People tend to be slightly uneasy when it comes to an
introduction to something that they view as radical or extraordinary,
especially when it deals with religious beliefs and customs. Pluralism involves
not only the diversity of the many different religions in a society, but also a
harmonious engagement among the different religions that happen to be located
near one another. T.S Elliot perfectly describes the reasoning why pluralism is
difficult to achieve due the fact that people are “plagued by feelings only
partly explicable in any rational terms”. In other words, people were sacred.
People were afraid of the new religious values that new immigrants bring with
them and perceived some of those religious beliefs as “socially threatening
behavior”. After the 911 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Muslims
encountered a countless amount of harassments due to their religious connection
with those responsible for the attacks. Some of the main indicators for their
religion are the hijabs and buraks that the women and men wear on their heads
and their distinguishable names (1). After this event, Muslims around the U.S
were continuously being targeted for their beliefs due to peoples’ inability to
understand that not all Muslims were terrorists with a mission to destroy
American society.
What can people do to shift away from the judgmental and
disrespectful attitude that is burdened on immigrants who bring new religions
with them? How can one go about accepting other religions without a prejudice
mentality with regards to an event that manipulated a religion’s values?
I think that people need to eliminate their negative views on an entire religious group because of the actions of people who also happen to share the same religion. A very prominent example of this is the discrimination towards Muslims after 9/11. It is not fair to those that are Muslim to be discriminated against just because those who caused the terrorist attacks on 9/11 were also Muslim. It was not the entire Muslim religion that caused the attacks. It is important to realize that a small group of people of one religion is not representative of the entire religion.
ReplyDeleteHeres a somewhat personal response to this post. After 911 my father had issues with people singling him out as islamic. He is Turkish and does have a beard, however he does not practice Islam at all. Despite this my father was called late at night by an anonymous caller. The caller yelled out racist terms and told him to return back to where he came from. My father simply hung up and called the police and reported the offensive phone call. We never got a similar call again.
ReplyDeleteI feel that what my dad did was the correct thing, and that in order to shift people away from judgmental attitudes people must work together to make bigotry something very shameful. And currently society is doing a better job at that than it has ever, as most bigots are secretly racist and not public about it. Maintaining this mentality will eventually let bigotry die out with the older bigots and the younger generations will overall be more accepting of new religions and cultures as it is becoming today.
I feel like the only way for people to shift away from the judgmental and disrespectful attitude on immigrants who brings new religion with them is to have an open mind as well ask expanding their knowledge about other new religion. Every individual should get the same respect from other people regardless of what ethnicity or religion they may be. It's just sad to know that this kind of behavior is still going on today. People need to realized that its absolutely not okay to judge other people based on their appearance or religion. Obviously everyone has different opinions and perspective on things, but one thing that everyone has in common regardless of what ethnicity or religion they practice, is that we are all human beings.
ReplyDeleteIn order to eviscerate the racially judgmental attitudes towards new religious immigrants one must break down the obstinate barriers that plague many American's minds. These issues may stem from 9/11 through ignorance and refusal to witness the truth. But the only key to these sorts of dilemmas is unfortunately only time. Time heals wounds, while some may already be enlightened by the obvious ludicrous nature of attacking someone based on religion or race, others need the time in order to move forward, to forgive.
ReplyDeleteWhat can people do to shift away from the judgmental and disrespectful attitude that is burdened on immigrants who bring new religions with them?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the post above post. Certain prejudices are embedded within people and there is no way to change that. However, as a whole, it is just about being educated. An educated person knows one group of attackers does not make up the majority. A less educated person is more susceptible to less educated opinions and to look at a whole group as terrorists because of a few flawed members.
Hello. I find it interesting that you are finding a connection between certain attacks and this idea of immigrants bringing in new religions. I think that when something as terrible as the 9/11 terrorists attacks occur, people put up a defensive wall and will not accept anything or anybody that had any similarities to the attack. So it seems difficult to shift away from the judgmental ideology. However, I think to try to stray away from that disrespectful attitude, it is important to remember to judge someone by the content of their character and not much else. It would be unfortunate to think that certain prejudices are embedded in people, especially when America is more progressive/reformed and it seems as though those prejudices should be lost. Nonetheless, if a more cultured person who is aware of the world only judges a person based on character, I think that is a further step forward to becoming more accceptant of new religions in America.
ReplyDeleteI think as a country the United States is "maturing" about religious tolerance. It's hard for one to believe that America is still tarnished by intolerance but it is true, there was anti muslim ideas floating around after the 9/11 attacks. One way of solving this problem, is for peaceful muslims to spread their ideas and explain the difference between their religion and the Taliban. The United States is ready for movements like this. We have a Muslim president, that is proof that the greater portion of society is ready to be tolerant,
ReplyDeleteThe seager text actually depicts a form of this peaceful spread of culture. The midway festivals depicted the type of hierarchy that was occurring with race. Unlike the White fair the displays were organized in a sort of hierarchical form. Certain races were not represented as strongly as others. Today in America, we have made great strides to represent every nationality. We have festivals such a black history month or even cinco de mayo has been accepted by some institutions as a holiday.
DeleteI think that a main reason why people have a judgmental and disrespectful attitude about foreign religions is because of the media. When 9/11 occurred, the media portrayed all Muslims as bad so society began to believe that. In order to get past these prejudice ideas that the media portrays, we have to either teach the public how see through the bias perspectives or change the media.
ReplyDelete@hornswoggler
ReplyDeleteI find it really interesting that you bring up the media in your statement. I strongly agree with you that the media plays a crucial role in portraying how a certain group is seen and treated by the numerous amount of people that consume the media's attempt to scapegoat a group. I feel that if the media were to restructure the manner in which their news is spread by trying to be as unbiased and neutral as possible when dealing with a sensitive situation as 911, people would NOT be so quick as to correlate an entire religious group to the actions of a few who happen to be of the same religion.
I agree with a lot of the opinions on here. People need to definitely be more open minded and not allow the actions of a few extremists to speak for a whole religion. I think increasing education and awareness of what their religion really stands for would be beneficial for the public as a way of breaking down barriers between cultures. People have to remember to form their own opinions instead of allowing their mindsets to be decided for them by the bias portrayal of a single group or source of information.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found interesting in the Seager article was the underlying theme of nationalism that he brought into play with the high holiday being the fourth of July which is a celebration of America. This holiday being called the "Columbian fourth" had a iman proceed over the event showing a form of pluralism over the community of all different religious and ethic backgrounds.
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