American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Arabs and Muslim Americans Andrew J. Ayers ETH/125 April 11, 2011 Teresa Edge Arabs and Muslim Americans What distinguishes African American Muslims from other practicing Muslims in the United States today? * Arabs are an ethnic group. * Muslims are a religious group. * Islam is the faith, like Christianity. * Muslim is a believer of that religion, like a Christian. * You cannot accurately identify the Muslims by nationality alone. * Just because you are Arab does

and prejudiced. The perception of Arabs and the Islamic religion has created a system in which prejudices and stereotypes worked their way so thoroughly into literature, education, history, language, and social mores that they seem to govern the conflict as much as they are created by it, while newspapers and television news play a major role in the way we perceive Arabs and the Islamic religion. Movies, books, and sitcoms also play a major role in shaping

of African Americans being more likely to commit crimes. This is a great example of a profile created over time due to facts and past experiences. “If we look at the number of homicides committed in the United States between 1974 and 2004, 52% of offenders were black and 46% were white.” (Threatcore, March 28, 2011, p. 1) Seems equal, right? However, blacks made up only 12% of the population at this time while whites made up 80%. Racial profiling doesn’t just apply to African Americans. For example

Hessian Abbess says he watched in humiliation as two security officers yanked clothes out of his carry-on bag in plain view of dozens of other travelers at Baltimore/Washington International Airport.  Hessian Abbess, an Arab lawyer going to a convention, was kept at the gate for 30 minutes that October day. He tried to show them a business card that identified him as member of the National Bar Association, but they paid no attention.  "I felt threatened. I felt if I protested too much, I was going

around to the side of the house, where your pregnant wife is drinking a virgin bloody Mary. “I got the raise,” you inform her, and watch as her eyes light up. “Babe!” That is the American Dream. We suggest ideals:

Stevenson, he scripts a similar situation where a man named Walter McMillian was a victim of racial profiling. Walter McMillian, an African American man, was convicted of murder of Ronda Morrison a young white woman, because of his race, and white supremacy. “There was no evidence and connection of Walter to the murder except that he was an African American man involved in an adulterous interracial affair, which meant he was reckless and possibly dangerous, even if he had no prior criminal history

talked about. Certainly I, an ordinary non-Israeli/Arab, have not heard of any terror ‘group’, apart from brutal attacks against the Palestinians perpetuated by Israeli ‘right wings’ (which are framed as violence perpetuated by individuals). Especially in the media of the United States and of its allies, the theme of Jewish religious terrorism is out of the media’s long list of possible headlines; due to the rejection from the media, Muslim- and Arab-led terrorisms in the Middle East region are the

September 11th changed the lives of many Americans, irrevocably. The horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon altered the way American’s viewed their positions within the world, not to mention their lives and their safety. The attacks brought terrorism to the forefront of national attention, in every aspect. The government became immediately immersed in an effort to understand and defeat terrorism, and simultaneously, the media, with its perverse fascination with violence and

period is Exodus. Exodus is a 1960 film about the birth of the modern state of Israel in 1948. It was based on Leon Uris’ novel of the same name. It is important to stress that Uris was called on by American government to create a novel which would introduce the Arab-Israel conflict to the Americans and depict Israelis as heroes. This comes as no surprise as the 1950s and 1960s marked, as already mentioned, the growth of tensions between the East and the West. America and Israel were close allies

Q2: What is the significance of the “Melting Pot” metaphor in terms of Americans attitudes towards race and ethnic assimilation? Why was the idea of assimilation or Americanization so important to many people during the early 20th century? Why was the Melting Pot idea altered to a “Salad Bowl” metaphor in recent years? Which idea (melting pot/salad bowl) do you see as more appropriate in terms of teaching kids today? Why do you think the need to assimilate has been deemed as important to us as a