The cultural, economic, and political contributions of Muslims assisted the U.S. to gain power and sustainability. Nonetheless, the prolonged relations between the U.S. and Muslims do not assist in peaceful and moderate communication and understanding of Muslim culture and traditions among Americans and the Western nations in general. Therefore, the abuse and misunderstanding of Muslims’ communities and their representatives are based on mutual ignorance of both parties, where Muslims do not display and align their values and traditions with the U.S. society, while the other communities are reluctant to explore and learn more about Muslims and their customs.
The conducted lecture by professor Grewal explains why Muslims are an integral part of modern U.S. society. Besides, she indicates that social and religious differences are exaggerated and usually based on stereotypes, fear, and misunderstanding. Grewal offers to analyze the Qur’an from multiple perspectives to understand that the Muslims’ Holy book has little difference from the Bible or any other religious text.
Grewal also presented the images from Shadow Birk’s artwork American Qur’an. The idea is that Birk is not a Muslim but desires to attract Americans to the current social and religious problem – the Muslims’ haterade and abuse. What is more, Grewal tells that the images represent a combination of Holy texts from the Qur’an and the American realm to show how close these entities are. Grewal also highlights that Birk translates Qur’an to educate U.S. society and explain why the understanding of the Qur’an is needed to find common ground. From a personal perspective, the presented artworks have a substantial contribution to social development; however, they need more context to engage and attract ordinary citizens.
Furthermore, the professor states that the issue is that U.S. society is focused on struggles and incidents, which appeared in the past. She provides several examples, how one event characterizes the entire Muslim community. Further, she asks whether one episode can describe the whole U.S. nation. In this comparison, it is evident that led by stereotypes, the U.S. society lost focus on essential issues and problems, such as hatred and abuses toward innocent people.
The National Geographic’s interview with Muslim community leaders and residents supports Grewal’s idea that the misunderstanding between Muslims and Americans is based on perceptions and images delivered by political and social institutions, which rarely conduct grounded studies and analysis about the situation. In the interview, Muslims show their traditions and culture as it is by demystifying American stereotypes about culture and religion. The interview reveals that Muslims respect and highly value family, women, children, and freedom of choice. These values are familiar for all Americans and should be common ground in understanding a diverse society.
Nonetheless, it can be admitted that Grewal’s lecture also points out that another problem between Muslims and American society is the language barrier and low literacy in history. She admits that most Muslim words are freely interpreted or adjusted to fit American social realms. Such negligence to translation and interpretation is a primary cause of why some Muslims’ traditions and values are seemed barbaric for U.S. citizens. On the contrary, the explanation and education about meanings and notions in Muslim culture significantly reduce tensions and hostage toward Islamic communities.
From this perspective, the attended lecture delivers new perspectives on how to understand and analyze Muslim traditions and values. The provided information indicates that Muslims and Christians have many shared values and philosophies. Dignity, respect, and honor are core constituents of any religion and culture, meaning that both Christians and Muslims follow unified principles of social and religious life.
Despite having different interpretations of prophets and how society should be constructed, Muslims show high awareness about problems related to domestic violence, women abuse, and racism. All of them are prohibited and do not advertise by the Qur’an or any other holy text. As a result, the current struggles and misunderstandings between U.S. citizens and Muslims are subjective and construct barriers toward social and personal welfare in both communities.
Bibliography
Einboden, Jeffrey. The Islamic Lineage of American Literary Culture. 3rd ed. Reprint, New York: Oxford university press, 2016.
Ezzani, Miriam D., and Kelley M. King. “Whose Jihad? Oral History of an American Muslim Educational Leader and U.S. Public Schools”. Journal of Educational Administration and History 50, no. 2 (2018): 113-129. Web.
Fadel, Leila. “How Muslims, Often Misunderstood, Are Thriving in America”. National Geographics, 2018. Web.
Lajevardi, Nazita, Kassra A. R. Oskooii, Hannah L. Walker, and Aubrey L. Westfall. “The Paradox Between Integration and Perceived Discrimination Among American Muslims”. Political Psychology, 2019. Web.