The mother of one of Sheas new school friends shared this video, along with a story about how her young daughter faced questions from school mates after she did a presentation at school about her religion. Because she is Muslim she was asked questions about whether her parents were good or bad. Heartbreaking for a 7 year old to be asked these questions. She asked that her friends, especially those who were not Muslim watch and share this video along with telling their experience with Muslims as one effort to combat the negative stereotypes that are so prevelant in the media. To be honest, I dont know very many people who are Muslim in my personal life. Of course in my line of work, I meet all sorts of people, and the people who I have met who have been Muslim have been nice, but I didnt get to know them well. I do know enough to know that I am ignorant when it comes to other religions, something that is definitely on my self improvement list. That being said, I do know my sons very short experience making a friend at school. When he started at a new school I was so worried about him making friends, and if he did make friends, would he make good friends. On the first day of school he came home telling us about his friend Jaazi. At first all we knew was that he was on his bus and in his class. Then as the first month of school ticked by we learned that Jaazi was a nice friend, he was kind, polite. We learned he had an older sister who looked out for him on the bus. These are all qualities we strive for our own sons to have, and we were pleased with his choice of friend. It was not until we recently met Jaazis parents that we learned that he and his family are Muslim. Obviously Shea has no idea what that means. At five, he only notices obvious physical differences between people; boy or girl, short or tall, skin color, etc. Even then, he makes observations but has no biases based on his observations. What a beautiful thing. While Shea may not face some of the same stigma his friends sister did, the thought of him one day hearing others discriminate or degrade others based on stereotypes breaks my heart. I hope that he will be a young man who continues to see people as people and doesnt buy into judging people as groups. Judgments of all kinds usually come from fear. Fear of the unkown along with blind acceptance of the propaganda peddled by popular media are something that seems to be getting worse in this global world we live in. With what little I do know, I know I dont want my sons to live in a world blind with fear. I dont want them to miss out on all of the things that fear takes away from life. So now that my rant is over, I want to ask my friends to watch this. Educate yourself. Pass this along and help make a world where we are a little less judgmental and a little more open.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 00:25:59 +0000
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