subconsciously hint to it. Remaining impartial to any kind of opinion is extremely hard since we are drawn to share our own opinion. This may affect the viewer’s perception of Islam vs. Christianity because of the bias that the speaker that the viewer is listening to. Even when trying to remain impartial, small hints of favoritism comes out in the type of language used, as well as the tone of voice towards a certain topic. The viewer’s opinion will be influenced based on the speaker’s hints of their own opinion.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA) One example of a bias in the ABC report is when the reporter chose to say “saint or savage”. In addition, the reporters continually said that Muslims “insisted” things, suggesting that Muslims are pushy, or perhaps that the the reporters disagree with points made. Biases in news reports can dramatically affect a consumer’s viewpoint on a given issue. If the reader/listener is not careful to watch out for prejudices, they can unknowingly believe in biased information. Hearing partial information in the media’s reports on Christianity vs. Islam can make people more firm in their pre-existing islamophobic views. In addition, biased reports can cause peoples’ adoption of islamophobic views.
ReplyDeleteB) In general, the audio clips and readings say that Islam is a peaceful religion. They mention that, like the Bible, the Quran has violent passages which require context to fully understand. Furthermore, each resource agreed that the more literal, extreme, and politically-based Quran interpretation of terrorist groups does not reflect the views of the majority of Muslims. These views reflect those my findings in WHAP, as the WHAP curriculum presents Islam as a beautiful and peaceful religion. The clips and online resources also match what I have found in that they both say that only a small number of Muslims are terrorists.
C) The general point behind the religion quiz was to challenge people’s perception of the Quran and Islam. Due to a false belief that Islam promotes violence, many people taking the quiz may have believed the most gruesome passages originated in the Quran. The answers, however, revealed that the Quran and the Bible are very similar in their relationship with violence (and other areas). The author hoped that quiz-takers would learn that the difference in society’s perception of both religions stems mostly from interpretation. I agree with the person who made the quiz’s viewpoints. I,too, believe that most of the stereotypes against Muslims stem from both misinterpretation and violence. I agree with him in that islamophobia is a huge issue that needs to be tackled.
D) American viewpoints of Muslims need to change immediately. Continuing to believe the myth that all Muslims are terrorists will only add to the needless discrimination that many Muslims experience on a daily basis. People’s viewpoints can be changed through education. This can be done through journalism and the media, clever experiments or tests (such as the religion quiz in the New York Times), and by correcting those who say false things about Islam’s correlation to violence. While changing these often deeply-ingrained beliefs may be seen as a difficult task, it is becoming more and more necessary with the rise of Islamophobia.
Nina Lehr, NDSJ
A. The ABC video did portray bias against Muslims, especially when addressing the Muslim girl. The reporter tends to ask questions that are leading to the answer he wants and is actually quite disrespectful in this sense. He can even be said to be provoking the Muslim girl he interviewed with his questions and trying to get a response from her for his interview. Bias is always present in media since everyone has their own agenda and is trying to pursue their own perspective on a certain topic. Anyone in media chooses their words very carefully as to promote their own view on the subject and try to convince the audience that their perspective is the right one. Many people are unable to detect the bias’ present in many things on social media and media in general and therefore are swayed by articles and videos like the one on ABC. This could worsen an already touchy and controversial topic and change people’s behavior and view on Muslims and their beliefs.
ReplyDeleteB. The readings and audio clips help reinforce the truth, that Islam does not promote violence in any way. Like every other religion, there is violence, but the key to understanding the religion is context and the right interpretation. The problem with Islam is that it has been tainted by the few who are radicals, which are also present in every religion, and so people misinterpret the Quran to be extremely violent and generalize the Muslim community. This connects to what we have studied in WHAP since we can see that Islam wasn’t the extremely violent religion that many people believe it is today. In addition to this, WHAP provided us with the knowledge of many other extremists in other religions that have done similar things, but weren’t scrutinized like the Muslim population is today.
C. The 4th reading really opened my eyes to the fact that because of things like the media and stereotypes people very easily associate violence with Islam. I think it tried to convey that because of a negative association towards Islam, people always assume the more violent option is associated with the Quran. However, with the article we could see how many extremely violent things were in the Bible itself, yet are not overlooked because they are interpreted like the Quran should be. I do agree with the article and believe that interpretation and understanding are only possible with the proper historical context and that no one should simply assume a quality to a religion since religions are more often than not very similar.
D. I think the simple fact that terminology like Islamophobia exists is a sign that the American people need to change. People need to realize that religion, more often than not, doesn’t define any one person’s qualities or character. People tend to make generalizations about a person because of their religion rather than seeing the person as just another human who is similar to themselves. If the American population learned not to associate extremists to all people of a religion, they might be able to better themselves and not see a person’s religion as their defining characteristic.
Gurpreet Mahal, NDSJ
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ReplyDeleteA. In the ABC video, there is bias in the rhetoric of the reporter as well as the picking and choosing of passages. The rhetoric the reporter has uses harsh adjectives and ways to describe Islam, such as comparing Christians and Muslims as “saints or a savage.” He focuses on the negative of Islam when the video displays footage of violence associated with Islam while reading passages. When talking to Roya Zaneti, he points out that and seems surprised that she was offended when he associated her country with the 9/11 planners. Even though the report displays the other sides of the Quran and violence, the video emphasizes the negative of Islam in order to cause fear in its audience. I think this bias exists in news reporting due to a need to appeal to an audience with today’s businesses so focused on profits. In order to appeal to people who don’t have or take the time to learn everything about an issue, it is easier for a news outlet to produce something that makes people believe something with one clear claim rather than leaving the audience to think about all sides of the issue. Through this process, it becomes very easy to compare, degrade, and overgeneralize Islam because the facts get simplified. This in turn makes the viewer’s perception of Islam as if it is a harsh religion that should not be respected.
ReplyDeleteB. In general, the readings and audio clips say that Islam and violence did not go through the “holy amnesia” of forgetting the original defensive violence until recently, which caused contradictions between past and present interpretations and usage from and of the Quran. In the NPR audio clip, it discusses holy amnesia, following the Quran for defense, and mentions that fundamentalists have distorted Islam for political purposes. The readings further emphasize this by providing nonliteral and nonviolent interpretations of the Quran that prove that the connections between Islam and violence are not caused by Islam, but rather by politics as well as literal interpretations of the Quran. The reading also shows how today, most Muslims do not support nor interpret the Quran literally for the violence and terrorism but are actually mostly against it. These are consistent with the findings with WHAP, as Muhammad taught others about nonviolence and living in peace and only attacked other regions when he was being persecuted.
C. The general point of the fourth reading is that religion is very complicated and contradictory and is sometimes inappropriately used to justify terrible violence, meaning that the violence should never be used to stereotype and generalize those of one religion. It is expanded on when the author points out how the violence will only get worse if we continue supporting and fueling these stereotypes. I agree with the opinion of the author because it makes sense that when a group is generalized into being something, they will tend to become more like what they’re being told they are. This is similar to how when using drone strikes to kill terrorists in the Middle East, more civilians become terrorists as their loved ones injured and killed by the drone strikes and their anger builds up against those with the drones.
D. Yes, American attitudes do need to change toward Muslims. Terrorism has no religion. No religion preaches violence for political purposes. Not all Muslims are terrorists, and most of them don’t support what terrorists do. Americans should learn about the relationship between Islam and violence in order to fully understand why terrorist groups associate with religions and how complicated religions are. As mentioned in the New York Times editorial, treating all Muslims as supporters of terrorism will empower terrorists. If Americans continue their mindset towards Muslims, it will only make things worse for everyone. Learning about history and social changes over time will help Americans better understand Islam and violence, which will change their view towards Muslims and decrease Islamophobia as well as the negative views of America from other countries.
Elaine D, NDSJ
DeleteA. In the ABC video, bias can be seen in not only in the words used to describe Islamic practices and teachings, but in the imagery they present with it. Within the first thirty seconds of the video, the man says that different interpretations of the Quran that separate “a saint from a savage”. The word savage implies could have easily been replaced with “sinner” or “wrongdoer”, however their use of that specific word promotes the barbaric and uncivilized image of Muslim militants that much of his western audience might have. Bias can also be seen in the imagery that they use. While talking about Quran verses that promote peace and nonviolence, ABC simultaneously shows videos and images of violent Islamic militants. This Bias probably exists in news reporting because of the wanting to create content and report on dramatic issues that people will watch. Newscasters are there to make money, too. The more dramatic and exciting the news is, the more likely people are to watch it. Because segments on Islamic militants or terrorism get more views, newscasters will report on them more often. As we can see in the news today, people are constantly being told about islamic terrorism and not the rest of islam. Like the people in video clip questions ABC presented, many people then only know about the militants and terrorists in Islam, but have no idea what the Quran itself actually says about militarism or terrorism. Because of the lack of knowledge surrounding Islam and the constant showing of violent Muslims in the media, people make assumptions about the religion itself and its connection to violence (often leading to Islamophobia and hatred).
ReplyDeleteB. The readings and audio clips say that, like any other religion, the vast majority of people who practice Islam are nonviolent, and practice a peaceful religion. If However, like the Bible, the Quran does contain verses that, when taken out of context, could promote violence. Many of these verses come from the point in Muhammad's life in which he was a political leader who was engaged in military and political leadership. In WHAP we also learned about the life of Muhammad, and with that his fight against the people in Mecca who banished him and his time organizing his group of followers as a political leader.
(c & d in the comments below)
Sophie K NDSJ
C. I think that the point behind the fourth reading was to show that religion is not black and white. Both the Bible and the Quran have weird parts in them that are not talked about or used in the modern religion. When they are, it is with a constant understanding of the context they were written in. Using a couple verses from the Quran to make an assumption upon about the whole religion is absurd, in the same way that taking a random verse from the Bible would be. 23.4% of the world’s population is Muslim. If Islam was a religion of violence then we would have felt it far more than we already have. The fourth reading reminds us that even though Quranic verses exist that promote violence in some shape or form, they are few and far between. In addition, the Bible also has similar, if not worse messages written in its texts. Islam has many more messages than the few that the american population is exposed to in the media.
DeleteD. Yes, American attitudes towards Muslims need to change. The american media is constantly reporting on Islamic terrorism and acts of violence, and little else about Islam. With little other information, many Americans have based their opinion about Islam based upon this. As has been shown countless times in the past, inadequate education about an issue can lead to assumptions, generalizations and eventually hate and discrimination. Associating all Muslims with terrorism or 9/11 would be the equivalent of associating all Christians with the KKK or other white supremacy groups. The average Christian would say that a KKK member does not possess Christian values such as “love thy neighbor”, and therefore is not Christian. It's absurd and ignorant to think that the same does not apply for Islamic extremist groups. The same goes for any religion. There are 1.6 billion Muslims around the world. That's around 23% of the world's population that practices or identifies as Islamic. The notion that all Muslims are terrorists would mean that 2 out of every 10 people in the world are a) Islamic and therefore b) terrorists. Americans are in desperate need to change their opinion about Islam before they act on it.
Sophie K NDSJ
c. What you saying has relevance to the point the 4th reading is saying. I also believe that you can't criticize something that you don't have any part in. I strongly agree to what your saying because Americans and Muslims have away of living that is different so people have to accept that fact of the matter is that Muslims are going to stay and practice there religion.
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