Introduction
Professor Akbar S. Ahmed in his book “Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam” critically looks at the wide-ranging experiences that Muslim have undergone in the U.S, and American individuality influenced by its origins and history.
Additionally he looks into the experiences that various religious assemblies have gone through and the effects they have had on these groupings, and how these aspects have had effects on each other. People always turn defensive whenever they feel others are judging them resulting in conflicts which are a mechanism to try and counter the growing conflict.
Culture is commonly used as a lens by which the characters and practices of people are judged thereby coming up with assumptions and groupings of people as victims, heroes or villains one has to ask themselves where or how prejudice originates from. Grouping and classification of people into an assortment of clusters with particular distinctiveness is a necessity for living in a multifaceted world such as this.
However one has to ask themselves psychologists’ perceptions, of this phenomenon on prejudice beyond the above statement that is so obviously true and often repeated to an extent people find it trite or meaningless. Theories on the foundation of prejudice, its psychological purpose, and why some persons feel prejudiced and discriminated on more than others, can and are still being formulated.
Culture Conflict: Stereotyping, Bias and Discrimination
Stereotyping is a generalization of thoughts and notions held by the public on particular groups or individuals that do not fit into the universal picture. Stereotyping comes about when one is not able or unwilling to obtain a complete picture to enable them to make fair conclusions about other people thus getting a situation where one has to make up things to try and fill in the vacant spaces devoid of any concrete information.
This is a phenomenon created and propagated by the society that people live in although it may seem that it does this innocently it often results to biasness and discrimination and at times persecution. Walter Lippman a journalist came up with the term stereotype in 1929 to describe the generalization interpersonal perceptions and behavior.
Stereotypes emerge due to an apprehension of persons found in minority groups. For example, people suffering from mental disabilities are viewed as more prone to violence but in real sense this thinking contradicts with researched data that gives evidence that people suffering from mental disabilities’ level of proneness to violence is at par with a normal person.
This thinking is brought about by much publicity being heaped on the few isolated cases of mentally disabled people going running amok thus turning into a myth about mentally disabled people through this stereotypes are born and perpetuated leading to discrimination. A group may be unfairly generally characterized due to some isolated characteristics of one or two members of their group. Prejudice is an omnipresent experience due to the act that human beings are social animals.
People are usually born into a communal entity referred to as a family most commonly nucleus in nature, but their upbringing is undertaken by other entities such as learning institutions, friends, extended families, and professional and business set ups which take up most of their lives. These groups that people belong to impact very much on the self esteem and how they perceive themselves with their different and individualistic identities being made up of these cluster associations.
People often characterize themselves by the groups and clusters they associate themselves with. Actually, asking an individual to describe themselves one is bound to receive several answers, indicating that the groups he or she is associated to have an effect on the individual. As a result, one’s own sense of self is not a cut off state from others but is linked with others in assorted ways (Keene, Nagy and Szende, 102).
Professor Ahmed (45) tries to find out and at the same time give insight to what Muslims in America go through in their quest for acknowledgment in a different world that does not recognize them. Immigration of Muslims to America has continued to rise considerably in the last half-century.
The numbers have also continued to increase as a result of procreation, and conversion. Close to two-thirds of the Muslim population in America are immigrants and are descendants, mostly from the Middle East, while American converts make up an immense bulk of the remainder. Going with the current statistics and rate of growth of the Muslim community in America, Islam is bound to be the second biggest religion in America by 2015.
Scholars of Islam, religious students, experts on Middle East issues, and analysts have a tendency of overlooking the existence of Islam and Muslims in the U.S and in the process dismissing it as an issue of insignificant importance. An explanation to this may be the media commonly creating unfavorable, undesirable, and harmful attention to Islam in the perspective of terrorism in the Middle East, and the desire of American Muslims to keep a low-profile.
Multiculturalism/Pluralism
Multiculturalism can be seen as an acceptance of the numerous diverse ethnic cultures that surrounds people consistent to the demographic composition of a particular region, usually at a managerial level, for example learning institutions, businesses, cities and states.
The multiculturalism guiding principle is habitually compared to assimilation and integration notions. It is in this framework that believers of multiculturalism extend unbiased status to diverse ethnic and religious groups while not elevating any particular ethnic, religious, or cultural community values over another as the fundamental one (Keene, Nagy and Szende 68).
Proponents of multiculturalism see it as a fair system which gives room to people for expression of who and what they beyond doubt are within a liberal society that acclimatizes well to social issues affecting them. The argument is that culture cannot be defined basing it on one race or religion, rather it is a product of a mix of several aspects that keep on transforming as the world evolves.
The majority of western countries have adopted this as official policy since the 1970s, and in so doing offering various views and reasons to justify their measures which vary from one country to another. Some of the grand capitals found in the Western world are more and more being composed of montage of cultures.
On the other hand, pluralism can be termed as a situation where minority groups within a larger setting where the majority enjoys all the freedoms and rights, are able to maintain their only one of its kind cultural characteristics, values and practices but are still acknowledged by the majority.
An example of this argument is Lebanon which comprises of 18 different religious communities that co-exist on an area of land measuring approximately 10,452 km². This shows that in pluralist cultures, distinct clusters are not only able to subsist together, but also regard the positive characters of other clusters as valued qualities worthy to embrace into the foremost culture.
At the same time, multiculturalism is a perception that not only puts up with the reality of other social individualities, but also recognizes them and understands how different the identities between them might be. Multicultural concerns have long been a key aspect of history and traditions in India, affecting its constitutional and political arrangements.
Much of Indian history, culture and politics have distinct multicultural connotations with the main question being how it is able to coexist despite its immense multi-ethnic composition, which comprises of religious groups, diverse languages and communities, different social classes divided into castes and tribes.
The fundamental question here is how it has been able to stay alive as a state given its harsh environment characterized by underdevelopment, mass poverty, illiteracy and extreme regional disparities. This can be explained through looking at India’s political record of relative unity and stability compared to other post colonial and socialist states and it comes out more extraordinary.
Scholars have argued that set of multicultural state policies laid down act as checks and balances for resolving any ethnic conflict. These policies are entrenched in the constitution and can be said to be a basic multicultural document, in the good judgment of providing for political and institutional procedures for the appreciation and recognition of the country’s diversity.
Post-independence India’s foremost form of political appreciation of territorially founded ethnic identities of its people has remained a statehood principle within the federation, although other forms, most notably, sub-statehood, in the form of Regional or Tribal District Councils, have often served similar purposes for small ethnic communities.
Assimilation and Integration
Professor Ahmed’s “Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam” explores the day to day lives of people of different races, cultures, colors, backgrounds, religions, tribes and other demographics, live and interact together given that in the present times, communities are more disorderly and continue to focus more and more on comparison of two or more things put together that are different between them, especially in order to suggest a link between them or emphasize the contrast between them.
His concerns in the way societies have assimilated if not integrated into each other are brought out very vividly in his writings, and he suggests that discussing assimilation cannot take place completely without taking a look into pluralism “which is a concept of accepting others not like us”.
Ahmed tries not to retell American history claiming that it has been retold numerous times in the past and done very well however he explores the American identity and how the challenges of assimilating Islam in America have had an effect on it creating distinctive identities and boundaries which the society maintains and defines itself(Bazelon 2008).
Jean Piaget a psychologist known for his studies on the nature of knowledge, in particular its foundations, scope, and validity particularly relating to children expressed assimilation as a balancing progression of adaptation, by which the consciousness of the outer world is internalized.
Assimilation and adaptation are indivisible and both survive in a ‘dialectical relationship’ even though one may seem to prevail upon the other at any given time. The perceptions of events in the outer world are integrated into the inner world devoid of any alteration to the composition of the inner world but at a cost of constricting the outer world perceptions to be able to fit in.
Integration can be defined as the way in which somebody or something for example ethnic minorities in a society, shift from their low status into a much higher status of the society that contains the majority. Therefore, are able to enjoy fully the advantages and rights accorded to that majority elite group.
In today’s modern world characterized by social networking applications done via the World Wide Web, integration is an expression that is explained as a state where people carry out their activities, personal faiths and religions, jobs and social interaction in a more transparent manner than before. Assimilation and integration are common features found in urban developed environments and go hand in hand with cultural, ethical and social exchanges and attitudes.
Ahmed (45) in trying to explain assimilation and integration, gives an example of Muhammad Ali, the famous boxer who on initially embracing the Islamic religion, at the outset was against pluralism terming ‘integration as wrong’ and further went on to say that they (the Blacks and Muslims) did not wish to be associated and subsist with the white man. Nevertheless he realized that ‘there comes a time in every man’s life when he has no choice but to forgive or he will be consumed by his own bitterness’.
Race and Ethnicity
A shared or participated in notion by many universally that the human species can be classified into clusters based on physical and genetic makeup. In spite of overwhelming logical proof, there are still those who maintain their own race as advanced over all. People like this are generally branded as “racists”. In the 19th century Hitler classified and branded Jews as an “inferior race with specific physical and personality characteristics”.
A number of scholars alleged these characters would go away if assimilation of the Jews and political and social liberation was done whereby they were integrated into the ‘upper-class societies’. On the other hand some thought that these characters were hereditarily passed down therefore could not be altered. These having existed or been going on for a long period of time presented a base for the Nazi beliefs and genocidal rampages.
Africans have borne the brunt of racism as a result of being traded as slaves in America having to put up with centuries of cruelty and discrimination. The American civil war came as a rescue to the slaves who were liberated and approved for U.S citizenship however it did not bring discrimination to an end.
Discrimination and biasness comes about when one judges people based on the stereotypes they have created and the little information they have as regarding the said person, which leads them to treat them differently from others basing ions actions on their narrow-mindedness. Discrimination and biasness may cause people in the minority feel discouraged from living in certain places or doing certain things due to the pressure they get from the majority class.
Cases where biasness and discrimination are rampant are the workplace (women and minorities such as Latinos and African Americans), learning institutions, provision of social amenities and services and much more. Racism against minorities in America is still widespread despite laws and other protections against bigotry. Minorities still face biasness in housing; employment, and learning institutions, persecution by white supremacies is still rife insurance providers’ biasness and discrimination.
Darwin’s narrative the invisible hand focuses on a fundamental argument that tries to explain the reasons that drive people to be racist and look at themselves as more superior than others. The narrative argues that rivalry is preferential in treatment to characters and manners depending on the effect it has on human beings’ accomplishment.
According to Smith’s version of Darwin’s narrative on the invisible hand, characters that improve or add to the strength, worth, beauty, or other desirable quality of an individual sometimes promote group feelings of curiosity or concern about something that makes the attention turn toward it.
An example given by Smith where; a random change in a gene or chromosome structure resulting in a new trait or characteristic that can be inherited for example a hawk’s vision is not only beneficial to it, but also to the whole genus as a whole. On the other hand, characters that are helpful to certain persons are detrimental to bigger clusters.
Case in point, a change in a gene formation for comparatively big in size antlers in male elk provided an upper hand to the procreation needs of the individual, as it assisted him triumph in battle over other elk. However as this chromosome structure change widened, an ‘arms race’ that made it potentially very dangerous to the male elk.
Civil rights laws are constantly being put forward to fight this vice of to fight racism, persecution and biasness towards minorities in any given setting. While the First Amendment to the Constitution looks after the human and civil rights of all and sundry to come together peacefully and address each other freely, bigoted and hate speeches usually have a reaction of reprimand from members in charge of the society or setting the racists direct their comments to.
The worldwide community has express disapproval of the apartheid principles of the South African government which has generated much debate on this issue.
Conclusion
People with strong views on complex social issues are prone to examine relevant practical data in a prejudiced approach. They are apt to believe evidence at face value while putting factual evidence to serious assessment, and as a result draw support for preliminary positions from unsystematic findings.
Stereotyping as a suitable process of acquiring knowledge by the use of reasoning, intuition, or perception evolves into a “social problem” as soon as it beomes prejudicial. Thus, if a stereotype is a picture based on insufficient information, narrow mindedness is a negative picture whose basis is insufficient information. Prejudice is indeed a social disease and refers to circumstances whereby, conclusions are drawn on the behavioral characteristics of people thus does not allow them to bond with groups or gatherings to which they fit in.
This gives insight on how being prejudicial and its consequences are associated to intentional differences over resources that are in short supply. Stressed out competition results to a thriving in conflict and prejudice, however, healthy cooperation and fewer clashes over resources, result in a disappearance in prejudice and conflict.
Professor Ahmed looks into the lives of Muslims in America and how they have impacted the American identity and also the effect the American identify has had on them. America’s Muslims are more and more aware of their own identity now more than ever before; and wait for the day their existence will be acknowledged.
Until now, Muslims have not had an effectual role as a community in the America’s political and social process. Nonetheless, they have started to appreciate the system that undergirds the American democratic system and assuming they will finally realize the appreciation and involvement they have for so long fought for is quite sensible.
Works Cited
Ahmed, Akbar. Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2010. Print.
Keene, Derek, Nagy, Balázs and Szende, Katalin. Segregation, integration, assimilation: religious and ethnic groups in the medieval towns of Central and Eastern Europe. Washington: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009. Print.
Bazelon, Emily. “The Next Kind of Integration.” NY Times 20 July 2008: Print.