Islam in America: A Panel Discussion

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Event Name: Islam in America: A Panel Discussion
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 5/19/2019
Transcript Version: 1


Transcript Text

things that the

National then the New Republic did

during the Gulf War is that you had a

picture of Saddam Hussein and they

literally clipped off his mustache in a

way that you would not notice right they

just clipped it off enough not to make

it look like Hitler but enough to in the

subconscious for there to kind of have

some kind of anchoring or identification

there so you think you're going to get a

lot of different type of stereotypes

going on but generally most most

Americans my own experience is that they

really do associate Arab with Muslim

right they and the word is either Muslim

Arab they worship Allah this type of

thing you you'd be surprised yeah I

think you'd be surprised California you

would be amazed I'm yes I'm really

serious because I'm there in California

I'm always amazed at you know actually

San Francisco's Southern California

think it might be a little different

maybe but you're dealing with it huh

Sesame Street has st street and the they

have worked as word association thanks

with the letters coming up and they have

14

danger an era they have different things

this worked out rotisserie and those not

danger and it was a male handed white

crochet looking in writing but an era

and then at book was printed recently

which meant well it was grossing so it

were to go to all the shoulders to

children include us between services as

well as well and the book was published

with about a child saying something that

was showing a drummer sometimes I wish

he'd go back home yet sometimes maybe

thanks Carrie and as lots of things that

frighten me and the part about being

pregnant depicting him like his bed with

in herriman closet this horrible scholar

one abandoned dagger between this is

really will you see this also the Asians

got the brunt of this the fu-manchu's

syndrome which is an interesting book

also the oriental menace which was how

Hollywood kind of perpetrated because

and that was at the time when China and

Japan there was a lot of problems right

and and the Asian got the brunt of a lot

of these stereotypes and they're still

dealing right the the inscrutable asian

and you know they're still dealing the

Asian community so I think every

community that comes to this country

that is not from the dominant

anglo-saxon grouping there's a wonderful

book now just came out a little while

ago call when the Irish became white

which is just letting people know that

the Irish used to be at the bottom of

the totem pole right I mean Irish people

in this country a lot of people don't

know the history of the iris and what

and what they went through to establish

their rights and their I mean even 1960

John F Kennedy that was a big debate you

know and although it was partly because

Roman Catholic but part of it was an

Irishman you know becoming president

united states was still a big shock you

know the mick syndrome and things like

that and people from the east coast

probably are more familiar with this

because of the so i think the Arabs are

just a new

ooh group the indo-pak people these are

new immigrants to this country they're

going to have to deal with the same

stuff that everybody else had to deal

with and the problem is is that we do

have Islam it's not they don't only have

their indo-pak pneus or their Arab pneus

but they have a religious because it's

not just the color that's alien the

accent is alien it's also some

subconscious problems that we're dealing

with with religion unless we forget the

the the Muslims to the European

Christian West was the evil empire for

several hundred years you know Russia

lasted you know 45 50 years the Muslims

you know children were scared to go to

bed by telling him about Turks and

things like that in Europe so that's

part of our collective consciousness is

that there is a deep-seated fear of the

Saracen the Turks at the Viennese gates

you know the the Barbary Coast from the

from the shores of Montezuma to the

halls of Tripoli I Triple E was was

Barbara they were called the Barbary

pirates who according to the Muslims

were actually the Navy right they were

the ottoman navy right so you know you

got you've got a lot of problems and I

think that you know people have if you

want to come to this country it's sink

or swim that's the nature of America you

got to deal with it hopefully that there

will always be sympathetic people that

stand up you know for you know for

what's right and there have been in this

country there have been people from the

dominant culture that have recognized

this is wrong there are people that did

stand by the Jews as they were asserting

their rights or people that stood by the

african-american and and that's all that

that has been part and parcel of art of

the American experience that there are

good people within the dominant culture

and I think Paulo Ferraris point is

well-taken that in the oppressor

oppressed cycle the cycle can really

only be broken from from

within the the oppressive group right

because the oppressed it's it's it's not

possible for them the cycle has to come

is it's our children you know that that

have two from this dominant culture that

have to we have to transmit we can break

the cycle that it is possible but it's a

human condition as well so we're going

to have a lot of problems on the way you

know and we're hoping all of you are

going to go out and help please do some

of the work you know of breaking down

the stereotypes and you know and and

educating some people