“Love thy neighbor as thyself.” While Biblical in nature, this proverb should reign true throughout the world. Often times people tend to use their knowledge of a specific event to form an opinion on an entire culture or idea, otherwise know as the availability heuristic (Fadel, 2012). There is no more prominent example of this psychological representation than that of how people around the world call up their knowledge of the actions of Muslim terrorists on September 11th, 2001 and the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 to generalize that all Muslims must be terrorists. I feel it is our job as diversified individuals to educate ourselves on cultures and religions all over the world, specifically that of Islamic culture, before making assumptions and stereotyping a large group of peers in this great big world of ours.
It may seem like the idea of the availability heuristic is basically a stereotype, but one should look a bit deeper in comparing the two ideas. There are certainly similarities in the two for example both are outsiders’ beliefs about groups (Moran, Harris, & Moran, 2011). The differing factor that I see is that a stereotype is a set of attitudes that cause individuals to attribute characteristics to a person on the basis to which he or she belongs… it’s this part that is important to differentiate. Being Muslim may be a similar characteristic of the terrorists to people following the Islamic faith but they are do not belong to the same group. Terrorists are extremists who use the ideals of Islam in radical ways when in actuality, the religion of Islam teaches peace and tolerance.
On a trip to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, I met a man from Pakistan and had a very candid and enlightening conversation with him about our personal and cultural views of each other’s country. I consider myself an open-minded, educated individual but in having this discussion with this Middle Eastern devout Muslim man, I realized that I too was guilty of many generalizations and stereotypes of the Islamic culture. What was also interesting to discover is that he too was guilty of generalizations about Americans. I spoke at length with him about his family members who had been victim to drone attacks and his distrust for Americans because of it. He too was guilty of the availability heuristic. As our conversation grew deeper, we each developed a better understanding for our cultures and beliefs.
If only all people could stop assuming the worst of a group and take the chance to get to know the larger scope of things… our world could be a much better place. The key to living in harmony is educating ourselves on cultures and not generalizing an entire group by a few actions.
References
Fadel, M. (2012, June). Language Matters: Talking about Islam and Muslims. Policy Brief. Retrieved from http://www.ispu.org/pdfs/ISPU_Brief_LangMatters_4_REVISED_edits_3%20(1).pdf
Moran, R. T., Harris, P. R., & Moran, S. V. (2011). Managing cultural differences: Leadership skills and strategies for working in a global world. New York: Elsevier.
Pennsylvania State University. (2014). OLEAD 497B: Leadership in a Global Context: Lesson 7: The Middle East: Focus on Saudi Arabia. Retrieved at: https://cms.psu.edu
Stetzer, E. (2013, April 26). Loving all our neighbors, even our Muslim ones: Column. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/04/26/islam-boston-terrorism-column/2107447/
Brian Paterniti says
This has personally affected me over the past few years. Working with adults with disabilities there is a constant stereotype in the public eye. Unfortunately, working with adults with disabilities that also from India has an even a larger stereotype. It’s sad walking through Wal-Mart getting looks from everyone like I’m with a terrorist. They are two of the kindest gentlest men you would ever meet. It makes me feel for the people that truly don’t deserve this label. This has happened over the course of our country, unfortunately. During WWII, Japanese Americans were taken from their families and sent to concentration camps and The Native Americans were led on the trail of tears by President Andrew Jackson. It seems we as Americans have a very narrow mind when it comes to people and who they truly are. Very sad
Robert Charles Weidamoyer says
I enjoyed your statements about how you realized your own generalizations about muslims and the encounter with the Pakistani man that proved to be so enlightening for you. There is no argument toward your belief that all cultures have good people and assumptions like the belief that all muslims are terrorists are clearly misguided. However, I believe it is not just the responsibility of others to learn about different cultures, but of those cultures themselves to do everything they can to change the world’s view of them. Ghandi was once quoted as saying that a person should be the change they want to see in the world. I agree with him that if muslims don’t want the perception of being terrorists, they also need to join the effort on a global scale to rid people’s minds of such inaccurate perceptions. As a teacher I have many students that are of the muslim faith, but feel their parents or families are to angry about mistreatment to show the real side of their beliefs. It is a difficult situation and I urge my students to respect the beliefs of others regardless of how others treat them.