Bridget Maloy

Bridget Maloy

Foundations of Islam

Islam and other religions in the media:

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            Florida pastor Terry Jones made worldwide news last year when he filmed himself burning the Qur'an. Once again he makes headlines, stating the goal of Islam is 'world domination'. He held an anti-Muslim rally outside the Islamic Center of Michigan, causing the mosque to have a lockdown preventing cars/people from entering. He went on to tell reporters of his concern that the growth of Islam in Detroit and throughout the country will lead to the 'oppression of non-Muslims'. He had sought permission to speak in front of the mosque several times throughout the past year and at one point he was put in jail and ordered to stay away from the mosque for 3 years (this was eventually overturned). Last month, the city asked him to sign a legal document before protesting but Jones filed a lawsuit and a judge ruled in his favor. These events consequently led him to question the American right to free speech. During his talk, derogatory comments were made about Muslims and when Jones criticized Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson, someone yelled "Throw 'em in the pit with the Muslims!"  A TV station called 'Real Catholic TV'  (owned by a member of Opus Dei) based in a Michigan town had its host there who said he supported Jones' right to free speech and some of his views. He concluded with his fear that the growing power of Islam in Europe will eventually reach the U.S. Warikoo closes the article with a somewhat scary comment from a Jones supporter who stated, "sharia law is the most dangerous thing. We can't have it in this country". The final, and seemingly only positive note is that there were counter-protesters that were Christian.

            My initial reaction to this article was a little bit of surprise/sadness. Since we have been discussing the backlash and stereotypes still placed on Muslims in our class I was not entirely shocked by this anti-Muslim rally. However, it is quite frightening and sad that someone like Jones can get so much attention for his outlandish views of a peaceful religion. While reflecting this it did hit me that maybe in our country his views are not entirely out of left field and maybe there are many people who still fear Muslims post 9-11. It has been 11 years since 9-11 and people with knowledge of Islam know that the vast majority of Muslims do not share the beliefs of Bin Laden and it leads me to ask the following question: is it fair that in our country Islam is still so heavily persecuted? News stations still report stories misleading Americans into believing that the religion of Islam is some anti-American violent religion. I did not find this article to be biased; it remains objective in explaining the series of events. I also question what leads people and other religions to believe that Islam's goal is world domination? I thought it was significant that the Muslims were encouraged not to counter-protest them, were the Muslim leaders trying to appear more peaceful to the media? It is mentioned a Christian woman held a sign that read "God loves us all", maybe if other religions supported Islam by finding various ways to inform believers that Islam is just a peaceful practicing faith like theirs (with obvious ideological differences) Instead of having a Catholic TV station promote anti-Muslim beliefs. But, maybe other religions are hesitant to do so?

            I do not mean to appear naive or uninformed when questioning what has led to these social constructs since I do remember 9/11, but I find it hard to believe that in our country people still blame a whole religion for an event done by violent, hateful people. It also seems strange to me that acts of violence have been done by other religious people in our country and we have not blamed whatever religion it was, we just blamed the person. It is almost comical when Warikoo mentions that this rally was uneventful compared to Jones' previous visits where there were arrests and street clashes. It is like the media and society hopes for things like these because they know people love to hear about controversy. Maybe because we give people like Jones so much attention other ignorant people in our country see this guy who seems convincing and think he must be telling the truth.