During the span of six days at one point this month, I encountered several little scenarios that caught me off guard. By sharing this, I hope it will show you what it really means to be a Muslim living in Canada, amid negative media.
Day 1 — Bizarre class meeting
In my reporting class one day we had to pitch a story idea for a feature article.
I decided the focus of my feature would be on the increasing presence of Muslims on our campus. A new centre for the study of Islam was in the process of development, Islam Awareness Week was kicking off, and Tariq Ramadan — a celebrity Muslim intellectual — was coming to Carleton. I thought it would be a perfect pitch to sell to my professor.
But he didn’t like it.
He asked me, “What about the Jews? Why not do a feature on them?”
I was a bit thrown back by this random comment but I had no problem.
I replied, “OK sure, but what’s the story? Is there any event going on with the Jewish community?”
He said, “Ask them how they feel about the increasing presence of Muslims on campus. Do they feel threatened, like during the Apartheid Week?”
He seemed to be referring to the event taking place at the time actually called Islam Awareness Week. I was dumbfounded beyond belief. “HUH???”
Why would the Jews feel threatened by Islam Awareness Week? It’s not a political crusade; it’sjust a simple week-long-event focused on informing students about Islam. Israel Apartheid Week, which took place earlier this month, had nothing in common with Islam Awareness Week — except for the fact they both share an acronym.
I explained this to the professor but he wasn’t convinced.
It was like a scene out of a movie. In slow motion, I turned my face to make eye contact with a Jewish student to my left to see his reaction to this absurdity, and he had the same dumbfounded look on his face too. I was relieved; I didn’t feel alone in my thoughts. Even the Jewish kid agreed with me!
After this split-second moment of disbelief, I persisted with my pitch. The Jewish student even defended me and after a heated argument, the professor gave in.
How random was that?Besides teaching us, he is a journalist, making the news for a newspaper with a circulation of God knows how many, and this is his idea of a news story?
Day 2 — Coffee and a dose of a poll
The next day, still a bit jarred from the meeting with the professor, I went to my laptop with a cup of coffee, ready to do research before the interviews for IAW. I logged ontoCBC and right on the front page was an article about discrimination against minorities, namely Muslims.The headline was a bit discouraging. But reading the article, it showed discrimination against Muslims has actually dropped 10 per cent in four years.
I used this poll as a reference and asked some people from IAW what they thoughtabout it.
I spoke with Maha, one of the supervisors of IAW, and she told me that the purpose of the event was to dispel stereotypes about Muslims and Islam.Dispelling such stereotypes would help curb discrimination.
But being pessimistic, I thought, how many times do we have to educate people and to “dispel stereotypes” about Islam before we see changes? Isn’t it more than just our role? Don’t the media have a role in this too? As I talked to more peoplethe next day, I would find this to be true.
Day 3 — Niqab in Quebec
I was speaking with my friend who was volunteering with IAW. She said most people came to ask about the hijab because they were so confused and curious about it. Other volunteers overhearing the conversation told me a lot of it had to do with themedia frenzy aroundthe expelling of a student who refused to remove herniqab ina school in Quebec. Such a small issue in Quebec turned into a political hot topic, splashed across the cover of Montreal Gazette,depicted in snarky little editorial cartoons and ranted about on the airwaves of CBC radio stations.
Isn’t it ironic how one day CBC poll ponders the reasons about discrimination against Muslims, and at the same time produce news stories like this?
This is one of reasons why so many people were curious about the hijab and niqab . . . because it’s all over the media — in a negative way.
Day 4 — Tariq Ramadan is a terrorist?
The Ottawa Citizenpublished an article on Tariq Ramadan, questioning his credibility. The article suggested Ramadan was a radical because of his connection to Muslim Brotherhood (considered a terrorist group) in Egypt.
It was clearly obvious the writer did not read anything about Ramadan. Ramadanhas been in thepublic eye for more than 30 years and has written 15 books. Surely he would have talked about this alleged connection with Muslim Brotherhood and he sure did in his book, What I Believe– a simple book about Ramadan’s basic beliefs and ideas. Was it so hard to do some research?
Day 5 — The arrival
It was the day where I would finally meet Ramadan and get to ask him questions. He came to an informal question and answer session where there were about 40 students. The organizer of the informal session was upset about the article written about Ramadan the previous day.
It occurred to me then it was why the organizer didn’t want me to publish anything from this session(this being the reason why I can not post any answers to your submitted questions). He was afraid of the negative media. Despite his efforts (and I think good intentions), he couldn’t control it.
Later that night, Ramadan gave a public lecture to a full auditorium. He responded to his critics, especially the article written about him, by simply saying “arrogance is a sign of doubt.”
I think discrimination is a sign of arrogance, doubt and fear, and stereotyping is a sign of arrogance, doubt, and ignorance. They’re all connected, eh?
Day 6 — Reflection
As I emailed my feature article yesterday and reflected on the past week, I couldn’t help but chuckle a little. Thinking about those little events, conversations, articles, and combining them all in this post, is actually overwhelming.
Pay attention folks because the devil is in the details.
For more information:
CBC poll on discrimination against Muslims
Ottawa Citizen article: Radical or reformer? Tariq Ramadan