Your enormous reply:
1) What did you learn from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article? Be specific and provide examples from the reading.
2) Discuss something you learned and/ or can relate to from 1-2 of this week’s videos.
3) Discuss the article on “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” Provide examples from the reading.
4) Share your source on this topic–let us know what it is, why you selected it, and why it matters.
Reply to at least two classmates.
46 thoughts on “Discussion Board Post 5”
Activity 1: What do you know about the Middle East? Think about the history, culture, the people.
What I know about the middle east , the people are they are religious and I believe they are Muslim and Indians , Arab culture as well.
1) What did you learn from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article? Be specific and provide examples from the reading.
What I learned from the article that I was aware of is ever since the attack on 9/11 Muslims and arabs are discriminated and looked down upon and are judged because the people who did the attack of 9/11 were muslims but we shouldn’t look down on them because not all are bad or criminals they mean no harm they are people to in the end. ‘’ The legacy of the 11 September 2001 attacks and the subsequent engagement of US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq has had long-lasting implications. Indeed, the discrimination they experience continues to be both ethnic and religious in nature, shaped by anti-Muslim attitudes – prejudice frequently applied to practitioners of other faiths presumed on account of their ethnicity to be Muslim. Arab and Middle Eastern Americans have repeatedly suered spikes in hate crime following major incidents in the US or Middle East since the 1970s.’’
2) Discuss something you learned and/ or can relate to from 1-2 of this week’s videos.
What I learned watching the first video ‘’ Misconception of middle eastern culture and religion ‘’ Is JMU referenced the movie called 300 made 10 years ago where they misrepresented muslims and the Persian culture they were representing Persian women exotic belly dancers and the Persian army were made nonhuman like creatures. Which is misleading because not all women are belly dancers or exotic and the army certainly doesn’t look creature like either.
3) Discuss the article on “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” Provide examples from the reading.
What stood out to me in this article is ‘’ The total adult literacy rate was 56 percent ( and only 44 percent for women ) , meaning that there were more than 29 million Arab adults in Egypt alone. Total youth literacy was 73 percent ( only 67 percent for young women ) meaning not many Arab men or women know how to read or have literacy skills there’s a small amount of them who actually know how to.
4) Share your source on this topic–let us know what it is, why you selected it, and why it matters.
Full article: Developing a Test of Early Arabic Literacy Skillshttps://www.tandfonline.com › … › Volume 42, Issue 3
Explains and shows how literacy is a critical issue in Arabic speaking nations and it needs to be improved because everyone should have the opportunity to read and know how to , maybe teach others, it promotes knowledge but also gives you many job opportunities as well and an education.
I agree that yes we should not look down on all middle eastern americans because of something that others have done. Most of them came here for an escape, a way out only to know they have a target on their back and can’t celebrate their religion in peace. And I also agree that these Hollywood movie producers should become more educated when it comes to demonstrating other cultures in their movies. It’s unfair especially for the women to be viewed as only excotic when most of them are also very smart well educated females.
I’m sorry but I really don’t like how you started it. Yes, they can call themselves Muslim’s but if you look into Islam, violence is such a negative thing. they’re just using the religion Muslim and running with it. Islam is such a peaceful religion, where it says to get a long with everyone, including your enemies.
I agree with your statement on how we should not look down on any Middle Eastern Americans because not every one of them are terrorists or will harm the people around them when it simple just isn’t true. They’re normal just like everyone else. They came to America for a better life and to escape. They should not be singled out like this because of what some people in their community has done.
I agree that all Muslims are not the same and we shouldn’t look down on them based on the attacks that occurred in the past. All ethnicity, races, cultures and etc should all be treated with dignity and respect. No one should have to be tormented because negative actions someone in their culture conducted.
I agree with your comment on how Hollywood has represented the Persian army, and this I can relate to because the movie “Taken”, the movie represents us Albanians as drug dealers and kidnappers, and we arent like that. Honestly, I understand they use these characters for the movie, but people in our real lives believed it.
1) What did you learn from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article? Be specific and provide examples from the reading.
‘’On Average Arab Americans in the twenty first century are better educated , more prosperous and more politically active then the average American”, This I was not aware of which also shed light on the fact that, “ In the Us Iranian population is mostly self employed. They are extremely well educated.” This explains a lot as to why there are so many corner store bodegas in New York owned by people from the middle east. On the other hand,” Harassment,violence, and discrimantion especially because of 9/11 , improper workplace background checks, … and unapproved recruitments of informant within community.” This is expected of the US officials considering the fact that the actions of 9/11 were done by people from the middle east, however their actions should not be reflected on everyone from Middle Eastern countries, it’s just not fair on them to judge all of them so harshly.
2) Discuss something you learned and/ or can relate to from 1-2 of this week’s videos.
In the video speaking about misconception on Middle eastern culture and religion , Melika stated that everytime she goes back to visit she is ridiculed but these obnoxious questions just base on biased questions and it’s the same for me when I visit my home country Jamaica, “ does your dad have dreads?”, do you live in a board and zinc top house?” , “ Do they smoke a lot of weed there”, “ do you have to walk everywhere”. I believe that what people see in the media is all that they believe. That all Caribbean countries are struggling countries and that we all are the same, when really for people to understand a certain ethnic group and different country they just need to go experience it for themselves.
3) Discuss the article on “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” Provide examples from the reading.
“In Morocco, a country of 30 million people and an economic and political darling of the west, the adult literacy rate is only 51 percent…. And in morocco, sudan, algeria combined, 37 millions are illiterate adults.” These numbers in literacy are just wild to me because it makes me think that these countries as a whole only care about economic growth instead of the educational well being of their citizens.
4) Share your source on this topic–let us know what it is, why you selected it, and why it matters. https://www.ted.com/talks/dalia_mogahed_what_it_s_like_to_be_muslim_in_america?language=en#t-277773
My source to share is a Ted talk by Delia Morganhed, I choose this source because I believe she spoke on shed light on a lot of topics, for example it matters because she spoke about how she wasnt born muslim but it was choice that she made, she also spoke on what it was like to see the breaking news of 9/11 from an outside prospective looking in. How she went from living the life of a citizen to becoming a suspect and how afraid she now felt to being a muslim. Her people were now a target because of others’ selfish acts and that muslims aren’t a target but are vital organs that are important and needed in American society and are not all to be treated harshly.
I always love the videos you share. But especially todays since its about a revert. She seriously didn’t deserve any of what has happened to her. Also, thank you for writing “muslims aren’t a target but are vital organs that are important and needed in American society and are not all to be treated harshly.” it truly means a lot to us Muslims who sometimes are attacked for every little thing.
I enjoyed how you interpreted your point of view and personal experience how you stated it’s the same for me when I visit my home country Jamaica, “ does your dad have dreads?”, do you live in a board and zinc top house?” , “ Do they smoke a lot of weed there”, “ do you have to walk everywhere”. I To believe people feed into the media and just believe everything they see and I think its sad because the media is so conservial and stereotypical already.
I appreciated your video. The woman speaker says reasonable things, she says them by soul. I liked her phrase that on September 11 the terrorists attacked OUR country. I liked her emphasis on the word OURS.
After all, America is a country of many nations, it is OUR country, and Muslims are no exception.
I agree with what you said for #2 people really need to go experience the place for real and in person so they wont have biased thoughts or stereotypical thoughts just because of the stuff they’ve seen on the media or tv which misrepresents them.
There was a lot of stuff from the article that I did not know either, especially when it came to the education of Arab immigrants to the United states. That immediately caught my attention in many ways and especially seeing them self employed. On the other hand there is hate and discrimination towards them which I find it very unfair mentioning on how they are self-employed and also highly educated. Great Job.
Yeah, it does seem kind of shocking to me as well how these countries have only focused on financial stability, unlike educational stability. Especially for the wealth they have, you’d think they would focus on education to have an effect on the financial growth over time.
3. I was blown away with the number of adults that’s illiterate in the Middle Eastern community. The Middle Eastern literacy is a issue, the key development is further than the notion of reading and writing; it is also encompasses language and computer skills and other important skills that’s needed to fathom in modern society and fully participate in all aspects of life.
In the source you provided you mentioned how Delia Morganhed faced many challenges due to 9/11. People saw her differently and it is sad how she was afraid to be muslim. 9/11 impacted all muslims and even now some people think they are “terrorists.” I think it is important to inform people about muslims and to not see them as a target.
1) Reading the article “Arab And Other Middle Eastern Americans” I learned that “immigrants from Arabic-speaking countries arrived in three distinct waves”. The first brought 250,000 people who were from the great syria. The second wave was 60% muslims that came. Just like other ethnicities, middle eastern people are often “lumped together”. For example, last week we learned about how different Asians are also “lumped together”.
2) Something I can relate to from this week’s videos is how in the first video Melika Rahman was saying how she was questioned so much about her religion, her culture. I felt the same way when I was in school, since I used to wear the hijab to school. Wearing the hijab meant, being stared at, being questioned for so many things. I remember once someone asked me “shouldn’t you fully cover up” without even knowing what covering up meant. Additionally, Melika talks about how often movies show Persian characters to the stereotype, i feel like that happens often to everyone who’s not considered white. Everyone is depicted so wrong.
3) The article “Literacy Reform in the Middle East ” talks about how low literacy in the Middle East is, especially poorer areas. The government keeps working on the richer areas as said in the article “they should focus efforts on the poorer and largest countries”. It’s pretty much the same as the USA. USA focuses on the richer areas to make them richer but not the areas that actually need help.
4)https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/arab-world-turns-page-on-literacy-589769
This source shows us the literacy rate of the Middle East as of today. I choose this to show how even today the Middle Easts literacy levels are so low.
I love how you made the connection between last week to this week because literally everyone thats not white USA born goes through harsh judegment. I am especially sorry that you had to go though that with your religion you shouldnt be questioned about it because honestly its none of their business. I also wished that more people of color and different ethnic background gets more leading recognization role in movies because they are giving colored role to white actors and thats just not right.
I really liked how you mentioned “immigrants from Arabic-speaking countries arrived in three distinct waves”. The first brought 250,000 people who were from the great syria. I didnt even notice that or come across it but it seems really interesting how they arrived here to america.
Marryam, I agree with you that many people sincerely do not understand the meaning of Islam, they are full of stereotypes and fairy tales, this speaks of our low religious upbringing. I remember at school my classmate called girls in black hijabs “ninja”, I know they didn’t like it. This is not correct, we should pay more attention to increasing literacy in religious matters and the culture of communication in schools.
Hey Marryam, I am sorry to hear you had to go through whatever you went through. I believe these stereotypes created towards this population and religion are unfair. I believe no one should be judged on their background, tradition or religion whatever it is. At the end of the day we are all humans. In a way I can also relate in a way since I am an international student. I believe it is very but very wrong for the government to put their focus on rich areas only, very unfair. The education system should be equal no matter the area, rich or poor, this for sure is one of the reasons why there are so many illiterate people.
hello marryam, i like how you included your own experience in response 2. it shows us how ignorant people can be and how alive these stereotypes still are even in 2021!
I’m sorry that people were insensitive to you and your culture. There’s one thing to have questions about another culture simply due to ignorance and being uninformed, but there have been plenty of situations where it is done with malicious intent. As we have learned in some of these articles, misconceptions and ignorance have developed heinous prejudices towards our citizens. I thought your shared post was interesting as I have some family that still lives in the Middle East but I haven’t talked to them in too long. At least this can be a topic of conversation.
When I looked at how many immigrants came from Arabic speaking countries I was also astonished by the numbers as well. I didn’t know about the three distinct waves. Also, about the article in number 3, it shows how the poor barely get help when it comes to improving literacy. I do agree it is like the US. Because in one of the last units we did hear how some kids don’t have book access and don’t receive the right support. Meanwhile, in white richer areas they have much more help and a far way better education which is unfair for those in poorer neighborhoods.
The main ideas in this week’s articles and videos are: The Arab people live in many countries and are not limited to just one country. Not all Arabs are Muslims, and not all Arabs live on the territory of Arab countries (for example, Indonesia, where there is a very large percentage of Muslims). The main immigration to the United States from Arabic-speaking countries occurred in three waves: First, between 1890 and 1920, then after 1945 and after 1965. Most of them were caused by the oppression of the population by their native countries. Most of the immigrants were highly educated people. Also, the articles pay special attention to the topic of terrorism. The articles discuss the social stereotype that all Muslims and Arabs are potential terrorists. Based on this, the Muslim / Arab community endures oppression from other peoples. (Most of the Arabic-speaking peoples have a negative attitude towards terrorism and do not support their ideas.) This especially intensified after the terrorist attack on September 11, and every year the terrorist stereotype is only growing in the minds of people. The US government does not seek to actively rectify this situation. Former President Donald Trump only worsened the situation by banning a number of countries from entering the United States, thereby officially confirming a false public stereotype. Due to the above factors and mass misunderstanding, it is so difficult for newly arrived immigrants from the Middle East to assimilate into the United States. They experience great stress and social isolation. The articles pay attention to the explanation of the concepts of Jehad and Taliban, their differences. I liked the main idea of Melika Rahmani’s speech about the need to be blind and judge concepts, people, countries from public sources, which are often full of stereotypes and propaganda. You need to communicate with people, share opinions and impressions, create your own vision of the World.
“Although there are successful examples of literacy in the Arab world, the overall literacy rate in Arab countries is low, especially for women” is one of the main ideas of the article “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” The US government back in 2004 put forward a project “aimed at supporting political, economic and social reforms throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds.” An analysis of the literacy level of the Arab countries was carried out in advance. It turned out that small countries with stable economies have a high level of education among both men and women. The leaders on the list were Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Libya and Syria, which had the highest percentage of the educated population. Large countries such as Egypt, for example, showed a terrible lack of education in the population. The US wanted to help because it has been proven that “countries with educational challenges often face challenges related to health, poverty, and political openness.” By doing so, the US wanted to bring lagging countries to a new level of economic development, since “better educated citizens are integral to building an industrial and agricultural workforce, improving public health and increasing political freedom.”
Guys and professor, have you seen the movie “The Physician”? In my country (Russia) it was called “Doctor, Avicena’s Apprentice”. If you haven’t watched it, be sure to check it out, it’s a great movie. Beautiful! The film is based on the history of the real historical person Al-Ghazali (Avicena), who was a great scientist and physician, far ahead of the progress of his time. I urge you to watch the film and the historical video. You will get acquainted with the history of the East, you will see how many great and talented scientists came from these countries and what a great contribution they made to the development of culture and science of the whole World. These peoples are worthy of respect!
Thanks so much for the movie recommendation! I think stuff like this is really cool and I’d want to pay my respects to intelligence that was ahead of its time. I know that Asian countries had a really strong influence in the development of mathematics and science and have even culturally influenced countries across the world, but I never knew who to attribute some of the success to. Of course there’s plenty of people I could learn about, I figure this is a good place to start.
Hi Nina, thanks for the movie recommendation. I’ve remember reading and watching an old documentary about Al-Ghazali titled Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness. The trailer looks thrilling and I’m also curious to see how they will portray Al-Ghazali in this movie.
1) What did you learn from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article? Be specific and provide examples from the reading.
– Something I learned is that ever since the late 1970s many Arab Americans and Canadians were discriminated and harassed, so far to the point many were deported because they were seen as a “terrorist supporter” even though they did nothing wrong. Even on TV in the US they were shown negatively. As stated in the article in page 3 “Since the late 1970s, Arab Americans and Arab Canadians were periodically subjected to harassment at border crossings, and the US repeatedly sought to deport politically active Arab visitors or immigrants as ‘terrorist supporters’, even though they have not been convicted of any crime. Negative stereotypes of Middle Eastern characters and of Islam have been common in US film and television, and in radio and newspaper commentaries.”
2) Discuss something you learned and/ or can relate to from 1-2 of this week’s videos.
– One thing I learned was in the video titled “Learning Curve: Middle Eastern college students in the US” is that the Middle Eastern college students were separated from the other students who were American so they couldn’t make any friends or really learn or get help from them. And another issue/difficulty was when during Ramadan they couldn’t eat any food until 7pm but by that time the cafeteria has stopped serving food so they weren’t able to find any good food that was sufficient enough for a person who was fasting for 12 hours.
3) Discuss the article on “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” Provide examples from the reading.
– I was completely shocked when I saw that in page 2 of the article it says “In Yemen, where the adult literacy rate was 49 percent in 2002, life expectancy was only fifty-seven years, the infant mortality rate was 8.3 percent, and annual population growth was 3 percent. Meanwhile, the country’s per capita gross domestic product was only $330 (in 1995 U.S. dollars), female participation in the labor force was 28 percent, and there were just 65 radios (as of 1997) and 5 internet users per 1000 persons. (By comparison, Australia, a country with a similar population size and high literacy rates, had a life expectancy of 79 years, an infant mortality rate of 0.6 percent, 44 percent female participation in the labor force, and 1376 radios and 482 internet users per 1000 persons.)” The difference in the numbers is just shocking.
4) Share your source on this topic–let us know what it is, why you selected it, and why it matters.
– https://jsis.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/mideast.pdf. This is something I found which addresses the common misconceptions about the Middle East which I think would help people learn the truth and help differentiate between the stuff they see on media and the stuff media doesn’t show.
When reading the Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans I found it disturbing how middle eastern people are stigmatized and are labeled as dangerous and terrorists. According to the article, there has been a travel ban on Muslim countries and we had a president publically shaming middle eastern people. In the youtube video Misconception of Middle Eastern Culture and Religion Rahmani goes into greater detail on the depiction of Arabic people and how they are falsely portrayed in media and news outlets. She further goes into discrimination and public persception on the Arabic people. In terms of education and literacy rate in the middle east is far less than ideal. According to “Literacy Reform in the Middle East” there are some middle eastern countries that have exceptional literacy rates for men and women such as Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait. However, these countries prove to be outliers as 37 million million middle eastern people are considered illiterate. Below is a website addressing many stereotypes of middle eastern people. I believe in order to progress as a society we should educate ourselves and understand each other’s background.
When reading the Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans I found it disturbing how middle eastern people are stigmatized and are labeled as dangerous and terrorists. According to the article, there has been a travel ban on Muslim countries and we had a president publically shaming middle eastern people. In the youtube video Misconception of Middle Eastern Culture and Religion Rahmani goes into greater detail on the depiction of Arabic people and how they are falsely portrayed in media and news outlets. She further goes into discrimination and public persception on the Arabic people. In terms of education and literacy rate in the middle east is far less than ideal. According to “Literacy Reform in the Middle East” there are some middle eastern countries that have exceptional literacy rates for men and women such as Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait. However, these countries prove to be outliers as 37 million million middle eastern people are considered illiterate. Below is a website addressing many stereotypes of middle eastern people. I believe in order to progress as a society we should educate ourselves and understand each other’s background.
https://jsis.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/mideast.pdf
I must’ve made an error please ignore the duplicated response.
1.What did you learn from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article? Be specific and provide examples from the reading.
I’ve learned that the Middle Eastern Group have experience negative events since the early 1970’s. The violence with the Middle Eastern group begin in the early 1970’s when the Federal Bureau of investigation targeted and randomly investigated the Middle Eastern; as a result, it spiraled into outbreak of hatred. Moreover, when Alex Odeh a regional director of the American-Arab Discrimination committed was killed in 1995 by a trip-wired, the Arabs or Muslims were blamed for it, which resulted in violence. In 2001, the Iran community experienced backlash after the September 11th attacks; they’ve experienced discrimination, improper workplace background check, interrogated, monitored thoroughly, being racially profiled and aggressively checked at the US border. Donald Trump and George V Bush Jr. categorize Muslims “terrorist”; “While previous leaders, including George Bush Jr who, while instrumental in the so-called “war of Terror” and the invasion in particular of Iraq, repeatedly emphasized the distinction between militant extremism and Muslim communities, the large majorities of whom opposed terrorist violence.”
2.Discuss something you learned and/ or can relate to from 1-2 of this week’s videos.
I’ve a co-worker that always describe Pakistan as a country that’s destructive and violent; he will always ask me do I want to visit Pakistan, I will respond back “no” without an explanation. After I reply back, he will make explosive and gun shooting sounds as he laughs saying “Pakistannnn”. I never understood the concept of why my co-worker will ask me that type of question every time I see him. His image and thoughts of Pakistan is a misconception because of what he see on the media or hear in the news. He never visited Pakistan. From the video “Misconception of Middle Eastern Culture and Religion” speech by Melika Rahmani, she said “We can’t allow a biased lens to tell us how other people live and how other cultures are, we either need to experience it for ourselves or talk to someone that been there.” I agree, people judge different cultures or ethnicity because what they’ve seen on the media or read in the newspaper; everything that we see and hear isn’t always accurate.
3. Discuss the article on “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” Provide examples from the reading.
The percentage of people in the Arab world that’s illiterate is at 37 million adults. However, the lowest rate of young adults that’s illiterate in the Arab world is mostly in the poorest countries in Mauritania because of the lack of literacy; it forces them to face health issues, poverty and political openness. On the contrary, the Arabs that’s well educated has the authority to improve public health, and increasing political freedom which can result in helping people in their environment to enhance different training programs; “A more educated citizenry is integral to building industrial and agricultural labor forces, improving public and increasing political freedom.” The training program will help with their literacy and adjust creating new jobs. The Arab government opposed to improve literacy and reform new platforms to build their community.
4. Share your source on this topic–let us know what it is, why you selected it, and why it matters.
This video based on an English teacher that explains the struggles that Middle Eastern students face when it comes to literacy. Majority of the Middle Eastern students struggle with reading and writing because they’re not interested in reading books. Middle Eastern students learning style preference is consist of being oral. A total of 315 Middle Eastern students participated in a poll that was consist of how many books were in their in house they’ve grew up in and how many book, other than school text books, have they read in the past 2 years, 41% of students grew up with 0-20 books in their household and 71% of student haven’t read a book in the past 2 years. Middle Eastern students avoid reading books which resulted their ability to read and write insufficiently.
Hi Debanie,
Your post was great! But most of all I enjoyed your video for this weeks source. It was very informative. It was very interesting to learn that Middle Eastern students are not interested in reading books and that their learning preference is oral. I watched the video from beginning to end, it was very very interesting.
1. What I have learned about the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article was that in the historical context there were three waves of middle eastern (arab seeking countries) immigrants. The first wave was between 1890’s and 1920 which brought 250.000 people to the US. The second wave was after World War 2 and creation of Israel which brought tens of thousands of people to the US. What really caught my attention was that on the third wave the people were 60% muslim and often highly educated. I also did not know the fact that the US in the late 1980’s cut the number of Middle Eastern immigrants it accepted. At those times it was the linguistic barriers that had also blocked their economic advancement. However now in the 21st century on average Arab-Americans are better educated, more prosperous and more politically active than the average Americans. Those facts based on the article that I did not know makes sense why a lot of middle easterns are self-employed on their own corners stores all over New York City and not only because I also have family in michigan which I visit a lot and their population there is very high where a lot of gas stations, hair salons etc are owed by them.
2. Something I learned about “Misconception of Middle Eastern Culture and Religion” was that a person named Shilbi Telhami (if i spelled it right) from the Brookings Institute conducted a poll from 2001-2015 and in that pole she asked the Americans on how they felt about Islam and Muslims and if they found it favorable or unfavorable which after the september 11th 2001 39% of the people she asked stated that the religion was unfavorable and that percentage grew by 61% in 2015. I believe that this is incredible because not all of the muslims are located in the middle east and because of the stereotypes that were created towards the middle eastern population affects them negatively in a lot of things. As Melika Rahmani stated in the video, now women in Iran are able to vote, drive and date. Actually now there are more women enrolled in higher level education than men. Something I can relate to is when she mentioned how in a Persian household you are not “allowed” to put your fork down and how they have their foods and sweets that are central and hospitable to their culture. It works the same way in an Albanian household and community.
3. “ In fact Morocco, Sudan and Algeria combined have approximately 30 million people each and 37 million are illiterate”. It is incredible knowing that those three countries combined are 32% of the Arab world. More than ⅓ of each country is illiterate. These numbers of literacy scare me when it comes a whole country with such a high percentage of illiterate people which in a way it looks like their main priority is the economic growth and not the educational levels, I believe this will affect the future generations on their education levels.
4. Middle Eastern and Muslim Stereotypes in Media : Eefa Shehzad at TEDxYouth@ISBangkok
This ted-talk by Eefa Shehzad is based on Middle Eastern and Muslim Stereotypes. I choose this source because I believe it goes on details about the stereotypes and how Muslims and Middle Easterns are treated. I believe it is important to watch because there are some important details on how these stereotypes are being used to change the image of muslims and Middle Easterns in a negative way. Those stereotypes were also used in movies and videogames.
Hi Ardit,
I enjoyed reading your post and also watching your source video for this week. It was really shocking to learn about all the Arab and Middle Eastern misconceptions that are referenced in movies, video games, songs etc. It is so sad because people who have little to no knowledge of Arabs, Muslims and Middle Easterns are building prejudices based a myths and misconceptions. These platforms reach such a large audience in so many countries creating even more hate.
Q: What did you learn from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article? Be specific and provide examples from the reading.
A: Something I learned from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article was the immigration of people from Iran in the 1980s. I didn’t know about this prior because I’ve never learned it in school, especially with the technology we have at our disposal, the problems I ran were never addressed to us. I learned how the number of visas given to Iranian people was limited throughout the early 1990s. Also, I learned that many leftist political groups were oppressed by the regime in Iran, so may proceed with immigrating to the United States. People didn’t feel safe because of the political culture in Iran, and it’s unlike America where we have the freedom to chose our political party without being oppressed. This middle eastern country didn’t allow for people to have freedoms, and the regime believed in threatening and oppressing people was the correct way to move forward. It was interesting to know many of the people who immigrated to the United States were of the upper class in Iran, usually, most people who come to the US are looking for more financial freedom, which is kind of ironic.
Q: Discuss something you learned and/ or can relate to from 1-2 of this week’s videos.
A: Something I can relate to in the video “Misconceptions of Middle Eastern Culture and Religion” is how Hollywood can portray our cultures in a disrespectful way. I’m Albanian, and in the movie “Taken” starring Liam Nesson, his daughter is captured in France by the Albanian Mafia. This particular movie diminished my heritage because it made us all out to look like rebels, having no morals, and blood-sucking thieves, and honestly, it was a bit disrespectful. As the girl in the Ted Talk presented how these movies have unrealistically portrayed the Muslim people, and I feel that this did the same pertaining to my culture. Obviously, it wasn’t heartbreaking because I know movie producers have to do these things, but in high school, I would get questions about Albanians and if they are drug dealers, and if they are kidnappers, and this didn’t sit right with me. Our parents came to the US in search of a better life, and I felt this movie portrayed us negatively on the world stage.
Q: Discuss the article on “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” Provide examples from the reading.
A: The article “Literacy Reform in the Middle East” provided us with analytics about the literacy levels for men and women in Middle Eastern countries. Many women in poorer countries had very low literacy levels, it depends on the countries wealth, and how the government would choose to distribute that wealth in educational programs. Throughout the article, we can see how countries with lower literacy levels have a lower life expectancy, for example, Yemen where the literacy rate was 49%, and thus causing the life expectancy to be only at fifty-seven years old. So as we can see literacy levels had a huge impact on society, and if the literacy levels were high in some countries those countries tended to be more suited financially and had tremendous public health. The more literate the citizens of a country were the more the country would be able to prosper because their citizens are to set up the future and build wealth over the years.
Q: Share your source on this topic–let us know what it is, why you selected it, and why it matters.
A: I chose an article called “Arab world turns page on literacy”, and I selected this article because it describes in detail literacy levels in the Middle East and what is being done in those countries to help grow the numbers. It’s important because it tells us about educational programs that are being offered to the young children of these middle eastern countries, and how these programs are going to ensure literacy levels rise.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/arab-world-turns-page-on-literacy-589769
hello valon, i love how you responded to question number 2 and created your own example by using the movie “taken” just like the women in the video used the movie 300.
After reading the article “Arab and Other Middle Eastern American”, I learned quite a bit. The first being that not all Middle Eastern immigrant communities are “Arabs”. This has long been a misconception and inaccurate labelling by US politicians and the general public. Even though Iran is in the Middle Eastern region, they are not Arabs but rather Persians. Persians and even some non-Middle Eastern groups like South Indians and Pakistanis who are non-Arab have all been subjected to anti-Arab hate due to this misconception. I also learned that in the 1980s, Iran was one of the top ten source countries for US immigration and that roughly 10 years later it became far more difficult for Iranians to obtain visas for business, school, or travel due to political tensions and conflicts. The level of difficulty in obtaining visas is similar for all Middle Eastern countries especially after the 9/11 attacks. The negative portrayals of Middle Eastern people and of Islam have been common in US film and television, and in radio and newspaper commentaries. Sadly, the stigmas, stereotypes and public fear of being “terrorists” and “terrorist supporters” also does not help.
In the video “Misconception of Middle Eastern Culture and Religion”, I was shocked to learn that the Middle East is made up of 18 countries, speak 5 major languages including Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, and Hebrew with 20 minority languages and 17 different ethnic groups! Talk about diversity. Another thing I learned was that the association of the Islamic State and the Middle East is a misconception. Before today I did not know there was a difference, I thought it was one and the same. That is down to my lack of education and ignorance. I also learned that the country with the highest Muslim population is Indonesia which is in Southeast Asia, not even in the Middle East!
The article “Literacy Reform in the Middle East” discusses the then Bush administration’s plan designed to support political, economic, and social reform throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds- its Greater Middle East Initiative. It contains five objectives that call for the establishment of the following 5 elements: a democracy foundation, a democracy assistance group, a literacy corps, a micro-finance initiative and a “forum for the future”, with the literacy project being a great aspect. The overall level of literacy in Arab countries is low, especially with regards to women. Data shows that both young and adult literacy rates of smaller and wealthier Arab countries such as Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Syria ranked highest with percentages upwards of 91. Whereas more heavily populated countries like Yemen, Mauritania, and Morocco have more abysmal literacy rates with the highest being 51 percent. What is most surprising is that Egypt, which is one of the most populous and also one of the richest countries in the Middle East, is struggling with literacy. There is no doubt that such a reform focused on improving literacy skills could significantly improve the day to day lives of the people; In addition this would positively affect the country’s overall health, poverty, political awareness, economic standing, innovation, productivity, and development to name a few; “The goal should be to embed the importance of literacy so deeply into a given country’s economy and culture that the various costs of being illiterate and raising illiterate children become prohibitive” (2). This is the ideal outcome and sounds great in theory but it brings us back to what we’ve learned earlier, ethnography, remember that? Ethnography of Literacy allows us to learn more about how and why people use literacy in their everyday lives. I stress the “why”. It makes me wonder why such a high percentage of some Middle Eastern countries are illiterate or have such low literacy skills. Is it fueled primarily by poverty? Or is it a lack of motivation or resources? Or maybe religion??? I wonder…
The video that I chose this week is on the humorous side but very tastefully and respectively done. It covers some of the misconceptions that Middle Easterns face and also shows people from different countries, ethnicities, religions etc. under one roof, getting along and having a laugh. Something which is not very often portrayed in the media . Take a break, sit back, and just enjoy a few minutes of laughter.
Hi Cherry, I loved that TED talk, thanks for sharing it. He makes many jokes that I can relate to and it’s a clever way of bringing people together and addressing some stereotypes or misconceptions. One person on a conservative website stated, “I never knew these people laughed” and he helped clear that misunderstanding.
1. I learned that today’s American culture has a greater influence on Muslims residing in America.
Islamic practices and beliefs are vulnerable to change in order for Muslims to fit into American culture.
To prevent mockery, certain parts of their faith must be compromised and abandoned.
Because of their beliefs, Muslims are frequently discriminated against and treated unfairly. “Middle Eastern immigrant communities are often lumped together by US politicians and the general
public as ‘Arabs’. Persians and even non-Middle East groups like South Indians and Pakistanis have
shared the brunt of widespread anti-Arab (and anti-Iranian) prejudice. Arab Americans and other
Middle Eastern people have been the targets of repeated Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
investigation and random violence since the early 1970s, and each US confrontation with a Middle
Eastern country is followed by an outbreak of hatred. ”
2. From the “Misconception of Middle Eastern Culture and Religion | Melika Rahmani | TEDxJMU” video I’ve learned that the Middle East is more than just desert and oil. The Middle East’s geography is unique, encompassing everything from rivers and woods to mountains and drylands. A few Middle Eastern countries are oil-rich, while others have almost no oil reserves.
3. ” The Arab world’s literacy leader is Jordan, where 91 percent of adults are literate, including 86 percent of women. Following Jordan are Bahrain (89 percent for all adults, 84 percent for women), Kuwait (83 and 81 percent), and Syria (83 and 74 percent). At the other end of the spectrum are Yemen, Mauritania, and Morocco, where female adult literacy rates are an abysmal 29, 31, and 38 percent, respectively.” Some Arab countries have the lowest literacy rates. The major causes for this increasing tendency include the growth of educational systems in many developing countries, as well as a greater recognition of the value of education in these communities.
4. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=4736&context=etd
This article presents common stereotypes about Muslims and how did US society portray Muslim people before and after 9/11.
1) What did you learn from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article? Be specific and provide examples from the reading.
Middle eastern people have been targets of repeated FBI investigations and random violence since the early 1970s. In 1985 Alex Odeh a director of American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) was killed by a bomb trip-wired to his office door with little to no media coverage surrounding his death. A federal building in Oklahoma was bombed in 1995 and the media blamed Arabs and Muslims which resulted in violence and backlash towards middle eastern people. Middle eastern people receive backlash daily due to the government and media labeling them as “terrorists” and “bad people” what makes it even worse is that US films, television, radio, and newspaper commentaries promote these stereotypes.
2) Discuss something you learned and/ or can relate to from 1-2 of this week’s videos.
One thing I learned in the video “middle eastern college students in the us” they mentioned the struggles they went through and one thing they said that stood out to me was that they struggled a lot through the month of Ramadan because they would fast for 12 hours, and the food given to them in the school cafeteria was not an appropriate amount for someone who has not ate in 12 hours.
3) Discuss the article on “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” Provide examples from the reading.
I learned that the level of literacy in Arab countries is low, and it affects heavily populated Arab countries for example in the article they said “in fact, in Morocco, Sudan, and Algeria combined — each home to at least 30 million people, and together accounting for 32 percent of the Arab world — there are as many as 37 million illiterate adults” if the level of literacy were to change for the better it would impact many in a good way such as improving public health and increasing political freedom.
4) Share your source on this topic–let us know what it is, why you selected it, and why it matters.
I chose this article because it brings light to the dilemmas Middle Easterns face today.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/2020-census-continues-whitewashing-middle-eastern-americans-ncna1212051
1) I learned that Middle Eastern/West Asian Americans faced discrimination not only at a street level, but a federal one as well. It’s quite shameful. “Since the late 1970s, Arab Americans and Arab Canadians were periodically subjected to harassment at border crossings, and the US repeatedly sought to deport politically active Arab visitors or immigrants as ‘terrorist supporters’, even though they have not been convicted of any crime.” Middle Eastern Americans have suffered due to U.S. foreign policy and a negligent and oppressive government.
2) While I can not relate in my own lived experience, I have witnessed it second hand from my father and his family. As stated in the video “Middle Eastern College Students in the US” by Ammar Alhabi, he stated that because of the language and culture barrier, it was hard to make friends and establish connections. Where I’m from had a fairly small Middle Eastern community, and West Asia being such a diverse place, my father couldn’t find a place of his own even amongst people that he should relate to the most. The language barrier and the culture difference made it much harder for my father to establish relationships with others around him.
3) While the article mentions neo-imperialism and the rational fears behind why Middle Eastern countries may have that worry, I do think establishing a standard for the literacy of their citizens is important even if it takes the influence of an outside source to do so. The article states that not only can literacy reform lead to the creation of jobs which further improve education for citizens not only through teaching but through the building of libraries and new schools; especially for those with higher levels of illiteracy such as women and countries with high populations and less economic power. A development in general public literacy can improve health, economic status and improve political openness. Quality of life and general wellbeing increases with citizens who are more educated.
4)http://www.asjournal.org/52-2008/challenges-facing-the-arab-american-community-from-a-legal-perspective/
While this article may not talk about all the problems faced by every different West Asian culture here in the United States, it does look at how the Arab-American community has been affected post 9/11 not only facing discrimination at a street level but from a federal level as well. I selected it because human rights and the constitution is something I’m passionate about and it’s something that everyone should have some level of appreciation for. Arab-Americans have faced forms of discrimination that have infringed upon their basic rights, and if you’re someone who believes in social justice, this is something you should care about.
DB 5
I learned more about the different waves of immigration from the Middle East to the U.S from reading the article “Arab and other Middle Eastern Americans”. The article mentions 3 waves of immigration and then discusses immigration from other parts of the Middle East like Iran and Armenia. The first wave took place around 1890 – 1920 where more than 250,000 people came to America mostly from regions of Syria. The second wave took place when many Palestinians emigrated to U.S. after World War II. 250,000 more immigrated to the U.S. after 1965 when immigration laws were reformed. After reading the article and watching the Ted Talk “Misconception of Middle Eastern Cultures and Religion” by Melika Rahmani; They both show misconceptions of the Middle East being portrayed in the media. I agree with this and to add on, these misconceptions / stereotypes can be seen in video games where the objective is to kill enemies or terrorists that are dressed to look middle eastern and even speak some Arabic. And with video games having a very wide fanbase from kids to adults, it reinforces these stereotypes to large masses of people. The article “Literacy Reform in the Middle East” discusses how overall Arab countries have low levels of literacy. Wealthier countries have higher literacy rates than large densely populated countries and so the author proposes reallocating resources to those poorer and large countries. “In Morocco, Sudan, and Algeria combined – each home to at least 30 million people, and together accounting for 32 percent of the Arab world – there are as many as 37 million illiterate adults.” They also explain that “countries with education problems often face challenges related to health, poverty, and political openness.” I wanted to read about ways to stop misconceptions of the Middle East portrayed in media and came across an article titled, “How to Reduce Negative Stereotypes of Muslims in Media.” It provides insight from reporters and journalists like Mehdi Hasan and ways to stop misconception.
Source: https://today.duke.edu/2017/03/how-reduce-negative-stereotypes-muslims-media
I like how your source shows how powerful the media is and how the media forms stereotypes and are easily persuaded and easily able to shape people’s opinions like the example when they thought former President Barack Obama was a closeted Muslim. Even if he was why did it take such a negative turn on things? Why did 1 in 4 people believe this and show how they are prejudiced. It makes me sad that people’s minds work this way.
In the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article I learned that Arab Americans across the country were being mistreated and discriminated against due to the incident on September 11, 2001. When the incident of 9/11 occured, people were really worried and scared. They put the blame on all Arab and Middle Eastern Americans. Many were forced to be checked and were mainly asked questions in airports due to their appearance and from where they come from. Plus, they faced even more discrimnation when Trump was in office because he labeled them as “terrorists.” He signed an executive order which involved “banning all people with non-immigrant or immigrant visas from seven Muslim majority countries–Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – for 90 days.” From this we can infer that since Arab Americans weren’t able to go to their countries due to the ban Trump implemented. Trump implemented this law and called it the Muslim Ban.
Something I learned from the “Learning Curve: Middle Eastern college students in the US” I see how the Middle East students feel at their college in America. Some of them weren’t comfortable and it took time to adjust to the United States for them. Like when it was Ramandan they felt like the university didn’t accommodate them well during that time. For instance, one of the students mentioned that they felt the food wasn’t food for fasting. From this I learn that for a Middle Eastern student it must be hard to adjust at a college because not a lot of people know about them. A lot of them struggle in language and for the university it was “difficult” to prepare and they didn’t know what to expect.
In the article, “Literacy Reform in the Middle East,” it mentioned how the literacy rate in smaller and wealthier Arab countries were higher than those who are heavily populated. They were trying to implement some programs to change the statistics and to improve the literacy rate. It stated that, “More than 95 percent of 15 to 24 olds in Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Libya, and Syria are literate.” but when it came to poorer countries it was low. Even younger women lacked literacy and barely received help. Women were much further behind when it came to the literacy rate. It is flabbergasting how certain countries receive the help they need to improve on literacy, but those that are poor are sadly unable to experience that opportunity to improve on their literacy level. In the article, it described how literacy can be life changing and how it can be beneficial to everyone!
My source: https://youtu.be/O3ydbIUo0EY
This video has a few Arabs and they talk about their experiences of being Arab and how they think people see them. One of them talked about being with their dad and they are both from Syria and they were at the airport and were immediately put on high alert. He didn’t understand why his dad was being put on high alert. Since his dad is darker than him and has an Arabic name he thinks that was the reason why his dad was put on high alert in the airport. I picked this video because it shows different Arabs because one of them is from Syria and one of them is from Palestine. It is interesting to hear how they feel and their stories. It is disappointing how some are put in awkward situations like the boy who was in the airport with his father. Plus, a woman in the video mentioned Trump and how he implemented the muslim ban. In my opinion, when the muslim ban occured I think this created many stereotypes towards muslims and that is why even today they still face challenges due to being themselves.
Your video is a great source and shows how they deal with stereotypes and are generalized when it comes to their background which takes away from someone’s identity. It’s also sad how places like airports are immediately on high alert. They had no reason to feel threatened just by hearing their name and seeing who they are.
1. What I learned from the article is that Middle Eastern people have been targets of FBI investigations and random violence since the early 1970’s. Also, I learned how during the Gulf war in 1991 included hateful actions like arson, bombings, assault, and attempted murder took place.
2. What I learned in the video ” Misconception of Middle Eastern Culture and Religion” is that Indonesia is a country with a population of most Muslims and they aren’t Arab. It kinds of goes with stereotyping and I’m guilty of it especially with not knowing that they aren’t even in the middle east.
3. In the article “Literacy Reform in the Middle East” they talk about how the overall level of Literacy in Arab countries is low. THey discuss how they need to focus on giving resources to the poorest and largest countries because the smaller and wealthier ones have higher literacy rates.
4. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/arab-world-turns-page-on-literacy-589769
This article talks about how the older generations in the Middle East weren’t properly educated and how the youths are more literate. I also learned that preschool is not a thing in the Middle East.