On Wednesday March 30, 2016 at Ohio University the TEDx program along with the College of Arts and Sciences held a talk “What Does Islam Mean to You?” The premise of the talk was to allow students of all religious backgrounds to be able to ask Muslim students about their religion without embarrassment and discuss the perceptions of Islam as it is portrayed in social media. According to Hashim Pashtun the president of the International Student Union, “he hopes that the event will assist in creating an accurate portrayal of Muslims.” He also mentions that “Islam is a religion which came into being” a long time ago and “what is changing is the Muslim people.” It’s important that people understand this distinction and realize that Islam is a religion like all other religions and it should not be categorized as good or bad based on the actions of its people.
The idea of this talk resonated with me after reading the “Oral History of Hagar Omran” in which he says “I don’t feel that Muslims are treated equally in this country” and when he further questions “why when one person does something wrong, the whole Muslim community and religion gets blamed for it.” This clearly would resonate with Pashtun’s objective of the talk which is to realize the generalizations that we are making and to better understand the religion behind Muslim people. Another relevant quote from that section was that the “Muslim community is intelligent, educated and civilized,” which is again what Pashtun hopes that attendees of the talk will come to realize and appreciate. So I ask myself, why are talks like this necessary? It’s sad to think that they are. People lack the knowledge of other religions in the United States and look to social media, which poorly portrays the realities of Islam and Muslim people, and there lies the issue. We need to take the initiative to be informed citizens in a global community.
Posted by: Hanna S.
