Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Ryan McCrerey
Over the span of the last fourteen years ever
since 9/11, Islamic Racial Profiling has become more
prevalent throughout the world amongst social and
professional circles. Whether it be airport security, law
enforcement, or people at a park, in todays age most
Muslims are singled out and often correlated or compared to terrorists. The Islamic community is often
under scrutiny for their religious practices and beliefs
and under this social setting, this represents prejudice
in the fullest sense.
Apart from the media aspect of Islamic racial profiling,
I had the pleasure of interviewing two American Muslims, a father and daughter, to give a firsthand view on
racial profiling.
Ryan (Ry): What experiences have you had (if any)
regarding prejudice or racial profiling?
Bina (B): In middle school I would be asked what my
religion was. I always said that I did not know because
my mother is Christian and father was Muslim. When
I said my father was Muslim my friends would gasp
and ask if he was a terrorist or a brutal man. That was
never the case; my father is a smart and understanding
man who would never wish pain upon others. From
then on people would treat me differently. If my bag
was too big, theyd make jokes about a bomb being in
there when I really had a hoodie stuffed in it. It was
very disappointing to see my fellow classmates act this
way.
Rachid (Ra): I was accused at work of wrong doing
without any proof of it, I believe it was due to racial
profiling.
Ry: What do you think is the reason that certain people hold negative views regarding Muslims?
B: The reason is social media. If you look at TV shows,
the terrorist is always presented Muslim. Muslim
women that cover their heads are not seen in beauty
magazines, tv shows, or news. Also 9/11 really affected
the way Muslims were viewed because the news emphasized that it was done by Muslims and thats how
Muslims were identified to be terrorists.
Changing Stereotypes
By Courtney Adkins
Ever since I can remember, there has been a
negative connotation that goes along with the word
Muslim or Arab in the Western World. Whether the
bad taste in ones mouth about Arabs/Muslims is due
to a specific occurrence which happened to involve a
Muslim or person of Arab descent, its safe to say that
most people in the Western World tend to group Muslims/Arabs into the terrorist stereotype. While this
assumption is totally understandable on the forefront
due to all the bias the media has shown involving stories of terror attacks, it does require some correcting;
because as most people who have an Arab or Muslim
friend know, not everyone who worships Allah or is
from an Arab country is a terrorist.
I can personally vouch for Muslims and Arabs
alike, because I have had the opportunity to be immersed in an Islamic and Middle Eastern culture for
the past five years. The story starts in March of 2010,
when my mother got recruited, interviewed, and hired
for a job to teach in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates,
all over the span of about a week. I could go into more
detail about that whole process, but I wouldnt want to
bore anyone. The fact of the matter is, I, as well as my
whole family, were taking a giant leap of faith by making this move across the pond. As a thirteen year old
middle school cheerleader, I never had the need nor
desire to learn much about the Middle East, or keep up
with events happening there until I was told I would be
living there.
The process of selling most of your earthly
possessions, saying goodbye to loved ones, and trying
to explain to your friends that you wouldnt be riding a
camel to school, is quite an exhausting one, to be quite
honest. I was scared out of my wits, mainly of leaving
the only place Ive ever known and jumping into a
polar opposite way of life after hanging in the air for 15
hours. Luckily, I was able to make a couple (American)
friends online before the move, because they were children of teachers who were hired by the same company
that my mother was, so they knew what I was going
through. The thought of leaving all I ever knew behind
and essentially starting over was still terrifying, however.
Once my family and I were done with the
fifteen hour flight, we stepped off the plane and into
The developing dilemma of the Syrian Refugee
Crisis has led to the displacement of millions of families as they try to flee a mounting civil war in Syria.
The refugees are searching for a safe haven to shelter
them from their war stricken homeland, however, this
is causing major issues in the countries that are choosing to offer them asylum. On the flip side, the influx of
people to European countries is placing a major strain
on the entirety of Europe as the population swells
exponentially and beyond what current resources can
handle. With a giant catch twenty-two spanning the
continent, the worlds nations need to seriously analyze
which plans of action are right; morally and subjectively.
This crisis takes its roots back in 2011 during the
Arab Spring, where many countries in the Arab world
toppled their authoritarian regimes. In Syria, however,
the Al-Assads refused to step down, as they had been
ruling as quasi-dictators since the 60s. To keep their
power in place, they started a brutal civil war. Because
of this, many ethnicities and religious groups fought
each other constantly. Some of these groups include
the Islamic Front, YPG, the Opposition Front, Government Forces, the Hezbollah, and ISIS. ISIS came in to
set up a totalitarian Islamic caliphate using any means
necessary, including chemical weapons, mass executions, large scale torture, and repeated deadly attacks
on civilians. Very quickly, they became one of the
most violent, and successful, extremist organizations
on Earth. The citizens of Syria quickly became stuck
between the regime, rebel
groups, and religious extremists, with death on every
side. One third of the refugees are displaced in Syria,
while over 4.3 million have fled their home country. 95% of those who fled went to their neighboring
countries, but camp became quickly overcrowded and
undersupplied, leaving these families exposed to cold,
hunger, and disease. Seeing their hopeless situation,
the refugees then fled to Europe, but Europe was not
ready for the influx of people in such a short amount of
time. The world needed to come together and act as a
united front, but instead it has become more divided
(Taylor, 2:20). The Dublin Regulation makes it so the
refugees have to stay in the state that they originally
arrive in, which puts major strain on the border states,