Argumentative Essay
Mahmood 1
Akif Mahmood
2015-11-0202
Dr. Naveed Rehan
SS100 Writing and Communication
17 November 2011
Uncovering the Truth Behind Stereotypes As the world becomes a global village, people from all walks of life are socializing at an unprecedented level and virtually no one is safe from falling prey to stereotypes. This often dogmatic approach to categorizing people is widespread in mass communication as well from standup comedies and television shows to biased news and politics. As a result, the truth gets buried under several layers of externally influenced presumptions before it even gets a chance to express itself. Statistics show that over 81% of parents would not trust a Hispanic to baby-sit their child, 53% say that Africans are the best at sports and 75% would feel uncomfortable in a setting with a majority of Black people (www.survelum.com). Although stereotypes have some legitimate fingerprints of truth, nevertheless, this alone is insufficient to establish firm ground to judge and generalize people as can be seen with the stereotypical examples of Islam oppressing women, all religious people being ascetics and all African-Americans being good at basketball. In the post 9/11 era, being a Muslim automatically brings negative connotations in many
Western societies and one of these connotations is the casual stereotype that Muslim women are oppressed in their societies from their Niqab (face-veil) to their social lives. Just like any other group of people, there are always outliers in a community such as the cases of honor killings and physical abuse which are highlighted in the media. But just as a car cannot be blamed as the cause of an accident, Islam cannot be blamed for the actions of a few individuals. Failure to distinguish between culture and religion is what causes most people to view Muslim women as oppressed. What most people do not know that
Akif Mahmood
2015-11-0202
Dr. Naveed Rehan
SS100 Writing and Communication
17 November 2011
Uncovering the Truth Behind Stereotypes As the world becomes a global village, people from all walks of life are socializing at an unprecedented level and virtually no one is safe from falling prey to stereotypes. This often dogmatic approach to categorizing people is widespread in mass communication as well from standup comedies and television shows to biased news and politics. As a result, the truth gets buried under several layers of externally influenced presumptions before it even gets a chance to express itself. Statistics show that over 81% of parents would not trust a Hispanic to baby-sit their child, 53% say that Africans are the best at sports and 75% would feel uncomfortable in a setting with a majority of Black people (www.survelum.com). Although stereotypes have some legitimate fingerprints of truth, nevertheless, this alone is insufficient to establish firm ground to judge and generalize people as can be seen with the stereotypical examples of Islam oppressing women, all religious people being ascetics and all African-Americans being good at basketball. In the post 9/11 era, being a Muslim automatically brings negative connotations in many
Western societies and one of these connotations is the casual stereotype that Muslim women are oppressed in their societies from their Niqab (face-veil) to their social lives. Just like any other group of people, there are always outliers in a community such as the cases of honor killings and physical abuse which are highlighted in the media. But just as a car cannot be blamed as the cause of an accident, Islam cannot be blamed for the actions of a few individuals. Failure to distinguish between culture and religion is what causes most people to view Muslim women as oppressed. What most people do not know that
Cited: Biema, David V., and Jeff Chu. “Does God Want You To Be Rich?” Time Magazine. 10 Sept. 2006 Nov. 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. Gulen, M. Fethullah. Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism: Emerald Hills of the Heart. Vol. 1. England: The Light, Inc., 1998 Jordan, Michael. “Maybe.” Nike. 19 April 2008. Youtube. 13 Nov. 2009 < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woOu_4l3lio> M. Ali Al-Hashimi. The Ideal Muslimah. Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, 1996. Print. Survelum Public Data Bank. Stereotype Survey Statistics. N.p. n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2011 Mahmood 6