Ted Talk Ted Talk Analysis

Dalia Mogahed begins her Ted Talk saying, “What do you think when you first look at me?” She explains in her video that people shouldn’t have negative perceptions of her faith. Because she is herself a Muslim, she speaks on experience on how the media has perceived Muslims as bad people. Due to the accusations, it has affected her life extremely. She hopes that people chose empathy over prejudice when the media, for example, or really anyone classifies them as bad people.
A stand out moment in which I believed to be moving was when she said, “80% of news coverage about Islam and Muslims are negative.” It’s sad to say it’s true though. Many other people including myself can say they have seen negative news coverage of Muslims and Islam. Because of the extremist group, ISIS, a lot of that negative news coverage has quickly risen. However, not all Muslims are terrorist or are oppressed, brainwashed potential terrorist, but somehow people tend to categorize these folks as that.
This stand out moment is my favorite. “It’s rhythmic beauty sometimes moves me to tears.” When she said this, she was speaking on the Quran and how much it means to her. She described the struggle, and the beauty of reading the Quran. For instance, she said, “I read and reflected and questioned and doubted it, and ultimately, believed.” Dalia also spoke on
how she saw herself in it, and how she felt that God knew her. The entire time she spoke on the topic, she spoke with a sense of passion. She talked so highly of the Quran, it made me think highly of her.
In current time, we view Isis as this extremist group whos action are uncalled for.
A group who are simply heartless. However, Dalia said, “Isis has much to do with Islam as the Ku Klux Klan has to do with Christianity.” I’ve never heard of a comparison like that until her. After I actually compared the two, it seems they have much more in common then one might think. Obviously, they worship different religions, but both groups claim to base their ideology on their holy book. In addition, Dalia added that they’re not motivated by what they read In their holy book, its their brutality that makes them read these things into their
scripture.

Just like the rest of the videos, this one was another interesting talk. However, in a way that this relates to my life is how much discrimination I’ve seen at school and outside of it towards Muslims. There a lot of people who don’t hesitate to speak bad on Muslims, and not feel bad about it. They also don’t hesitate to categorize all Muslims as terrorist, or taking part with Isis. Dalia motivated me to chose empathy rather than prejudice when it came to hearing negative perceptions of Muslims. In addition, there a lot of people that no matter what you do, and how much you say, you cant change their mindset. That’s okay, but what isn’t okay is not trying and I believe Dalia is a prime example of saying motivated no matter what.