In the aftermath of September 11th, using video was essential to the work I began doing with teachers and students to demystify Arabs, Muslims and South Asians. These three communities faced a great deal of backlash and discrimination due to the way the media portrayed them after September 11th. Many people in these communities suffered great hardship in the workplace, schools, and neighborhoods. Americans really had no idea who their neighbors were until September 11th. At that point it was easy to associate Arabs, Muslims and South Asians with those who attacked our country.
Despite what was happening, there were many concerned teachers across the country who wanted to provide their students with some understanding of who Arabs, Muslims and South Asians. Those educators sought community leaders, religious leaders and community members from these communities to bridge the gap and humanize this segment of society who became vilified for the evil doing of others.
In the aftermath of September 11th, many schools, universities, churches, synagogues, and community-based organizations sought me out to educate their constituents about these misunderstood communities. There were so many misconceptions and stereotypes that needed to be debunked. To highlight a few, many people thought all Arabs are Muslims when in reality Arabs only make 20% of the Muslim population worldwide. Arabs are quite diverse in faith. There are Arabs who are Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Coptic and the list goes on. In my work, I made sure to emphasize that to my audiences. The role of women was also one that was misunderstood. Many people were under the impression that women in the Middle East and Muslim World as well as those living in the West were oppressed due to Islam, when in actuality such oppression was government or societal based. And the most popular misconception was and continues to be is Islam is a religion of intolerance and hate.
Dealing with these misconceptions was not easy. Many people walk into my workshops or presentation with their minds made up that no matter what I say, they know what the truth is based on what they read or heard in the media. I found that the most powerful way to overcome these kinds of barriers is to hear the personal stories of individuals. I made it my job to find documentaries that showed the personal human side of Arabs Muslims and South Asians. These documentaries became tools I used over and over to build bridges of understanding among students and communities in New York City. Some of these documentaries later became apart of a curriculum I co-designed with Educators for Social Responsibility, Arab Peoples: Past and Present.
The two documentaries incorporated in the Arab Peoples: Past and Present curriculum are Noggin- Nickelodeon’s Walk in Your Shoes episode on Muslims. The episode is about two teens, a Muslim 13 year old girl named Miriam from New Jersey and a Christian 15 year old girl named Nancy who lives near Boston who have come to learn about each other in the post 9/11 world. In this episode, Nancy learns about Islam, Muslims and the month of Ramadan through personal interaction and walking in the shoes of a Muslim girl and her family.
The other documentary used in this curriculum is Young Voices from the Arab World:
The Lives and Times of 5 Teenagers. This documentary comes with a teacher’s manual for lesson extensions. The documentary highlights the everyday aspects of Arab culture and society. This is creatively conveyed through the lives of five young people from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait, and Morocco. They take the viewer to their homes, schools, places of worship, and favorite entertainment spots. This documentary is beautifully narrated by the notable radio personality, Casey Kasem who provides viewers with historical, geographical, and other background information. This documentary can be purchased through AWAIR . http://www.makanalislam.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=AWAIR&Category_Code=CDS-DVDS-VIDEOS-POSTERS
As the need continued, I realized that these documentaries were not enough. Through extensive research and networking with people in the field, I came a cross the Islam Project which developed a few wonderful documentaries highlighting the lives of Muslims in the US and abroad. Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet and Muslims were a big hit in on PBS. They truly depicted the humanistic characteristics of Muslims. The detailed portraits of people in their daily lives, allows viewers to experience what it means to be Muslim in places as such as Nigeria, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Malaysia and the United States. It also highlights the diversity of thought, practice, lifestyle and interpretation of text. These documentaries present a balanced and informed portrait of Muslims and the diversity among them. The creators went a step further and developed curriculum to accompany the documentaries. A year later, the Islam Project invited to consult on the development of a documentary featuring Muslim teens titled, American Muslim Teens Talk .
Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet
http://www.theislamproject.org/muhammad/muhammad.htm
Muslims
http://www.theislamproject.org/muslims/muslims.htm
American Muslim Teens Talk
http://www.theislamproject.org/AMTT.htm
The growing need to further educate Americans about Islam and Muslims continues. Last year, I worked with Channel 13 WNET and other educators on developing multi-media tools; downloadable lesson plans; and resources related to Islamic holidays, traditions and cultures through the use of a series of clips from Religion and Ethics News Weekly. The video segments can be used alone, or in conjunction with any of the 10 lesson plans developed for middle and high school students. These lessons are aligned to national education standards. http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/accessislam/about.html
As educators, it is our job to continue our quest in educating students to become conscious global citizens and the only way to do this is to provide them with multiple worldviews to understand that we are all of one family, the human family. Khalil Gibran eloquently affirms this belief in the following quote, “The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe." Debbie Almontaser is currently Coordinator of External Programs for Brooklyn public schools. As a multicultural specialist and diversity consultant, Ms. Almontaser facilitates teacher and public workshops on Arab culture, Islam, conflict resolution, cultural diversity, and Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed around the city, and at local and national conferences. Ms. Almontaser also serves as a consultant to Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. Muslim American Series Project, Independent Production Fund’s Islam Project, Educators for Social Responsibility, the Interfaith Center of NYC, and the Church Avenue Merchants Block Association's (CAMBA, Inc.) |
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