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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| 'But, American Muslims aren't real Muslims' |
| 2015-04-14 |
| [DAWN] The ends of the floral scarf around her shoulders fluttered behind her. Despite the wind, her black hijab was securely wrapped around her head, with just the slightest bit of hair peeking out. Her mustard yellow sweater contrasted with the blue skies above her and matched the sandy beach under her bare feet. Attia Nasar is the director of a four-part documentary titled American Moslems, produced by the US State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs last year. The documentary contains interviews from Moslems of different backgrounds, including US Congressman Keith Ellison and Ibtihaj Muhammad, of the US fencing team. It was created to be a positive representation of American Moslems, to specifically be viewed by Moslems overseas. "Part of my job was doing outreach with different communities across South and Central Asia," Attia explained. "One of the biggest communities there, is the Moslem population, so [the question was] how do we do outreach to the Moslems?" According to Attia, Moslems from South and Central Asia have a lot of misconceptions about American Moslems. When she would visit South and Central Asia, people would assume that she only wore the hijab while she visited, not believing she wore it full-time. "They're like, 'wait, you are a Moslem and you work in the government?' They were really surprised [that Moslems had jobs in the American government]," Attia recalled. People also have the misconception that Moslems in America aren't "real Moslems." "I was in Afghanistan for a radio interview and the guys didn't believe I was Moslem enough," commented Attia. "They asked me to recite the Koran... I did and they were shocked," Attia says with a satisfied smile and a loud laugh. There is an irony in Attia having to defend and reassure her faith to fellow Moslems overseas; she grew up also defending her faith from people who didn't understand Islam. When most people think of New York, they think of the bustling Big Apple. That wasn't the New York that Attia was born and raised in. It was actually 5 hours from the city. "I grew up in a small town in upstate New York, called New Hartford." Attia says, "I was the diversity," she laughs. "I think where I'm from, most people... they just don't know anything about Islam," Attia continued, her purple-painted fingers grazing on her scarf, "I started wearing the hijab when I was 16 and that did change the way that people interacted with me." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 lord garth, I like the stages. Are they your own, or did it come from somewhere else? |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2015-04-14 14:25 |
| #1 Attia is a stage 0 or 1 moslem (from the most secular to the type that quotes the few nice verses of the koran and pretends that it is all like that). In the countries she visits they are typically at least stage 2 (hate the infidel, blame all problems on infidels, etc) or stage 3 (admire the jihadis) or higher. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2015-04-14 05:37 |