Muslim While Flying
Watch this video blog and respond. You can read about the blogger here.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
About Me
- Name: Muqtedar Khan
- Location: United States
Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He is also the Director of the Islamic Studies Program. He is a Non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom (Amana, 2002), Jihad for Jerusalem: Identity and Strategy in International Relations (Praeger, 2004).
Previous Posts
31 Comments:
I thought this video was an interesting way to bring light to some of the subjects going on with Muslims in America today. Humor's impact is easing tensions and speaking truth to power is often underestimated. Satire is perhaps the most powerful force available to the public sphere to convey thoughts and ideas uninhibited. It gives the user a freedom unlike anything else.
The user in this video seems to have a lighthearted mask to cover some of his frustrations which seem obvious from the interview and I think he is doing an excellent job by using a popular m edium to spread a message about a subject that is arcane to a lot of Americans. I hate to see pundits on TV and in print call out Muslims to denounce Terrorism as if they are somehow culpable just for being associated with them in some vague sense, but this is one area the Muslim community can have a powerful impact on. Education and firsthand experiance dispells many of the myths and common misconceptions about Islam in America. One of my favorite quotes is fairly applicable in this situation:
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
I think this video is an honest and unique attempt to help Muslims and non-Muslims better understand each other. Presented in a simple and entertaining way, it gives non-Muslims greater insight into the changes Muslims have had to deal with in their daily lives because of the misconceptions about their religion. This is valuable to our diverse society as it allows us to constructively accept each other’s differences, instead of instinctively fearing beliefs and lifestyles that we are not familiar with. Furthermore, spreading this awareness to the general public is not possible through mass media – rather, it may even inhibit this process by reinforcing stereotypes.
This video is also relevant to an American Muslim audience because it not only serves as a voice for their concerns, but also offers advice. It discusses how Muslims can take an active approach to dispelling misconceptions regarding Islam, instead of being victimized by the present situation.
The video is a fresh approach to sympathizing with and offering possible solutions to the daily problems American Muslims may face. Although it may not appeal to everyone, it is certainly valuable to those who can relate to it and worthwhile to those who may be ignorant to the issues discussed.
-Ritika Samant
while I am definitly in agreement with the general idea of tolerance and respect and not searching people in airports because of what they look like and all that lovely stuff, I find some of the specific ideas expressed in the video at best oversimplistic. according to the video, "if you study islam, you'll see there is no terrorism in islam. think about it. think about it. out of the 6 billion people on this planet, one and a half billion people muslims. that's a lot of muslims. so, if islam taught terrorism, one out of every four human beings would be doing a violent act. but that's not reality, because islam doesn't teach terrorism." this line of reasoning assumes that there are only two possible relationships between islam and violence: either islam teaches terrorism and therefor every muslim must do something violent, or islam does not teach terrorism and therefor there is no connection between islam and violence at all. why should these be the only two possibilities? why can't there be a connection between islam and violence that doesn't involve every single muslim being violent? I mean seriously, all of the 9/11 hijackers were muslim. the chances of 19 people selected at random from the worlds population all being muslim is 1 in 256,000,000,000. more than 100 people died in the aftermath of the danish cartoons of the prophet. are we supposed to believe that islam played no role there? theo van gogh was murdered by a muslim after producing a film critical of islam. pure concidence? I think not. it seems obvious to me that some versions of islam do cause people to commit violent acts in at least some cases. the video says that "you're always going to find good and bad people in every group." and probably so, but the examples mentioned above are not simply examples of bad people who just happened to be muslim, they are examples of people who did bad things specifically because they were muslim. the famous steven weinberg quote comes to mind here, "with or without religion you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. but for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
the video also says "the point is if you want to learn about islam, go study islam, don't study the muslims." this I don't think even makes sense. it seems to assume that there is only one set of ideas which can be labeled islam, and that that therefor can be studied without reference to the people who call themselves muslims. I know that there are many very different versions of christianity, and since I don't think any of them is true it doesn't make sense to me to say that one version of christianity the christianity, and that therefor christianity can be studied without reference to the poeple who call themselves christians. why should I expect islam to be any different? certianly one important difference between islam and christianity is that the bible was composed over a span of thousands of years by many different people, whereas the quran was composed in a matter of decades by one man. so it seems reasonable to think that the quran would be more coherent than the bible. but does that mean that there can be only one version of islam, or that one is somehow more the islam than the others?
besides, how on earth could one study a religion without studying the people who practice it? you can't study physics without studying physical systems. you can't study history without studying historical documents. how could one study islam without studying muslims? even if it were possible, maybe I'm more interested in learning about muslims than islam. what's wrong with that?
Frank, I enjoyed your commentary very much. I hope someone responds to you. Yes, you cannot study Islam without studying Muslims, since Islam is what Muslims (some dead some alive)claim it is.
Frank, I really agree with your opinion regarding the reality of the whole Muslim/terrorism issue. I guess I've been getting tired of all the new campaigns targeted toward "missunderstood" Islam. The fact of the matter is that the genre of extremeist Muslims is a small percentage of practicing Muslims, but they are still Muslims focusing on the teachings and interpretations of Islam. Thus, Islam is teaching violence in the form of retalliation against non-believers with the excuse of a jihad and such.
I do think that Baba Ali's videos can be beneficial,especially for Muslim youth, to relate to. It must be really hard to deal with with certain racisms and b.s. (excessive security checks for being 'Muslim while flying') in the aftermath of 9/11 and various European attacks and to have a funny, personable Muslim guy like Ali joking about it and providing a public opinion on how it does feel to be a in that situation can help other young Muslims deal. Baba Ali also gives a totally new face of Muslims in the media. Muslims are not usually seen as comical and outgoing. Ali says that,"I'm not a scholar. I don't think I'm qualified to give people fatwas or anything like that. I'm not going to pretend to be a scholar. I just try to tell people simple things in a nice way, inshallah, and at the end of the day when you think about it, that's what seems to work when friends advise you to do certain things." I like that he is just doing these videos just to give his opinion and not trying to force some "better" way of life on the viewers.
"all of the 9/11 hijackers were muslim"? all of the army of god members and eric rudolph, abortion clinic bombers, were christians. all of the ALF arsonists were animal rights activists. all of the shining path of peru, that killed by sequentially stoning, stabbing, setting on fire, and finally shooting other peruvians, were secularists. while that 1/256 billion probability is a very impressive exercise in multiplying fractions, it entirely misses the point.
"some versions of islam do cause people to commit violent acts in at least some cases"? 'versions' (perversions) of the truth on any topic could cause unjustified wrongs. misinformation on the perpetrators of 9/11 and WMD and foreign threats could cause a whole country to accept violent acts, on the scale of over 1 million dead iraqis. if the dutch cartoon and van gogh video serve as sufficient grounds for a relationship between islam and terrorism, then there is also a relationship between science and terrorism, between provocative art and terrorism, between the nation-state and terrorism, between democracy and terrorism (and of course between other major religions and terrorism).
Frank's line of reasoning assumes that there is only one possible relationship between muslim terrorists: not their political, social, or economic conditions, not the circumstances of their narrow educations, nope: it's their religion.
"for good people to do evil things, that takes religion". all right, this makes a lot of sense. if atheists and agnostics are good people, they never ever do evil things. because, duh, the only grounds for a level-headed person to be bad is religion. i'm so silly. it must be the quran brainwashing me.
you're more interested in studying muslims than studying islam? please, by all means, study us, dissect us, dichotomize us, scrutinize us. but if the muslim population is the test subject, and clearly probability appeals to you, please do some more balanced sampling. congressman keith ellison of minnesota. comedian dave chappelle of .. comedy central. And, if you want to assess them AS MUSLIMS, not simply as human beings, somehow it seems appropriate to me to understand what distinguishes them, what you're defining them as, and that is the faith to which they subscribe: islam. further, it seems that the main thrust of your entry was exploring the "connection between islam and violence that doesn't involve every single muslim being violent". if this is so, the relationship you're seeking concerns the teachings of the RELIGION, not practices of individual muslims.
but all this is neither here nor there. sure, ummahfilms was simplistic in his 6 minute humorous take on flying muslim, but let's not respond with even more simplistic thinking.
if we really want to understand the origin of these violent acts, maybe we should understand islam, maybe we should understand muslims, but maybe we should reflect on what we all are: just plain people. And people are capable of doing awful, violent things, and most of the time for most people there is a motivation to their actions.
how desperate does someone have to be, how devoid of other outlets for expression, how futile must they consider their efforts, for them to actually think that the greatest productiveness of their entire life can be actualized by ENDING IT in a maximally brutal and destructive way? this is not a justification of suicide bombing - i'm just for a moment asking you to imagine the circumstances under which someone would feel right committing such an awful act. it doesn't take religion for good people to do evil things: it takes an extremist perspective on something, a stance usually adopted out of defensiveness, anger, suppression, or resentment.
Lorraine’s commentary on Flying while Muslim
I thought that the clip on “Flying while Muslim” was very interesting, and kind of comical especially during his numbered action points at the end; but I got a little put off when he started a few things. His attempts were very noble in that he wanted to bring people to understand the state of injustice in which many Muslims, especially, in the West live after the 911 attacks. He also attempts to shatter limited, prejudicial, and stereotypical ways of thinking about Muslims; but I feel in some cases he went about it in a strange and perhaps counterproductive way. The first time this comes to mind is when he refers to the fact that one does not see Muslims on shows like cops. In my opinion, if there even was a Muslim by birth, practice, or conversion on the show, I don’t think that the show is the type of forum during which they would explore that. I say this particularly because he used this as an example, albeit comically (and that may be the reason for his oversight and oversimplification of the matter), that one does not see a “a guy with a turban, or a [robe]…” He is assuming that because none of the people he saw on cops had any of the stereotypical attributes of what one thinks of when they think of a Muslim man, there have been no Muslims on Cops. Perhaps, my dissection of this particular example seems a little nit-picky, but he also turns around in his comical and sarcastic way of saying “don’t stereotype”, and says, he is a convert to Islam; acknowledges briefly in the clip that those watching him may have not thought that, because of his “ethnic” looks. But, in the earlier example, he reinforces the stereotype of what you would look for on any of the crime shows, if you would like to truly see whether any Muslims are violent or terrorists.
I also wasn’t flattered by the fact that he said, “If you thought black while driving was bad, try Muslim while flying.” I do not like it when individuals compare and contrast oppressions, because though we can all try to understand, tolerate, and/or sympathize, we can never fully understand what someone else goes through – and therefore it is best to avoid trying to compare. That comment to me, sounded similar to when individuals try to compare which of the two was the worst – Trans-Atlantic slave trade or the Holocaust. It would be foolish to even try to choose between the two. And why, if there was so much pain caused in both occasions.
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I think this video was an interesting approach to some the problems Muslims face everyday. People can be ignorant about Islam or any religion but what the media covers is what they are spoon fed and would considered what they hear is the religion. Just like the video he mentioned if you want to know about Islam “don’t study Muslims study ISLAM” the religion. Because they are Muslims people who give different interpretations of Islam to suit their needs and wants. I also liked the advices he gave at the end of the video for Muslims. ONE of the advice that I totally felt was the most prevalent is when Muslims speak in their language at a very high tone voice and don’t try to lower their voices; which can seem to others that they are arguing and yelling about something but in fact they are just talking in a normal tone voice.
Another thing that he mentioned in the video which I can totally agree on was getting screened at the airport, just because you have an Arabic name or have a heavy accent they automatically assume your a terrorist. My family came here to the US last year and they held my uncle for 6 hours questioning him, because they were suspicious of his first name and he also fell under the category of religion, he is an Arab, and he spoke Arabic. My uncle hated his life when he entered JFK airport and hated Americans on how they treated him like a terrorist. So your not being chosen Randomly as they say!
Media has only covered negative things about Islam as we all can see, they would draw verses from the Quran or hadith and say LOOK this is what ISLAM says. And from that information it makes Islam a terror religion. But in fact Islam is a peace religion. Some of things that really bugged me the most is what media covered after they attack happened like how women are oppressed in Islam and they have no rights, how Arabs are not educated, Muslim men can marry more than one wife without explain the concept of it, ect……… I remember going to Dr.Khan’s lectures in Wilm. and there is this guy who always in every lecture has to say negative weird stuff about Islam and sometimes I wish the info were even true.! the information he gave he would be refer to some Sharp sources like from online or books ( that are against Islam, which I have seen in his hand), media like talk show ,, come on be more intelligent than watching a talk a show!! So he already has his opinion about what Islam from the sources he got . So when time he asks a question about praying according to Bukhair which he says it mentioned something like this “ if you miss three Friday prayers you would be burned”. To be honest with you I don’t know where he got this info from and he says what kind of school of thought it that? And how come it is not implemented and not followed by the followers? and you are (referring back to the followers) supposed to be following everything in Bukhair if you believe that particular of school of thought. What I’m trying to say here is that also books & internet talk shows for god sake have wrong information about any religion not just Islam but to come and say this is the religion –that kind of information can definitely brainwash you!!!
Frank, its common sense that you need to study the religion, not the people, because if you are studying the people you get the wrong perspective of certain individuals and generalize this as being Islam. For example, if you study the Muslim people you have the conservatives, the extremists, or secularists. Some Muslims who consider themselves as Muslims but they don’t follow the rules of Islam, such not drinking, not having pre-martial sex, praying daily, and following the Five Pillars but still consider themselves to BE Muslims. So yOU for example want to convert to any religion and you go and study a person who does not follow any rules of his or her religion? Or would go to Study the actual text of that religion?? Do you see what I’m trying to say here? If you have one that is into his or her religion or one that is not into his or her religion so you would follow according to whats convenient for YOU or what the text says?
About the violence and how it is always associated with Muslims. When an individual commits an act of violence and this individual is not of some other religion, other then Islam, his religious affiliation is not mentioned as how Muslim individuals would. And I totally like what Gina says about "all of the 9/11 hijackers were muslim"? all of the army of god members and Eric Rudolph, abortion clinic bombers, were christians. all of the ALF arsonists were animal rights activists. all of the shining path of peru, that killed by sequentially stoning, stabbing, setting on fire, and finally shooting other Peruvians, were secularists. ------- How come these violent acts where not taking to an account and are never were brought up again??
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"'versions' (perversions) of the truth on any topic could cause unjustified wrongs." Gina seems to be assuming here that there exists a version of Islam that is true. And that may be her religious belief, but it is not mine, so when I look at a statement like this all I can see is that there are different versions of Islam, and when she calls some of them "perversions" all I can think of that that might mean is that none of these perversions are the one that Gina thinks is true. I don't know what else calling a version of a religion a "perversion" could mean, and if that's all that is meant I think there are better words for it than "perversion."
I would also like to clarify that nowhere in my post did I say that political or economic or social factors aren't also involved in causing violent acts like those I mentioned. I am certain that factors besides religion are involved. I also never said that Islam was the only religion capable of causing violence, and in fact I am sure that it is not. I certainly never said that all atheists and agnostics were good people. The video says that you will find good and bad people in every group, and this statement is true, and it is as true of atheists and agnostics as of any other group. What this statement is not is an explanation of a number of acts of violence, several examples of which I gave above. Lets look specifically at the murder of Theo Van Gogh. The murderer left a letter attached to his body (the text can be found here) that was basically a call for jihad and a death threat against Ayaan Hirse Ali. Are you really going sit there and tell me that Islam had nothing at all to do with this murder? That the murderer was a bad person who just happened to be Muslim? That the fact that there are good and bad people in every group fully explains it? Come on! I don't see how it can be that difficult to see that there is a connection between Islam and at least this one particular act of violence unless one is going out of ones way to avoid that conclusion. It is certainly true that only one Muslim killed Theo Van Gogh out of a Dutch Muslim population of nearly a million, so this certainly does not justify any kind of prejudice or discrimination against Muslims. All I am saying is that there is a definite connection between Islam and some acts of violence, and that connection has to be recognized and understood and addressed if the problem is ever to be solved. We cannot invoke some misguided liberal understanding of tolerance to say that there are good and bad people in every group and that is all there is to it.
I'd like to make another observation about the connection between religion and violence generally. in the old testament there are stories about the Jews invading the so-called promised land after fleeing from Egypt and wandering around in the desert, and killing pretty much everyone who was already living there. a very Christian friend of mine recently told me that she thought that the Jews were morally justified in doing so. I responded that that was one of the most frightening things I had ever heard her say. the point here is not the particular acts of violence that the bible tells us the Jews committed, especially as those probably never actually happened anyway. the point is that religion, in this case Christianity, caused an otherwise rational, intelligent, compassionate individual to see unjustifiable acts of violence as morally justified. the very idea that moral truths derived from a text, whether that text be the writing of Paul of tarsus or Muhammad or Karl Marx, can be as valid or more valid than moral truths derived from human compassion and rationality, I think is a self-evidently dangerous idea, and I think that history, including the history of Islam, bears it out.
Amani, regarding the study of religion, I think you and I are talking about different things. There are different sorts of questions that one can ask about religion, only some of which can be answered by reading a sacred text. I can see how a practicing Muslim or a potential convert might reasonably look for metaphysical truths in the Koran, but I as an atheist don't expect to find metaphysical truths in any sacred text. Besides, not all religions have sacred texts, and even those that do do not always take every word in them to be the literal word of god(s). Even reading a sacred text only for the sake of knowing what it says seems like a trivial activity to me. What interests me in terms of studying religion is questions like what do people actually believe? This is clearly not as simple as reading a sacred text, as different members of a religion can read the same sacred text and get different beliefs out of it. Why do people believe what they believe? Not just in terms of what a believer might be consciously aware of, but in terms of psychology and culture and evolution? Why does religion exist? These sorts of questions certainly cannot be answered by reading a sacred text. How do peoples religious beliefs influence there behavior? We’ve been getting into a specific instance of this question above with whether Islam causes violence, and whatever the answer might be, it will not be found in the Koran.
Wow!, that was hilarious. What's so bad, is that its so true. I know its crazy because I've been in that "randomly chosen" line. It was pretty obvious, because everybody that was being called up was named ahmed, mohammed, hisham...I actually joked with the lady inspecting my bags about it...but I don't think she found it that funny. Anyway, I defintily agree with what he said about learning Islam and not just following what Muslims do. Of course, most reliable books about Islam are written by Muslims, but you just have to do your research either way.You have to make sure you read books by actual scholars, not just anyone writing about Islam. I think what he meant is to read about Islam from knowledgable people not looking at a random Muslim's actions to determine what Islam is. So its usually good to get a trustworthy, practicing Muslims' advice on which scholars are the righteous, knowledgeable scholars to learn from and which ones are the "government" scholars as we call them, since some are just mouthpieces for the dictators or some are just plain corrupt. But among the Muslim community its very well known among practicing muslims which is which...
I just read other people's posts...Frank's really cracked me up. It doesn't really make any sense to say all 19 9/11 hijackers were Muslim...Ummm I don't think they just met on the plane by accident and realized "Hey, we all just happened to hijack this plane on the same day and we're all Muslim ,what a coincidence!" I'm assuming they planned it together, at least that's what I heard last time I checked reality, That's kind of like me going and finding out the most publicized murders committed by christians over the last 50 years and saying "See, all these killers were Christian".. If I were to use Franks's methodology, I could also say that x billion people didn't kill Salman Rushdie after the fatwa was released--ie: different people= different understandings. If we're going to cite cases , let's be specific, Muslims don't like people insulting their prophet or religion, that's pretty simple. So, if people were respecting each other on both sides than we probably wouldn't be having to mention this, but in any case, the fatwa in question was issued by a specific Shia Iranian sheikh about specifically salman rushdie.Fatwas are not binding on anyone unless people actually believe the reasoning used to make that fatwa, and want to do it. Therefore one muslim decided this fatwa by his ijtihad not any concrete evidence from an islamic text, and it obviosuly wasn't the majority opinion from what I've read. IN any case, I don't think we should abuse freedom of speech to insult other people's most important beliefs to them and expect them to not get upset. That doesn't mean it justifies violence, but undoubtedly some people will do it anyway. When people wanna commit violence, they'll find an excuse. I've seen people shot for looking at someone the wrong way. Where I grew up, in america, most people would kill you if you said something bad about their mom. I didn't say "see these people are crazy for being from this area z" Different things are important to different to different people, that's life. we all need to realize that there are and should be boundaries even in academia and authorship on a strictly secular level of respect. We shouldn't do what's found disrespectful to other people just because we don't think its a big deal in our minds. Why disrespect people just because you can, is that really mature or "civilized"?
The author of this video makes some valid points about various views of Islam. Many of these public views are distorted to incorporate terrorism in Islam. Unfortunately, after 9/11 the views on Muslims became sour. This is not true. Islam is far from terrorism. Islam promotes kindness and is a loving religion that seeks to bring out the best in people. The gentleman states that these views are espeically seen by the media's erros. (Are they really? I dont know enough on the subject to comment but if anyone reads this blog feel free to comment please) The authour backs his arguments by talking about the the number of Muslims in the world. One and a half billion people are Muslims. There are only 6 billion people in the whole world. How can one out of every four people be terrorists? This is obviouly not the case. Although the man in the video brings up some interesting points, he also uses deep irony and satire to express his disdain on the views of many. This satire creates some problems. This man talks about how airport security sterotypes Muslims as terrorits. By doing this, He himself sterotypes airport secuirty as one minded by believing that secuirty thinks that only muslims are terrorits. It is very understandable how these views are expressed. If I got "randomly" stopped everytime I went threw airport security I would be very upset, espeically if I was a Muslim. The one thing this gentleman has to realize is that although these searches may not be random, they do provide security. This security is not only used by others, but also by himself. Also, his satire on the way airport staff operates is obviously dramatized to try to prove his point. His 3 actions are at the end are pretty a comical way to also express his dislike for airpot staff and more importantly those who view Islam wrongly. At the end of this video, he states that Muslims should not be weird and they should create good examples. This is the best solution to fix this problem of sterotyping. Not everyone can be a good Muslim, but it is important for everyone to try their best and bring nothing but good to Islam.
I agree with Frank when he poses the question, how can you study Islam without studying Muslims? Any religion or way of life is a communal experience and how can you decide what a religion entails without observing the actions of its followers? What good are principles void of action? Any religion without active followers will not exist, thus there is some rational in learning through observation. Unlike the general religious thought, intentions mean nothing without actions and actions can only be carried out by people. I mean the Sunnah is the record of the religious actions of the Prophet Muhammad and is one of the most sacred Islamic texts. So what does that mean? That Islam itself is based on people’s observations of a Muslim. However, I do understand people never exposed to an actual Muslim community and are spoon fed by the media need the fundamentals of the Islamic faith. In the video, he seemed to be clearing up the blame placed on Islam instead of people’s various interpretations of Islam, calling for Muslims to be good and set good examples. He candy coats serious issues with a hilarious satire, especially in his reenactments of airport security. This video was incredibly funny but sadly true. Being Muslim or to Airport security looking Middle Eastern, gets you nowhere fast in an airport.
Wow, that video was intense and I think Baba Ali is doing something really positive to share his experiences and ideas with Muslims and Non-Muslims in his video Blog.
While watching the video I was entertained, it was funny and lighthearted, and probably cleared up some misconceptions about Islam among audience viewers. It also left me feeling grateful that when I go to the airport I do not have to deal with random security checks and airport staff questionings. After thinking things through and reading Baba Ali’s personal interview, my opinions are a little bit different.
First of all, I feel bad that this man feel’s so misunderstood as a Muslim. Probably many Muslims could identify with this feeling and the media should play a stronger role in educating the public on the differences between Islam and terrorism. He says “you’re always going to find good and bad people in every group” and that means the media is only showing viewers the violent, Anti-American terrorists rather than the whole story in Iraq and Afghanistan today.
My second point is in conformance with Frank’s and that regards studying Islam AND the Muslim people. I can only learn so much from reading about the religion and listening to lectures, to really understand the faith I think it’s important to see people who follow it, AKA Muslims. I think it’s possible that if the people practice something different from what Islam teaches they are poor examples of Muslims and that causes problems. However, Muslims represent the religion of Islam and to understand one you need to learn about the other.
Baba Ali makes a good point about not being able to accurately judge a person as Muslim based on how they look. He says Muslims come from many countries like China, and the U.S. and backgrounds, some are even converts. I think stereotyping is wrong in all circumstances and just because someone looks Middle Eastern does not make them a terrorist.
Basically the best conclusion I can draw from Baba Ali is to be tolerant of other peoples views and religion and to educate yourself before forming an opinion. Maybe the media does not show the whole story and maybe being critical of an entire religion based on 20 terrorists is unfair.
See, I enjoy all of Baba Ali's videos, and I do not have this problem while flying or any of the anecdotes who refers to in his videos. These issues only occur because people become intolerant instilling fear into there own hearts and Baba Ali has shown great strides in correcting this misconception.
He didn't post his videos on some website or blog, but he put it on youtube. Where the majority of users are people that are bored out of their minds. It wasn't meant to be educational, so that is why people shouldn't be offended by his videos. It is a joke. It is supposed to make you laugh. It wasn't necessaily for Muslims either, it just so happens he is Mulsim.
When watching things especially on youtube, please try not to be so critical. It devalues the essence youtube, where you could find any crude family guy clip, I am asking not to disrespect youtube by getting deffensive.
I throughly agree with dan on how comedy can show a greater impact on global issues and speaking the truth rather than watching news that is obviously bias.
This video was among the most hillarious things I'd seen in ages. While the speaker is clearly taking his argument to a logical extreme to make a point, his argument still remains valid. Attempting to fly as a Muslim in the United States is certainly a hassle and the transparency of how airport security operates is an embarassment to the equal protection clause stipulated in the United States constitution.
The ability of the speaker to use humor when discussing this particular topic is actually a very common technique. Using humor by journalists can be directly attributed to the collapse of the Ku Klux Klan in America. An undercover journalist simply published all Klan secrets and ridiculed them as childish and funny rather than evil and clandestine. Later in the year, Klan membership within the United States had all but dissipated as those racist members were afraid of appearing as childish and immature. The speaker in this video is attempting much of the same things. He specifically looks on the practice of "not-so-random, random searches" as ridiculous, absurd and argues that specifically targeting Muslims results in security at airports appearing to be childish and moronic.
I actually have been on a randomly searched line twice. Once while traveing between Britain and Ireland, and another time while returning from the US Virgin Islands back to the states. Both of my experiences occurred after 9/11.
While in Britain the randomly searched line, was probably one of the best experiences in my life. Myself, my older brother and three Irish nationals stood among three Arab Muslims. All of us spent the entire time laughing at the ridiculous nature of how we must appear to be terrorists. My brother and I as well as the other Irish gentlemen laughed at appearing to be members of the Irish Republican Army while the three Arab gentlemen started cracking jokes about feeling unsafe around such clearly ill intentioned Irish men. The authorities were not amused at our candor and simply did not share our opinion that we were all selected based on our names.
Judging by Mohammed's experience, the natural reaction to such childish random search procedures is humor. Of course the easiest thing for any terrorist to do would be to change their name to John Smith, don some expensive suit and then procede unhindered to carry out whatever plot they wish as apparently nobody stops the John Smiths of the world.
Mohammed, Thank you for bringing up Salman Rushdie, that is another excellent example. I don't think I really talked about the implications that islam seems to have for freedom of expression, but I'm glad you brought it up. Two of the three examples I gave above, the danish cartoons and the Theo Van Gogh murder, both clearly raise freedom of expression issues, as does the Salman Rushdie thing. And then of course there is the current thing in Sudan, where a woman was jailed over the naming of a teddy bear. And Mohammeds comments seem to give some insight into this, though not as much as I'd like. He seems to somehow equate insulting the prophet and insulting islam with disrespect towards muslims. And I just don't get that.
Firstly I don't understand why he equates the two. I don't understand why some muslims seem to take criticism of their religion or their prophet as a personal attack. No one is perfect, everyone has their flaws. If I think your religion is one of your flaws, and you think my atheism is one of my flaws (as we both must logically think if we take our respective beliefs/lack-of-beliefs seriously), fine, we should be able to sit down and discuss the subject rationally and respectfully without that being taken as somehow personally insulting. If I'm wrong and some kind of god does exist, that is something that I would want to know about. I would want someone to explain to me why I am wrong, so I'm going to be open to rational discussion of the existence of god. but until someone does show me that I am wrong, I'm not going to refrain from saying what I think about religion, whether that involves criticizing/insulting a religion or not. I'm not going to saying something bad about a religion just cause I can or just to hurt someones feelings, as Mohammed correctly points out that would be immature. But I'm also not going to refrain from saying something bad about a religion because members of that religion might be insulted, that would be cowardice and a betrayal of what I think is true.
Secondly I don't understand how a free society can operate if people can't say what they think about any subject, including religion. One reason I think freedom of expression is an essential human right is that it is necessary for the pursuit of truth. And truth in religion is no less important than truth in any other area. Another reason is that freedom of expression is essential to allowing people with different beliefs to live together peacefully. Islam claims to be so good at tolerating other religions, but the moment somebody allows a teddy bear to be named Mohammed they get thrown in jail? The moment someone writes a blasphemous novel or draws a political cartoon of a religious figure, there are protests and death threats and murders? How can islam claim to be tollerant and capable of coexisting with other religions if it becomes violent the moment someone with different beliefs criticizes it or refuses to live by its laws? I don't get it. I just don't get it.
The worst part of all this I think is the self censorship that results, even in the west. To take an example from just this class, a while ago we watched a biography of the prophet in class. The people who made that biography made a concious decision not to show any visual depiction of the prophet, and I think that they are cowards for it. That decision reduced the quality of the film. For example, when it was talking about the first revelation in the cave, they did this puting the camera in the prophets point of view thing, and it felt so incredibly fake. They should have had an actor playing the prophet and an actor playing the angel gabriel, not because it would have offended muslims, but simply because it was the best storytelling technique available in that case.
Mohammed, Thank you for bringing up Salman Rushdie, that is another excellent example. I don't think I really talked about the implications that islam seems to have for freedom of expression, but I'm glad you brought it up. Two of the three examples I gave above, the danish cartoons and the Theo Van Gogh murder, both clearly raise freedom of expression issues, as does the Salman Rushdie thing. And then of course there is the current thing in Sudan, where a woman was jailed over the naming of a teddy bear. And Mohammeds comments seem to give some insight into this, though not as much as I'd like. He seems to somehow equate insulting the prophet and insulting islam with disrespect towards muslims. And I just don't get that.
Firstly I don't understand why he equates the two. I don't understand why some muslims seem to take criticism of their religion or their prophet as a personal attack. No one is perfect, everyone has their flaws. If I think your religion is one of your flaws, and you think my atheism is one of my flaws (as we both must logically think if we take our respective beliefs/lack-of-beliefs seriously), fine, we should be able to sit down and discuss the subject rationally and respectfully without that being taken as somehow personally insulting. If I'm wrong and some kind of god does exist, that is something that I would want to know about. I would want someone to explain to me why I am wrong, so I'm going to be open to rational discussion of the existence of god. but until someone does show me that I am wrong, I'm not going to refrain from saying what I think about religion, whether that involves criticizing/insulting a religion or not. I'm not going to saying something bad about a religion just cause I can or just to hurt someones feelings, as Mohammed correctly points out that would be immature. But I'm also not going to refrain from saying something bad about a religion because members of that religion might be insulted, that would be cowardice and a betrayal of what I think is true.
Secondly I don't understand how a free society can operate if people can't say what they think about any subject, including religion. One reason I think freedom of expression is an essential human right is that it is necessary for the pursuit of truth. And truth in religion is no less important than truth in any other area. Another reason is that freedom of expression is essential to allowing people with different beliefs to live together peacefully. Islam claims to be so good at tolerating other religions, but the moment somebody allows a teddy bear to be named Mohammed they get thrown in jail? The moment someone writes a blasphemous novel or draws a political cartoon of a religious figure, there are protests and death threats and murders? How can islam claim to be tollerant and capable of coexisting with other religions if it becomes violent the moment someone with different beliefs criticizes it or refuses to live by its laws? I don't get it. I just don't get it.
The worst part of all this I think is the self censorship that results, even in the west. To take an example from just this class, a while ago we watched a biography of the prophet in class. The people who made that biography made a concious decision not to show any visual depiction of the prophet, and I think that they are cowards for it. That decision reduced the quality of the film. For example, when it was talking about the first revelation in the cave, they did this puting the camera in the prophets point of view thing, and it felt so incredibly fake. They should have had an actor playing the prophet and an actor playing the angel gabriel, not because it would have offended muslims, but simply because it was the best storytelling technique available in that case.
I thought Baba Ali's method was pretty annoying, but he did get his point across. I must admit, I can't really relate to his situation. What I can't really agree on is that the discrimination he is describing is based on a single factor, his religion. He seems to be preoccupied with the airport security system being prejudiced against muslims. There is no litmus test for religion. The goal of security is not to guess who is a muslim, but who is a potential threat. Their job is to prevent terrorism and are simply using a heuristic to more efficiently screen passengers. Whoever looks like the prototypical percieved threat is going to be targeted. How could Baba Ali have any more trouble from authorities now than before he became a muslim? I doubt he all of a sudden begin holding up a sign stating his religion. Baba Ali talks about how there are tons of converts to Islam and that there are millions of Chinese muslims. Are these people being targeted by airport security? I highly doubt it. What they are looking for is people who look Arab/Middle Eastern/West Asian. I have family members who look quite Arabic and they get grief, although they are 0% Muslim. Is this process logical? Yes. Is it just? I don't think so.
I disagree with the blogger's comments on profiling at airports. Being a Muslim while flying is not a problem. The only profiling that is carried out at airports is based on race and name. There is no way for the security officers to tell if someone is a Muslim, because, as he said, most Muslims are not Arabs. Unfortunately for Arabs, and the attempts of the TSA to target extremist Muslims, the TSA still does not understand that any person of any race can be a member of Al Qaida.
Also, on the topic of the role of Muslims in denouncing terrorism, I tend to disagree with the blogger's statement that Muslims have to refrain from "acting weird" in airports. I think that if all Muslims acted like the steretypical terrorist in the airport, the TSA would eventually see that there are many many more Muslims than terrorists, and would soon give up on targeting Arabs. Until the security protocol learns that each and every adult is a risk, the profiling will continue.
I agree with Omar, I think the problem isn’t that you are “Muslim while flying,” it’s that your name and race send up red flags to those who perceive you as the “terrorist” stereotype. The blogger even makes the point that most people do not know what Muslims look like, noting the exceptionally large Muslim population in China. Also, I thought it was funny that he said that people should study Islam and not Muslims.
While I agree with the idea that we need better security in airports, I think that racially profiling people isn’t the way to do it since it only marginalizes minority groups (not to mention the huge legal obstacles). I think that the security should be less focused on “random” searches and more on observing people who are acting strange (and specifying that being Muslim doesn’t mean you’re acting strange) and then searching these people, instead of the 90-year-old grandmother.
I foudn this video pretty accurate!Yes, you can put money on me getting searched more than once on a flight from Philadelphia to Cincinnati! Thousands of airplanes take off everyday with many muslims, but there is not a consistent pattern of muslims blowing up planes. Analagous to the philosopher and the cage, most rational people know that terrorist groups are on the societal fringe and that 99.9999% of muslims lack the needed predilection for self detonation, but the moment of life results in the nullification of all preconcieved rationality! Next time I'm at the airport I'll wear a tacky "I HEART APPLE PIE AND BASEBALL" t-shirt.
The video “Muslim While Flying” definitely caught my attention and kept it. His method of delivery was very effective, because although it was very “in your face” and somewhat obnoxious at times, it presented some good ideas. The end of his presentation when he presented the numbered list emphasized the racial profiling that occurs towards those of Middle-Eastern descent. I think this video should be shown to as many Americans as are willing to watch it because it brings up some good points and really makes you think about some American policies that are currently implemented that encroach on Muslims’ rights.
The message I took away from this video was that an effort should be made to dispel the misconceptions towards Muslims. The part of the video where he acted out a scene through airport security showed the extent of non-Muslims’ paranoia and fear towards Muslims and Islam. The idea that a person of Middle Eastern descent will get stopped in the airport if he or she is “speaking loudly in a foreign language,” is quite believable. The story that Dr. Khan told us of being sent a writing sample to translate, which was taken from a Muslim on an airplane, can be compared to the “speaking angrily in a foreign language” idea. Dr. Khan told us that in the end not only was the note not written in Arabic, but it was just simply a badly written poem. If this doesn’t show Americans’ paranoia and misdirected effort in “keeping America safe,” I do not know what does.
"If you want to know about Islam, study Islam, not the Muslims."
I think this guy should be given a Nobel Peace Prize. Seriously.
That's a great way to look at it, and I never really thought of it in that context.
It's basically what most Americans do automatically when talking about Christianity -- they refer to the message in the bible and not the wars and atrocities comitted in the same of Jesus.
This guy pretty much called America out on its approach to the problem of Islamic terrorism with that simple line. I'm not even sure he realizes he did it.
What I enjoyed most about this video and the others that Baba Ali has put out is that they not only help Muslims recognize some of the their own stereotypical behaviors, but they help make Islam accessible to the rest of the world as well. From the outside looking in, I sometimes feel like Muslims take themselves and their religion so seriously. In turn, other people become afraid and intolerant because they don't feel like they can relate to either Islam or Muslims in anyway. Instead of nitpicking the religion or heralding it above all other lifestyles, we should be reminded by these videos that no one and no way is absolute right and perfect. These videos were a breath of fresh air because Ali allowed everyone laugh together.
I enjoyed this video very much because it gave me a different look at a matter that seemes very serious in the public realm. It was a smart tactic to take something so serious and make it funny. When people are not threatned by the idea that they may be offending someone or doing something wrong they are quciker to learn and enjoy it more. With open conversation and the ability to look at one self in a positive light without being threating to others it deffinatly helps. This video makes me think of the Carlos Mencia show where he makes fun of all other races, but as long as he does them all its okay. This video does this and also shows Muslims ways in which they can lighten up a little to what Americans think as well as shows Americans that not all Muslims are terrorists. Some people might not enjoy this video because they might think it crosses the line in a way. Although they might be right, we must find a new way to communicate with other social realms. The ways in which we have tried have seemed to fail in so many ways, maybee this will work.
I did not take this video seriously as it is a youtube product intended to make people laugh before educating them. I have been a target of these 'random searches' but that is the reality we live in. The 9/11 hijackers were muslim so one should expect this kind of response. In response to frank's arguments, it is true that the 9/11 hijackers were muslims. But one has to understand that those 19 individuals wanted to bring about political change in the Middle East. Islam is just a tool that was employed to brainwash and manipulate them. Does this mean Islam harbors violent traits? Just as much as any other religion or culture. People have been manipulated in the name of religion, culture, or whatever identity they belong to throughout history. That to me explains why "..for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
I enjoyed this video because it brought some humor to a serious matter. Bias when traveling is something that occurs and the video had a good combination of humor and valuable information. Many are subject to profiling when traveling due to the circumstances and many events that took place. It was interesting to here the perspective of someone who is usually the victim of this treatment and Ali’s approach captivated my interest. I also felt the video brought up good points such as Muslims are always being stereotyped and China has a huge Muslim population.
I agree to a certain aspect you have to study Muslims but you cannot pick 19 Muslims who hijacked the plane or the small number of extremists out of a billion Muslims and make the correlation that Islam preaches violence. You have to look at it as a whole, I completely agree with Gina you can not over generalize and stereotype because of a few. Because if we did that to everyone would hate the Christians for the crusades. Does that make any sense? Are Americans being searched as Muslims are when it was a white Christian men who massacred those children in the Amish school and was responsible for the Oklahoma bombing. This double standard is absolutely ridiculous.
I find this thread very interesting because my family has a very hard time when traveling. On many different occasions my brother and father have been checked “randomly”, and I can recall on 2 different times almost missed their flight because of it! At one point they let everyone that was behind us go on the plane and made the only 2 Arab Muslim families in line wait. This is absolutely ridiculous to use some extremists actions and punish the whole Muslim community, and to even make the correlation that Islam is preaching violence does not make any sense. I really have to ask what about the rest of the moderate Muslims which are most of the Muslims in the world, what about them? Are they violent? The Dutch cartoon incident was a controversial topic that should have not been dealt with violently, but Islam will not let what has happened to Christianity in terms of putting a face to our prophet, happen to them. Again you cannot take an isolated incident and say Islam is violent.
I agree with the man in the video that he over simplifies things, but like he said in the video it’s just his opinion. I think its quite funny and entertaining, but its sad and true. Yes Islam is one set of ideas and beliefs, but even as Dr. Khan mentioned everyone has different interpretations and the majority of the world does not use Islam to achieve political goals.
I found this video very informative and comical in its presentation. The way in which Muslims are percieved today is greaty held by a standard of ignorance. The majority of what Americans THINK they know about islam is not really the case. This video more or less, addresses concerns held by American Muslims, with discrimination while flying. While i have never had any first had experiences with this form of discrimination, i do acknowledge that it exists. The media must be held responsible for this form of racism that we see here. Not any time during the ordeals of 9/11 did anyone present a logical, appropriate, and true view of what Islam is. It was been molded into an extremist religon of those who choose death as a means of spreading their faith. Since these actions committed were so violent and catastrophic in our nations history they have been compared to a modern day Pearl Harbor, every news channel was displaying this. The majority of Americans who do not watch the news, watched the news that day and shortly there after, and these Americans were presented with a biased view of Islam that most likely, still effects their perception of Islam today.
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