So for full disclosure I was sent a link about this project and asked if I thought my readers (whoever you are) would be interested in learning more about this project. So I went exploring. This is I think that my readers WOULD be interested so I decided I did want to write a post about it.
See the My Fellow American project is (from the website): "an online film and social media project that calls upon concerned Americans to pledge and spread a message that Muslims are our fellow Americans...Using the power of social media, My Fellow American seeks to change the narrative – from Muslims as the other, to Muslims as our fellow Americans."
On the website you can pledge to spread this message of acceptance for Muslims in the US and then make videos or tell your story of how you personally know American Muslims (and how they have effected your life.)
I'll admit that at first this seemed a little hokey to me. But the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. The thing is this is a project aimed at educating people who don't really know anything about Islam, Muslim cultureS, and/or Muslim life in the United States.
I grew up in a city that has a large and highly visible Muslim community (it in fact has multiple Muslim communities.) I grew up aware (though I would not say knowledgeable) of Islam and had kids in my school of various racial, ethnic, and national backgrounds who identified as Muslim in my classes. Dare I say some of my best friends were/are Muslim. (That sounds like a line--intentionally--but it is also true.) So it wasn't long before it stopped being a big deal to me to know Muslim kids. Then 9/11 happened. I was a sophomore in high school. I remember waking up the next day and being afraid for my friends lives. I remember how we would go to school and hear about how so and so's brother/uncle/father had been harassed or how someone's mom was being super weird about them hanging out at night.
I don't in my day to day world spend a lot of time with people who are ignorant about Islam (or the various cultural backgrounds that followers of the faith come from.) So when I was sent info about this project my initial response was: why is this necessary? But the truth is that many, if not most, people in the US don't *think* that they have any connections to Islam or Muslims in America.
There is a very insidious othering project going on in media every day in this country (and others) that produces a narrative about how Muslims are strange outsiders. Work that attempts to highlight that this is happening and that we can each be a part of changing that narrative. Because the truths are these: Islam is a religious/cultural practice that is embraced by a majority of the worlds population--including the US. Muslims come from all kinds of racial/ethnic/cultural backgrounds. I was born in rural Texas in a predominately Black community and I have family members who are Muslim. Another fact, Muslims have had a significant role in shaping the development of this nation since it's inception. (One can easily point to the religious practices of enslaved Africans brought to North America.) Islam is deeply imbedded in the history of my community as Black Muslim movements in the early 20th century, US can be directly linked to the Civil Rights Era and Black politics hereafter (perhaps most famously embodied by the lives and work of El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, or Malcolm X, and his wife Betty Shabazz.)
Some videos form the project:
Russell Simmons. Me and this guy have our problems but I won't pretend like he doesn't do good work.
Plus he's probably one of the most religiously open people in hip-hop which is great.
Filmmaker Malik Aziz
Chantae Campbell
Donna Taylor
--------------------
I took the pledge. I was sad to see how few people have taken the pledge thus far. I hope more do. I hope this helps.
And even if people don't take this particular pledge I hope we can all keep working towards a world that is not merely 'tolerant' but truly accepting.
See the My Fellow American project is (from the website): "an online film and social media project that calls upon concerned Americans to pledge and spread a message that Muslims are our fellow Americans...Using the power of social media, My Fellow American seeks to change the narrative – from Muslims as the other, to Muslims as our fellow Americans."
On the website you can pledge to spread this message of acceptance for Muslims in the US and then make videos or tell your story of how you personally know American Muslims (and how they have effected your life.)
I'll admit that at first this seemed a little hokey to me. But the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. The thing is this is a project aimed at educating people who don't really know anything about Islam, Muslim cultureS, and/or Muslim life in the United States.
I grew up in a city that has a large and highly visible Muslim community (it in fact has multiple Muslim communities.) I grew up aware (though I would not say knowledgeable) of Islam and had kids in my school of various racial, ethnic, and national backgrounds who identified as Muslim in my classes. Dare I say some of my best friends were/are Muslim. (That sounds like a line--intentionally--but it is also true.) So it wasn't long before it stopped being a big deal to me to know Muslim kids. Then 9/11 happened. I was a sophomore in high school. I remember waking up the next day and being afraid for my friends lives. I remember how we would go to school and hear about how so and so's brother/uncle/father had been harassed or how someone's mom was being super weird about them hanging out at night.
I don't in my day to day world spend a lot of time with people who are ignorant about Islam (or the various cultural backgrounds that followers of the faith come from.) So when I was sent info about this project my initial response was: why is this necessary? But the truth is that many, if not most, people in the US don't *think* that they have any connections to Islam or Muslims in America.
There is a very insidious othering project going on in media every day in this country (and others) that produces a narrative about how Muslims are strange outsiders. Work that attempts to highlight that this is happening and that we can each be a part of changing that narrative. Because the truths are these: Islam is a religious/cultural practice that is embraced by a majority of the worlds population--including the US. Muslims come from all kinds of racial/ethnic/cultural backgrounds. I was born in rural Texas in a predominately Black community and I have family members who are Muslim. Another fact, Muslims have had a significant role in shaping the development of this nation since it's inception. (One can easily point to the religious practices of enslaved Africans brought to North America.) Islam is deeply imbedded in the history of my community as Black Muslim movements in the early 20th century, US can be directly linked to the Civil Rights Era and Black politics hereafter (perhaps most famously embodied by the lives and work of El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, or Malcolm X, and his wife Betty Shabazz.)
Some videos form the project:
Russell Simmons. Me and this guy have our problems but I won't pretend like he doesn't do good work.
Plus he's probably one of the most religiously open people in hip-hop which is great.
Filmmaker Malik Aziz
Chantae Campbell
Donna Taylor
--------------------
I took the pledge. I was sad to see how few people have taken the pledge thus far. I hope more do. I hope this helps.
And even if people don't take this particular pledge I hope we can all keep working towards a world that is not merely 'tolerant' but truly accepting.
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