Not All Muslims Are From Islam, You Idiot @notallmuslimsarefromislam - Tumblr Blog

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#Cover #Zine

Table of Contents

Introduction

Why the Title?

Jihad

After Second Presidential Debate, Muslims Report Stuff

Essay: Gendered Imperialism and Islamophobia

An Autobiography of Race

Artist Spotlight: Sana Masud

Organization Spotlight: CAIR

Activist Spotlight: Hoda Katebi

Film Review: Aladdin: A Whole New World, an Orientalist Point of View

Conclusion

Sources

#table of contents

Introduction

Islam is not a monolith, and Muslims are diverse people with diverse experiences. In the West, however, there is a notion that all Muslims are the same, and that Islam is somehow a terrifying machine for world domination, a way for Muslims to take over the world with their “Sharia law” and kill all the non-believers (or whatever it is that people think Muslims are trying to do). So widespread and deep-rooted is this anti-Muslim sentiment that it is evident both explicitly and implicitly in so many facets of Western society, from politics to entertainment. This twisted perception of Muslims stems from xenophobia and a high level of (often surprisingly willful) ignorance, and it impacts Muslims all over the world, from those who live in the West (and other non-Muslim-majority countries) and experience Islamophobia to Muslims (and even non-Muslims) in countries affected by Western political intervention. This zine is an exploration of the themes of Orientalism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia and what it means to be a Muslim in a world dominated by an antagonistic West.

This zine is also a blog, notallmuslimsarefromislam.tumblr.com.

#introduction #zine

Why the Title?

The title of this zine, “Not All Muslims Are from Islam, You Idiot”, comes from a video on Twitter in which two British girls are sitting on a bed and reading out loud an Islamophobic tweet by a person named Schmitty Winkleson.

The first girl starts off by reading the tweet and says, “‘I hope Donald Trump is making all of these Muslims go back to Islam where they came from.’ Not all Muslims are from Islam, you idiot. And first of all, if they want to be in that country to get away from all of the horrible things that are happening in their country, that’s fine.”

Her friend waits for her to finish before chiming in saying, “Honestly, why does Schmitty do this? She is one of the people that disgusts me, she’s f***ing racist.”

This video is absolutely hilarious, and once I saw it I could not not name this project in its honor. The two girls are full of so much righteous indignation, but they are so unaware of their own ignorance, even though they try to point out the ignorance of the person who wrote the Islamophobic message. They meant so well, but they failed so miserably at what they were trying to do. After all, pointing out another person’s ignorance with more ignorance tends not to work.

And that is the thing about Islamophobia, or xenophobia, or any kind of ignorance. Hateful people participate in obvious ways, but even well-meaning people perpetuate the negativity by not bothering to inform themselves. It can be pretty funny, as in the case of this video, but whether or not we laugh at it, this kind of ignorance is harmful.

#Why the Title?#Why the Title #Zine

Jihad

The word jihad is frequently used in the media and translated as “holy war,” which is a completely inaccurate translation. Jihad comes from an Arabic word that means to struggle or to strive hard for, and in an Islamic context means to struggle in the path of God. Jihad can have a military context, but it is only ever declared in self-defense and by official political authorities, so it’s rarely legitimately done, and certainly can’t be declared by “Islamic terrorist groups.” Most of the time, when we are fighting for something for the sake of God, it is not a physical fight but an emotional, mental, or intellectual one. Anything we struggle through for the sake of Allah is a jihad. It is easy to desire things that are displeasing to Allah, such as a rejection of one’s values and one’s identity so that one may better fit into the social environment one is in. Stereotypes and discrimination may reinforce those desires, but when it is hardest to be unapologetically Muslim, we must be our most confident selves. We must partake in this jihad, because being ourselves in this regard is an act of servitude to God.

Am hasibtum an tadkhulul jannata wa lamma ya'lamillahul lathina jaahadu minkum wa ya'lamas saabirin(a).

Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while Allah has not yet made evident those of you who fight in His cause and made evident those who are steadfast? (Quran 3:142)

#Jihad #Zine

Article: After Second Presidential Debate, Muslims Report Stuff

Article originally published on Odyssey on October 17, 2016.

Because all Muslims know all the suspicious goings-on. We just haven’t reported them.

The presidential debate that took place on October 9th was an…interesting one, especially in terms of the words of one particular presidential candidate. Donald Trump has said a lot of xenophobic, racist, misogynistic and ableist things, among many. He’s also known for being pretty Islamophobic.

At one point in the debate, a Muslim audience member asked, “With Islamophobia on the rise, how will you help people like me deal with the consequences of being labeled as a threat to the country after the election is over?” A very valid question. What was Trump’s response?

“There is a problem…and we have to be sure that Muslims come in and report when they see something going on.”

Besides the implication that Muslims apparently don’t report suspicious activity (which is completely false), it’s also ridiculous to assume that every Muslim knows what every other Muslim is up to and just decides to keep it to themselves. I mean, we share a belief in one God, but we’re not exactly telepathic. It should be easy to see why statements like these are laughable, and so Muslims on twitter decided to laugh with the hashtag #MuslimsReportStuff.

This was all started by a twittter user named Moustafa Bayoumi, who tweeted:

I’m a Muslim, and I would like to report a crazy man threatening a woman on a stage in Missouri. #debate — Moustafa Bayoumi (@BayoumiMoustafa) October 10, 2016

The tweet took off, gaining thousands of likes and retweets and birthing the hashtag #MuslimsReportStuff. Some gems from the hashtag include:

I did laundry this morning but still haven’t put it away #MuslimsReportStuff — Sana M (@sanamasuds) October 10, 2016

Hi 911, my white neighbor came over for dinner and described my mom’s food as bomb. Should I be concerned? #MuslimsReportStuff — eemi (@eemanabbasi) October 10, 2016

I think my sister drank orange juice straight out of the carton, will continue to investigate #MuslimsReportStuff — basith (@MrCommonCents) October 10, 2016

Ugh, I’m out of ice cream. #MuslimsReportStuff — Deanna ديانا (@deannaothman) October 10, 2016

Creepy orange clowns sighted recently across the country. Some say they saw one pacing the debate stage tonight. #Muslimsreportstuff — Zainab Chaudry (@zainabnc) October 10, 2016

The hashtag is flooded with more vigilant warnings by fellow Muslim American citizens, and it puts a hilarious and positive spin on a pretty ridiculous comment.

However, it is important to note that this attitude toward Muslims, the idea that we know all the suspicious activities going on in our communities and choose not to report them, is not a new one. In politics in general, polite comments about Muslim citizens are often thinly veiling pronouncements of Muslim Americans as valuable and American enough only when they are actively fighting terrorism.

Even Hillary Clinton in this debate said, “We need American Muslims to be part of our eyes and ears on our front lines.” And earlier this year at the Democratic National Convention, Bill Clinton said, “If you’re a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, stay here and help us win and make a future together, we want you.”

These comments are made as if Muslims only exist within the context of terrorism, and that all Muslims must be actively fighting terrorism at all times. Why can’t we just be normal people, people who do laundry and are too lazy to put it away, or people who are disappointed when they run out of ice cream? Why are both our actions and non-actions political when we’re just trying to live our lives, when we’re trying to exist in our own contexts and are far removed from anything related to terrorism? This is an important conversation to have, and while a twitter hashtag is certainly not everything, it is a good start.

In the meantime, Muslims will be reporting stuff. And I’d like to report that this conversation is happening, and it’s wonderful.

#Article #After Second Presidential Debate Muslims Report Stuff #Zine

Essay: Gendered Imperialism and Islamophobia

Western imperialism has existed for centuries, and Western antagonism toward Islam is not a new phenomenon, which is evident in time as far back as the Crusades. With globalization and the World Wars (and the subsequent fall of the Ottoman Empire), Western imperialism in Muslim countries took off, and, after the events of 9/11, the War on Terror provided further justification for this imperialism to continue. The surge in both state- and citizen-supported Islamophobia in the aftermath of these events has had significant consequences both for Muslims domestically and abroad, and it has taken on gendered ways of imposing itself. Writings by Sunaina Maira and Salma Yaqoob focus on the gendered effects of Western Islamophobia in the present day.

Sunaina Maira’s piece, “‘Good’ and 'Bad' Muslim Citizens: Feminists, Terrorists, and U. S. Orientalisms”, describes the ways in which post-9/11 America interacts with gender, religion, nationalism, and their intersections. She begins her discussion by distinguishing between “bad” and “good” Muslims, defined as Muslims responsible for terrorism, the default state assumed of Muslims, versus Muslims who fight terrorism. Maira critiques the liberal imperialist ideologies that presume good intentions and use “good” Muslim testimony as legitimization for imperialism disguised as fights for democracy and freedom. This rhetoric is very common, as can be seen in current events such as the 2016 U.S. presidential election when presidential candidates state that Muslims are an important part of American society, so long as they help fight terrorism or report suspicious activity, thus being “good” Muslims. Present political discussions of Muslim citizens only value Muslims in relation to fighting terrorism, rather than simply as citizens of the nation, and thus brand Muslims who do not actively participate in fighting terrorism as “bad” Muslims. Maira also points out the importance of the “good” Muslim often being a woman, a liberal feminist who can denounce the oppressions of Islam as an insider to the religion and can put herself in opposition to the usually-male “bad” Muslim terrorist.

While Maira discusses this particular gendered dichotomy in the perception of Western Muslims, she also writes about the Western preoccupation with hijabi Muslim women, often those who live in majority-Muslim countries, who are seen as “oppressed” by barbaric Muslim men. This second dichotomy again views Muslim men as dangerous and terrorists, while this time victimizing Muslim women who, instead of being able to stand up to the backward traditions of Islam, are imprisoned by them. Thus Muslim women’s liberation is used as a tool in Western imperialistic endeavors.

In “Muslim Women and War on Terror”, Salma Yaqoob focuses specifically on the way the War on Terror affects Muslim women. However, she focuses less on imperialism itself and more on Muslim women’s involvement in anti-war, anti-imperialist movements. And unlike Maira, Yaqoob begins her piece with personal accounts of growing up in a Muslim family and witnessing gender inequalities within her community. She discusses her studies of the Quran in which she concludes that Islam promotes gender equality, but Muslims themselves practice culture in the guise of religion which results in oppressive and unjust traditions, a belief held by many Muslims. Thus she focuses on the internal oppressions faced by Muslim women from their communities while also denouncing Western Islamophobia and imperialism.

However, somewhat similarly to Maira, Yaqoob discusses the politicization of the hijab, which is associated with religious fundamentalism, extremism, and resistance to assimilation. She discusses the Islamophobia she faced after 9/11 as a visibly religious, hijab-wearing Pakistani Muslim woman in Britain and the negative reactions to veiled women nationwide. Yaqoob also points out the simultaneous views of hijabi women as oppressed and threatening to British culture and the institutionalized racism that British Muslims face.

While both authors discuss the effects of Imperialism on Muslim women, Maira takes a more historical and political approach, while Yaqoob takes a more personal and cultural approach. Maira’s paper focuses on the gendered effects of imperialism on Muslim men and women, while Yaqoob’s piece focuses on Muslim women’s struggles with both their own communities and their nation, as well as the way Muslim women organize politically. It is also important to note that Maira speaks about American perceptions of Muslims, while Yaqoob speaks on her own British experiences. Both papers are good steps in framing the discussion of Islamophobia and imperialism, but, as Maira points out, deeper analysis of other intersections such as class and race are required to push further.

#Essay #Zine

An Autobiography of Race

There are two things that one will probably notice about me upon sight. The first is that my skin is brown. The second is that I cover my hair. These two aspects of my identity have shaped my life and my interactions with the society in which I live in a way that nothing else has. I am South Asian and Muslim, and I cannot separate the latter from the former when I speak about it.

Now, I have always been acutely aware of my race. As a young Bengali girl and the daughter of immigrants, I’ve never had reason not to think I was different from many of the other people around me, both visually and culturally. I lived in Chicago until the age of five, and I lived in a primarily South Asian immigrant community. In that time that I lived in Chicago, on a day that I do not remember, the events of 9/11 occurred. I cannot tell you how my life would be different if that day’s events did not occur, but I can tell you that that day has greatly affected my life. Later my mother would tell me of the obscenities that people would hurl at her as she walked me to my preschool. “Go back to where you came from!” people decided to yell at a woman walking down the street with her four year old child. “We don’t want you here!”

After I turned five, my family moved to Carrollton, Georgia, a place I hated and a place where I could not find anyone who looked like me. I was miserable and nearly friendless for the two years I lived there, and most of the children at my school were white, few were black, and fewer were of other races. I was used to much more racial and ethnic diversity in Chicago, and the lack of this in my new classrooms and new community came as a shock. It was not difficult to pick out the ways in which I was different from my peers, which was not at all a process hindered by constant teasing. While I was always aware of my race, this was the point when I started to struggle with it consciously.

Finally, when I was seven years old, my family moved to Atlanta. It was no Chicago, but it was certainly better than Carrollton, and I found myself getting much less miserable as the years went by. I started going to an Islamic school where there were plenty of people who looked like me, plenty of people who didn’t look like me, and no people who had any differing religious beliefs.

Going from there to a high school, then, where half the students were white, took a bit of adjusting. I was shocked when I talked to people who had never heard of Malcolm X (who was a favorite back in Islamic school), or when people asked me how I lived if I had to fast for a whole entire month. These stages of my life, from living in Chicago to living in Carrollton to attending Islamic school and then going to high school, each had differing racial and religious settings, and the way I interacted in each of these environments shaped how I experienced race.

While the way I have interacted with people around me based upon my race has changed throughout my life, there are some common threads. The main one is that religion is always tied into it. Perhaps it is simply because of how visible my religion is (I literally wear a symbol of it on my head), but more realistically because of media portrayal, reactions to my association with religion tend to be stronger than reactions to any other part of my identity. While I can only remember one specific instance of a person angrily yelling the word “terrorist” at me, I can often sense when someone is uncomfortable looking at me due to their association of that word with people they think look the way I do and believe in whatever they think I believe. There has always been an undercurrent of fear in my life, of what people might think about or do to me because they think I am some kind of “terrorist.”

Even recently, a young black Muslim boy was arrested for bringing a clock he built to school because his teacher assumed from the boy’s name, Ahmed Mohamed, that his clock was some sort of bomb. There is always a fear of this kind of religious and racial profiling that may not always be in the forefront of my thoughts, but it is always in the back of my mind. Life isn’t always terrifying, and aggression due to religion isn’t constant, but the tinge of fear always lingers.

These are a few of the ways in which I have been conscious of race throughout my life. They are definitely not all of the ways race has affected me; it is too complex and nuanced a concept to really fit in such a small space. I did not at all talk about skin color and colorism within my community, or the way race and racial hierarchies work within Muslim communities, or issues of representation, or my own myriad privileges within these contexts, or exactly how big a role ethnicity and ethnic stereotypes have played in my life and my ideas of how race works. This discussion of race and visual categorization and one’s place within this muddled system is an incredibly difficult one to pull apart completely. But it is also a driving force in my life, something I cannot describe myself without.

#An Autobiography of Race #Zine

Artist Spotlight

In a place such as America where xenophobia and Islamophobia are part of most Muslims’ everyday experiences, it can be hard for us to see ourselves reflected in American culture, society, and media. For that reason, I wanted to highlight a Muslim creative, so I interviewed Pakistani-American Muslim artist Sana Masud. Sana is from Atlanta, Georgia and based in Richmond, Virginia, where she attends Virginia Commonwealth University as a sculpture major.

Q: How would you describe yourself as a person and as an artist? A: I’m a pretty sarcastic and dark humored person. I enjoy quippy, kitschy, dumb, wordy art, and I like to make things that are kind of serious but, like, it just feels like it should be funny…but the message is, like, hella deep. And I love that, undercutting the emotional stuff with bad handwriting or undercutting real emotions with colors or something like that.

Q: What is your art usually about? What kinds of themes do you like to explore with your art? A: Recently, I’ve been exploring the theme of continuing relationships after death, like how a person can continue to develop that relationship or have that relationship change even when the person you’re in that relationship with isn’t even around. Mostly, [it’s been] dealing with my mom. I’ve been working with this book that she left that has recipes that she wrote in the 90s from Food Network and going back and remaking those recipes. It feels like I’m very in conversation with my mom, like I can feel like she’s laughing at me when I do something wrong, or when she doesn’t really finish a sentence in the book and I have to piece together what she meant and I’m just like, “You thought I would know what I was doing, but, girl, I don’t know what I’m doing.” So I usually just deal with grief and death. Pretty light stuff.

Q: So what made you decide to do art? How’d you get into art? A: I’m really dumb—no, I’m kidding. I mean, art has always been something that I enjoyed doing, and I’ve always loved drawing or making doodles or looking at nice art. And I think, especially after my mom died, I was looking for some kind of emotional space or a safer outlet, I guess, and that’s when I went to museums and I actually felt something, which was kind of rare in that time, so just being aware that there was a place that I could get my emotions out and be in conversation with other like-minded people and talk about these weird, abstract concepts. And there’s this weird agreement among artists, like you can say literally whatever you’re interested in, and the other person will meet you there. Like, they’ll take you seriously no matter what you say. You could be like, “I’m really interested in how fabric folds,” and then they’ll just meet you there and be like, “Okay, let’s talk about the emotional value of this fold in this fabric.” And that’s sometimes really frustrating to me but also that is the same thing that makes me really excited about art.

Q: You’re in art school right now. What is the hardest thing about art school and what are some challenges that you face? A: Well, every time I walk into the arts building I kind of feel like I shouldn’t be there, or I kind of feel like I need to justify my space there, or I feel like I’m making a political statement by walking in there, and that’s just because I’m the only hijabi in my building. And there is sort of like this—probably imaginary—pressure for me to deliver, in the sense that I need to talk about certain subjects that only I would be able to talk about, like being a Muslim in the West or Orientalism or whatever. And I recognize my privilege in art school, like, being a brown, Muslim, Pakistani immigrant in art school is hella privileged, and I understand that I should use this position to help other people like me because there aren’t, we’re just underrepresented. But at the same time, it’s really important for me to make the stuff that I need to make, so there’s always this tug and pull between making politically active and socially engaged work versus my dumb crap, whatever I feel like making.

Q: How do you kind of balance that, then, that struggle between reconciling the work that you personally want to do versus what you feel like you should do? A: I always try to get involved in minority student-lead clubs and activities, creating spaces for POCs, or start conversations about inclusion and being there for each other. I think that for me it’s just important to be open-minded and talk to people and just be present. I think for me the most important thing is just to be there. The internal struggle is just in my mind, and when I found the hijabi faculty in the fashion department, I talked to her about this, and she was like, “Well, I feel like you just making your own work in a way is enough of a statement that you need to make.” I can understand that and I hear what she’s saying, but at the same time it doesn’t feel enough, do you know what I mean? So, yeah, I’m still working on how to balance it, in a short answer.

Q: You said that because you’re the only hijabi in your building that you feel pressure. How do you personally cope with that feeling of “I’m the only person who is from this group of people,” does it feel isolating? A: Yes, it does feel isolating, but at the same time it also feels empowering because I know that I am the only one with this unique perspective and people are gonna have to listen if I wanna say something. So I do try to carry myself with more oomph around the building. So, yeah, it is definitely lonely in some aspects, but also empowering. And I honestly would love if there were more Muslim artists around. I know people love being the token whatever in any kind of group, but I would rather not be the token scarved person.

Q: As an artist, how do you see yourself growing and evolving? How have you seen yourself grow thus far, and how do you see yourself growing in the future? A: I feel like, before, I definitely compared myself to others in a very extreme way. I’ve definitely leaned into my own voice in how I create and leaned into my personal aesthetic. I find things that I like personally, and now I don’t feel like I need to make something look like another thing for it to be good. I am more confident in the value of my own work. So, hopefully in the future it would just continue to be like that and I would just enhance the work I’m already doing. Because the work I’m doing is fine but it’s still student work, and I feel like I can definitely still elevate it to make it fit my personal voice and also a certain level of quality.

Q: As an artist, who or what inspires you? A: Whenever I find another Muslim artist on Instagram—role model, like, immediately. I don’t care what they do, if they’re creating and they’re a creative, role model. Like they can make film, clothes, graphics, whatever. I will just want to make a community and build them up and have them build me up, too, because that’s so important. I also think designers are super cool people that I look up to, mostly because they do kitschy word art and jokey funny sarcastic art, which is completely up my alley. So, like, Adam J. K. and Timothy Goodman and Jessica Walsh. And I love abstract, colorful painters, and I love color blocking companies that have vintage 70s color blocking vibes—that’s amazing, I love that—and I love textile people and film photographers. Literally, I want to do everything and everything makes me excited.

Q: Last question. What kind of advice would you have for people like you, young people in general, maybe even specifically young Muslims, who want to be creatives? A: I would say, go for it. If you make dumb little doodles in the corner of your notebook, just keep freaking doing it. Don’t look up to any kind of standard that you think you need to do. Just keep making stuff, because that is the most important thing, that will get you where you need to go the fastest. It’s important for you to not dismiss your work. Like, just keep doing it. Just go for it. I know there’s lots of stereotypical art school things that desi people or brown people or Muslim people in general do not vibe with at all, but do not let that stop you, don’t let people think that you need to have a certain kind of life to be happy. If you have this little inkling of the kind of life that you’d want to be happy, don’t let the idea that you won’t fit into that kind of group stop you from doing what you want to do.

That was Sana Masud. You can find her work on Instagram @masuds and on tumblr @sanamasuds.

#artist spotlight #zine

Organization Spotlight

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was established in 1994 in San Francisco as a “grassroots civil rights and advocacy group” to challenge “stereotypes of Islam and Muslims.” The organization has expanded over the years to include chapters in 20 states. According to their mission statement, “CAIR's mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.” They work with law enforcement and government organizations and conduct anti-terrorism campaigns, and they also have an active Islamophobia watch department that monitors people and organizations that promote anti-Muslim sentiment.

Their work includes legal support for Muslims facing religious discrimination, lobbying on behalf of Muslim Americans, civil rights research, publications, media relations, Muslim voter registration, education, and outreach. CAIR took on its first discrimination case in 1995 when a Muslim woman was not allowed by her employer to wear the hijab at work. Since then they have taken on many cases of discrimination, both inside and outside the workplace. They have addressed issues such as torture, FBI harassment, deportation, immigrants’ rights, and other civil rights issues. According to their website, they have detailed at least 64 cases of defilement of Islamic places of worship. Much of their work revolves around issues of civil rights and anti-defamation, but they also do work in education, civic engagement, interfaith relations, and humanitarian efforts.

#Organization spotlight #Zine

Activist Spotlight

In order to successfully combat xenophobia, racism, and Islamophobia, it is important for us to familiarize ourselves with and participate in activist work. One activist who deals with these kinds of issues is Hoda Katebi, who runs the blog JooJoo Azad. The blog describes itself as “a radical anti-capitalist, intersectional feminist, and body-positive activist fashion blog written and run by Hoda Katebi, a sarcastic (& angry) Muslim-Iranian writer, photographer, and activist living in Chicago.” The blog’s purpose is to challenge Orientalist views of hijabi Muslim women, incorporate anti-capitalism into fashion (the blog boasts a boycott list and promotes brands that fit the blog’s ethical standards), and provide a body-positive and intersectional space for these discussions. The blog’s content deals with topics such as feminism, Orientalism, racism, movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #NoDAPL, and the liberation of all.

Hoda graduated from the University of Chicago where she did research on the underground fashion scene in Iran and the intersections of feminism, fashion, and politics. She has published a book called Tehran Streetstyle, which is a photography book depicting the underground Iranian fashion scene and whose aim is to combat “Western notions of Iran and fashion as well as domestic government regulations.” She is also involved with CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) as the Chicago branch’s Communications Coordinator, and she is a part of the For the People Artist Collective. Her online presence includes JooJoo Azad, a Facebook page, and a very active Twitter account.

#Activist spotlight #Zine

Aladdin: A Whole New World, an Orientalist Point of View

Disney’s 1992 Aladdin, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, is one of the most beloved animated films of our time. It depicts “a street urchin [who] vies for the love of a beautiful princess” and “uses a genie's magic power to make himself off as a prince in order to marry her” (IMDb, n.d.). The protagonists are voiced by actors Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, and Linda Larkin. This film is supposedly set in the Middle East and depicts Arab culture, and here the film becomes problematic. It not only stereotypes and misrepresents Arab culture and Arab people, but it does so in obviously negative ways. The protagonist is very much unlike the other Arab men depicted and can be described as the most “Western” of the film’s characters. It is also interesting to note that the voice actors, many of whom have “Arab” accents but mispronounce the word “Allah,” are all white. Aside from the whitewashing, however, the film takes on a very Orientalist approach to its depiction of Middle Eastern culture.

The most obvious way in which this film displays Orientalism is in its association of barbarism with Arab culture. The opening theme (which used to contain more offensive lyrics), even describes the desert setting as barbaric (Aladdin, 1992). When Aladdin is first introduced, he is stealing a loaf of bread and running away from law enforcement. The men chasing him yell, “I’ll have your hands for a trophy, street rat!” as they brandish swords. Aladdin’s response is, “All this for a loaf of bread?” This of course comes from the idea that theft, even for small things, is treated in Middle Eastern cultures with the chopping of hands, a claim which is inaccurate and offensive. This is replayed when Jasmine accidentally steals an apple for a poor child, and the vendor almost cuts off her hand before Aladdin rescues her. Another instance of this kind of depiction is when a prince comes into town to see Jasmine. Two small children, to whom Aladdin had given the bread, run toward the prince and his beautiful horse. The prince, annoyed, reaches for a whip to strike the children when Aladdin jumps in to save them. Here, the film is trying to portray class differences, but it does so in a violent manner. These Arab men are consistently depicted throughout the film as not just immoral but outright violent and barbaric. Only Aladdin, who is the least like all the other Arab men in the film and who can be characterized as the most “Western,” is not barbaric or cruel.

Another problematic aspect of the film is the exoticization of Arab culture and people to the point where they can be dehumanized and Othered. They are, after all, from “a faraway land,” as the opening theme tells us, and the city of Agrabah where it all takes place is a “city of mystery, of enchantment.” In this land, it is normal for men to be barbaric and for women to be subjects of their barbarism, such as in the way princess Jasmine is forced by the patriarchal figures around her to marry and is not allowed outside the palace walls. In fact, the women of the film are highly exoticized. There are not very many women at all, and the only one who has more than one line or is significant in any way is Jasmine. While in outside settings the women are dressed conservatively, indoors their clothing is scant and sexual. In the climax of the film, when Jafar is in power and controls the palace, Jasmine can only help Aladdin defeat him by using her sexuality to distract Jafar. While this idea of a woman using her sexuality to manipulate a man is not a new one, in this film this trope, along with her even more sexualized clothing and cultural context, serves to further exoticize her.

This film, while a Disney classic, is highly problematic in its Orientalism. The most Western character, Aladdin, contrasts with all the other men by being a complete foil to them, thus reinforcing an attitude of Western superiority over backwards Arab culture. The men are barbaric, the women are exotic, and the more “Eastern” a character seems to be, the more immoral they are. While the film has nothing at all to do with religion and is more about magic and adventure, its racist and Orientalist attitude toward Middle Eastern culture negatively impacts views of Middle Eastern communities in the West as well as that of Muslim communities, because of Islam’s association with the Middle East (despite the fact that most Muslims are not Arab or Middle Eastern). Thus the film promotes xenophobia and Western supremacy through its Orientalist approach to its story.

#Aladdin: A Whole New World an Orientalist Point of View #Film Review #Zine

Conclusion

The process of making this zine has allowed me to expand upon themes I notice in my day-to-day existence through self-reflection and research. Before choosing the experiences I wanted to share or the media and literature I wanted to analyze, I had to do a lot of research and reading. While I started off wanting to discuss a different topic, diversity amongst those who identify themselves as Muslims, I found that the topic I originally wanted to more or less avoid (or rather, not focus on, because it would be difficult to speak of diversity amongst Muslims without bringing up this topic) was the more pertinent one at this time.

With the rise of neo-Nazism (or the “alt-right” movement) in America after the Trump presidential campaign and election, and the already-high levels of Islamophobia present in a post-9/11 America (even 15 years after the event), I found it difficult not to discuss and analyze racism and xenophobia in our society at every chance I got. Those are broad topics, and I wanted to hone in on the experiences I could relate to most, so I chose Islamophobia as my focus point. My religion is, after all, probably the most visible aspect of my identity. Thus, I began reading about Orientalism and Islamophobia. The two are obviously not the same thing, but they are very much related to and overlap with each other.

At someone’s recommendation, I read Sunaina Maira’s paper titled "‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Muslim Citizens: Feminists, Terrorists, and U. S. Orientalisms", and I found that I related to it immensely. I had seen for myself the idea of “bad” Muslims being the default and “good” Muslims being only those who actively condemned other Muslims for their terrorism and backwards ways. I was of course familiar with the notion of “white/Western people saving brown women from brown men,” which I had seen in throughout my life in political discussions about Muslims or Muslim-majority countries. When I read her paper, I found words put to concepts I already understood.

I began to read Edward Said’s Orientalism, which I could not include in this zine but from which I learned a lot. Said defines Orientalism as “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.” His book focuses on Orientalism that refers to the Near East, or the Middle East, or Muslim countries, and offers analyses of power relations between the East and the West.

I also learned about activism relating to these subjects. I got to speak to artist Sana Masud about being a Muslim artist, and I learned about activists such as Hoda Katebi and Linda Sarsour (the latter of whom I was not able to include in this zine but who is a Muslim, Palestinian-American civil rights activist).

Constructing this zine has let me explore a topic that has always been of relevance and interest to me, and the subjects of racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia are subjects that I want to continue to study.

#Conclusion #Zine

Sources

Why the Title?

han (@hanxine). “not all muslims are from islam you idiot.” Twitter, 13 November 2016, 7:02 AM.

Jihad

Al-Munajjid, Sheikh Muhammed Salih. "Greater and Lesser Jihaad." Greater and Lesser Jihaad. Islam Q&A, n.d. Web.

After Second Presidential Debate, Muslims Report Stuff

Bayoumi, Mustafa (@BayoumiMoustafa). “I’m a Muslim, and I would like to report a crazy man threatening a woman on a stage in Missouri. #debate.” Twitter, 9 October 2016, 9:38 PM.

Sana M (@sanamasuds). “I did laundry this morning but still haven’t put it away #MuslimsReportStuff.” Twitter, 9 October 2016, 11:00 PM.

eemi (@eemanabbasi). “Hi 911, my white neighbor came over for dinner and described my mom’s food as bomb. Should I be concerned? #MuslimsReportStuff.” Twitter, 10 October 2016, 6:26 AM.

basith (@MrCommonCents). “I think my sister drank orange juice straight out of the carton, will continue to investigate #MuslimsReportStuff.” Twitter, 10 October 2016, 12:14 AM.

Deanna ديانا (@deannaothman). “Ugh, I’m out of ice cream. #MuslimsReportStuff.” Twitter, 9 October 2016, 10:53 PM.

Zainab Chaudry (@zainabnc). “Creepy orange clowns sighted recently across the country. Some say they saw one pacing the debate stage tonight. #Muslimsreportstuff.” Twitter, 10 October 2016, 10:25 PM.

Foran, Clare. "Donald Trump and the Rise of Anti-Muslim Violence." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 22 Sept. 2016. Web.

Cooke, Kristina, and Joseph Ax. “U.S. Officials Say American Muslims Do Report Extremist Threats.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters. 16 June 2016. Web.

Connect the World (@CNNConnect). “We speak to the man who started #MuslimsReportStuff @BayoumiMoustafa on using humor to combat Islamophobia #Debate.” Twitter, 12 October 2016, 9:37 AM.

Siddiqi, Imraan. "Bill Clinton Attacked All Muslim Americans during His Speech to the DNC." Mondoweiss. Mondoweiss, 29 July 2016. Web.

Essay: Gendered Imperialism and Islamophobia

Maira, Sunaina. "‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Muslim Citizens: Feminists, Terrorists, and U. S. Orientalisms." Feminist Studies 35.3 (2009): 631-56. Web.

Yaqoob, Salma. "Muslim Women and War on Terror." Feminist Studies 88 (2008): 150-61. Web.

An Autobiography of Race

Artist Spotlight: Sana Masud

Masud, Sana. (@masuds). " Been in art school for one…" Instagram, 8 December 2015.

Organization Spotlight: CAIR

"About Us." CAIR - Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR, n.d. Web.

Activist Spotlight: Hoda Katebi

Katebi, Hoda. "ABOUT." JOOJOO AZAD | جوجو آزاد. JooJoo Azad, n.d. Web.

Film Review: Aladdin: A Whole New World, an Orientalist Point of View

"Aladdin (1992)." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web.

Aladdin. Dir. Ron Clements, John Musker. Walt Disney Pictures, 1992. Film.

Conclusion

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Vintage, 1979.

#Sources #Zine

Some current versions

#Cover #I think I'll leave it at this for now #And work on it more when I've finished the writing pieces

Timeline

Assignment description: You will create a timeline of major historical moments or happenings related to your topic. For example, if my topic is sexism in the workplace, I would include the history of the Equal Rights Amendment in my timeline. I would also include recent historical context like the passing of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 as well as the passage of significant sexual harassment laws. You must include 8 dates pertinent to your object.

Nation of Islam Founded (1930) In 1930, the Nation of Islam was founded by Fard Muhammad in Detroit, Michigan. This movement empowered Black Americans through the religious teachings of Fard Muhammad and the leadership of Elijah Muhammad, though it differed very much from mainstream Islam. Sources: https://www.noi.org/noi-history/ http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/nation-islam-founded

CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) Founded (1994) The Council on American-Islamic Relations was established in 1994 to challenge “stereotypes of Islam and Muslims.” CAIR works on civil rights issues and is frequently quoted in US mainstream media as a voice for Muslims across the nation. Sources: https://www.cair.com/about-us/cair-who-we-are.html

9/11 (2001) The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 resulted in the deaths of 3,000 people and the fall of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The backlash against Muslims and Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants after that event has had lasting effects on those communities up until this day. Sources: https://www.911memorial.org/about-memorial

The War on Terror (2001) After the events of 9/11, the Bush administration declared a “war on terror” which resulted in the US invasion of several Middle Eastern nations, including Iraq and Afghanistan. Sources: http://www.globalissues.org/issue/245/war-on-terror

Keith Ellison first Muslim elected to Congress (2006) In 2006, Keith Ellison was the first Muslim elected to the House of Congress and was reelected in 2012. Sources: https://ballotpedia.org/Keith_Ellison_(Minnesota)

Killing of Osama bin Laden (2011) In May of 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed by a US raid in Pakistan. Sources: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/osama-bin-laden-son-hamza-vows-to-avenge-fathers-death/ http://www.globalissues.org/issue/245/war-on-terror

#Timeline #T #As you can tell this is from when I wasn't sure if I should focus on American Muslims specifically #Also I did this assignment the morning it was due so it's a mess whoops #Women's Studies 100 #WS 100 #Women's Studies #Muslim #Intersections of the Muslim Identity #IotMI #Identity #Intersectionality

What is this?

I’m a sophomore at a liberal arts women’s college, and I’m taking Women’s Studies 100 (the intro to women’s studies course). In this class, each student must create a zine as part of a semester-long project. Here’s the whole outline on the syllabus:

Multi-‐Part Term Project: Zine (40%)

The bulk of your grade for this class will be derived from a semester--long project made up of several parts. You will pick an issue pertinent to the field of Women’s Studies and research it throughout the term. Some suggestions include: violence against women or LGBTQ persons, sexual assault on college campuses, institutional racism, disability rights, the campaign to raise the minimum wage (a.k.a.“the pay gap”), environmental racism, climate change, representations of a particular group in the media, animal rights, heteronormativity, reproductive justice, body norms (i.e. fat stigma) and beauty standards, violent masculinity, misogyny, the prison industrial complex, poverty, access to education, access to healthcare, or even histories left out of US feminist history (i.e. multicultural feminisms). I welcome other ideas and want you to chose something that interests you.

1. Select Topic (5%) Due: Sept 13 You will write a paragraph about your topic, how it relates to Women’s Studies, and why are you interested in researching it.

2. Dipity timeline (10%) Due: Sept 22 Dipity is a free program that enables you to create digital timelines. We will practice using the program in class. Using Dipity, you will create a timeline of major historical moments or happenings related to your topic. For example, if my topic is sexism in the workplace, I would include the history of the Equal Rights Amendment in my timeline. I would also include recent historical context like the passing of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 as well as the passage of significant sexual harassment laws. You must include 8 dates pertinent to your object.

3. SQuIDS analysis of a scholarly article (15%) Due: Oct 11 SQuIDS stands for: Select a Quotation, Identify, and Discuss the Significance. For this assignment, you will locate a scholarly article on your topic and analyze it using the SQuIDS model.

4. Film review (15%) Due: Nov 3 You will watch a documentary or fictional film related to your topic and write an analytical essay about the film’s treatment of your issue.

5. Zine outline (10%) Due: Nov 15 You will produce a detailed outline/table of contents for your zine, and bring in some samples of what you have created so far. *I will meet with each of you individually during class.

6. Final Zine (45%) & Zine share Due: Dec 1 (*last day of class) Your zine will include revised versions of your a) SQuIDS analysis and your b) film review. In addition to these elements, the following parts are required: c) cover and title d) artwork (original art is encouraged, but you may also create collages from magazines, your own photographs, or public domain images from the internet) e) profile of an organization addressing some facet of your issue f) conclude with a reflective essay on what you learned during the course of your research and zine construction.

Other ideas for the remaining content of your zine (must have 8 pieces of writing total): •Feature work of art with an artist’s statement •Original poetry •Interview (perhaps with someone from your featured organization) •Additional film reviews •Music (cd or concert) reviews •Book reviews •Article about an academic lecture or community event you attended (ASC and beyond)

I know, that was a lot, and no one’s actually reading it. It’s more for me than it is for anyone else, really. But this is basically the entirety of what’s to come.

There’s no real reason for me to be putting this on the internet. I just decided I wanted to, and I figure it might help with organization. And, besides, I’m the type of person to share anything I create, no matter the purpose or the quality. So here I am, sharing this with you.

I will publish each post in reverse order (sources first, cover last) so that once a person comes onto this blog and reads from top down, the posts will be in the proper order (cover first, sources last).

#Syllabus #T #Women's Studies #Women's Studies 100 #WS 100 #Muslim #Identity #Intersectionality #About

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