Characteristic of Orientalism, Prejudice, and Discrimination
CheckPoint: Characteristics of Orientalism, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Week 5 Day 4
Arab is a nationality or ethnicity. This means anyone born in an Arab county is Arabic, regardless of their religion. Arabs originate in the Middle East – countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Sudan, Qatar, Algeria, Oman, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. Muslim is a religion, not an ethnicity. Muslim people accept Islam as their religion. Therefore, if a Muslim was of Arabic descent, they would be a “Arab-Muslim”. If they were American, they would be “American-Muslim”. Anyone can convert to being a Muslim. A reason many people may confuse the Arabs and Muslims is because the religion originated in the Middle East, as did many other religions like Judaism and Christianity.
Recent changes to policies made by the United States regarding treatment of Muslim and Arabic members in our society include more precautionary measures being taken at airports to screen for potential terrorists. Most Arabs and Muslims think this is discriminatory and feel as though they are being singled out unfairly. After the discovering that a terrorist attempt to bomb a plane traveling over Detroit was from an Al-Qaeda training camp attendee (from Nigeria originally), security was increased even more. Names of suspected terrorists are on a list and everyone traveling to or within the US is checked against that list. They are detained and questioned. The US is also checking up on expired Visas. If their Visa is up, they are sending them back (the ones they can catch) to their county. It is also harder for men from Arab countries to get Visas to the US if they are between the ages of 18 to 45. On a more positive note, in the US, special schools now exist for Muslim children where they can learn among themselves without the problems they would go through in public schools.
Orientalism is an attitude or view that all people of
Week 5 Day 4
Arab is a nationality or ethnicity. This means anyone born in an Arab county is Arabic, regardless of their religion. Arabs originate in the Middle East – countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Sudan, Qatar, Algeria, Oman, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. Muslim is a religion, not an ethnicity. Muslim people accept Islam as their religion. Therefore, if a Muslim was of Arabic descent, they would be a “Arab-Muslim”. If they were American, they would be “American-Muslim”. Anyone can convert to being a Muslim. A reason many people may confuse the Arabs and Muslims is because the religion originated in the Middle East, as did many other religions like Judaism and Christianity.
Recent changes to policies made by the United States regarding treatment of Muslim and Arabic members in our society include more precautionary measures being taken at airports to screen for potential terrorists. Most Arabs and Muslims think this is discriminatory and feel as though they are being singled out unfairly. After the discovering that a terrorist attempt to bomb a plane traveling over Detroit was from an Al-Qaeda training camp attendee (from Nigeria originally), security was increased even more. Names of suspected terrorists are on a list and everyone traveling to or within the US is checked against that list. They are detained and questioned. The US is also checking up on expired Visas. If their Visa is up, they are sending them back (the ones they can catch) to their county. It is also harder for men from Arab countries to get Visas to the US if they are between the ages of 18 to 45. On a more positive note, in the US, special schools now exist for Muslim children where they can learn among themselves without the problems they would go through in public schools.
Orientalism is an attitude or view that all people of