media and us...continued

“Muslims have hatred in their hearts,” said one Indian student who I met at a common friend’s house. We were all talking about religion and suddenly the conversation veered to Muslims and Pakistan. The guy then went on to convince me about his statement regarding Muslims. He argued that terrorists were mostly Muslims or in fact most Muslims were terrorists. He used the two words as synonyms.
The recent controversy regarding the Danish cartoons and subsequent conversations made me think. I am no spokesperson for Islam. But it made me uncomfortable to see a few of my classmates say that Muslims are arrogant and the Danish paper was just exercising its freedom of expression. They have problems with the reaction that has Muslims all over the world burning embassies, protesting and issuing fatwas. I have a problem with that too. But they do not understand or consciously fail to understand that Muslims are a set of people and not just violent terrorists.
What is the freedom that we are talking about? The media images of Muslims are almost always negative, a bunch of crazy fanatics out there to take on the western world. Why can’t the media be more responsible? Why can’t they be fair? Almost all the initial reports that I read in the papers or the internet had no moderate Muslim speaking or expressing his views. The views were extremist and I feel the newspaper, and I am talking about the U.S. media, had an agenda, to defend what the Danish paper did. What is the justification for publishing those cartoons? Just to show that WE CAN DO IT or we are the champions of freedom of expression. Well then, that’s their expression and the whole world does not go by the western world’s liberal views. They are an entity and we need to respect that.
Why do we attribute arrogance and anger as being characteristic or defining features of a community? How much of effort do we make to understand and be tolerant of those of other faith and regard them as individuals? And should we not do it considering the present situations?
I am a First Amendment and freedom of speech and expression person but I think one must not be insensitive and hurt anyone’s religious sentiments. Religion is dear to people. And a lack of understanding of other religions or groups can lead to negative stereotypes that can in turn create fierce group loyalties. When people think there identity is under threat or their background is misunderstood, they start becoming a closed group. This is what the world at present is dealing with in case of Muslims. They are branding them and creating a stereotype, a negative one.
And we talk about white and black. That’s important. But I think it is not only about color now. There is a different kind of racism, something that is orchestrated and will have more serious ramifications if the media does not get its act together. Blacks were portrayed as evil or bad, but Mulsims are being shown as terrorists. Who is fighting for them here? That’s something for us to think about.
Section 2