- Imagine being misjudged, mislabeled, misunderstood, or even misguided. In the article “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” discusses how numerous nationalities in the Arab and Other Middle Eastern world are taken or stereotyped as a certain faith or group (Islam or extremist terrorist), and mistreated because of lack of understanding or differentiating between nationalities, cultures, and beliefs. According to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) up to 63 percent of Arab-American are Christians mixed with Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox, while only 24 percent are Muslims. Immigrants from the Arab-speaking countries arrived in the U.S. in three distinct waves starting from the 1890’s to the 1960’s. Most of them highly educated folk towards the last wave. All of these diverse groups with unique qualities and so much to offer were soon put through tough times because of certain incidents that have happened between the U.S. and Islamic extremist attacks. Although it had started in the 1970’s, after the September 11, 2001 attack in the U.S. a lot of stereotypes and labels were put on the Middle Eastern and Arab immigrants, such as terrorists and extremists, because they were often lumped together by U.S. politicians and the general public. They have been targets of repeated FBI investigation and random violence’s. Even on a national scale, “each U.S. confrontation with a Middle Eastern country is followed by an outbreak of hatred,” as stated. And even though they were well founded into the country and have been around for decades, the general public still ended up going through various types of harassments and discriminations from young children in the class to grown adults in the work fields. Including arbitrary detention, racial profiling, and aggressive checks and detention for questioning in U.S. airports and border crossing.
- Aside from politics, when you take the chance to genuinely get to know someone or something you tend to learn things that may surprise you. When the Middle Eastern and Arab immigrants would come to the U.S. they would end up being isolated from other familiar communities and would struggle to look alive and live their life, because of misconception. They wouldn’t be able to show their cultures, practice the faiths, or even have someone to talk to. And so the idea of any other culture in the Middle Eastern or Arab world, beside Islamic extremism, would not even be a school of thought. But once these different ethnicities were given a chance to flourish their beautiful cultures were seen and loved. From the dancing, to the food, and even talents. They were seen as progressive and somewhat identical.
- In the article “Literacy Reform in the Middle east” they discuss they is harsh decline in literacy in certain Middle Eastern countries. It is said that the countries with smaller populations tend to have a much higher literacy rate for both men and woman while the larger one tend to have a decline. The Arab world’s literacy leaders is “Jordan with a 91% adult literacy rate, Bahrain with 89%, Kuwait with 83%,, and Syria with 83%, while all also having 75%+ women literacy rates.” But on the other hand countries like Yemen, Mauritania, and Morocco the literacy rates are 49% for Yemen, 41% for Mauritania, and 51% for Morocco. In fact Morocco, Sudan, and Algeria combined make up around 90 million people, and yet a third of those three nations are said to be illiterate adults. A concentration on literacy and basic education should positively affect many of the other areas requiring attention in the Arab world. Some of them being challenges related to health, poverty, and political openness. In country like Yemen and its low literacy rate, life expectancy was only 57 years, the infant morality rate was 8.3%, and annual population growth was 3%. While in a country of similar size like Australia, the life expectancy rate is 79 years and an infant morality rate of 0.6%. In order to minimized these gaps, a literacy basis has to be set and funded into the countries that need. And along with setting proper literacy basis, there will be an improvement in the building industry and agricultural labor forces, public health, and increasing political freedom.
- My sources were both articles “Arab and other Middle Eastern Americans” and “Literacy Reform in the Middle East”. I also referred to both videos by Melika on TedX and Learning Curve: Middle Eastern college students in the US for both of the personal point of view and authenticity of proof.
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3 thoughts on “Conversation 5”
Your intelligent and well-informed depiction of the issues confronting Arab and Middle Eastern Americans, as well as the significance of literacy reform in the Middle East, is genuinely laudable. It’s clear that you’ve done extensive research on the subject and have a thorough knowledge of the issues at hand.
Your sensitivity and fight for equitable treatment and cultural respect for Arab and Middle Eastern people in the United States is inspirational. Your statements emphasize the need of breaking down prejudices and cultivating a spirit of inclusion and understanding in society.
Hi Abdel,
Your post highlights several important issues regarding the experience of Middle Eastern and Arab immigrants in the United States as well as the necessity of understanding and eradicating stereotypes.
Your breakdown for your first question actually sparked information from the article that I passed by quite quickly. Highlighting the actual statistic of the religions that make up middle eastern culture is so eye opening and unbelievably important, that you for bringing those numbers back up in my mind. It’s a shame that there is no room for a conversation about middle eastern culture without the subject of radicalism coming to the surface. I feel the media driven stereotypes of the Muslim religion really fuel this standstill.