A Case of Illegitimate Censorship
This is America and I am a Muslim-American. A nationality and a way of being that I proudly proclaim and will always defend. America is the land of free and the home of the brave. As Americans, we are protected on so many levels, that people in other locations could only dream of. We are protected by skyscratching walls of intellectual, religious, physical, and even emotional security, just to name a few. I could only wish that people could experience the security that we do.
Overprotection does have its consequences. We see in our friends and family what overprotection can do to one’s mind. It can so easily distance you from the harsh realities of the world that we live in. The worldview of the overprotected is more than obvious, in fact, it stands out like those fuzzy ugg boots that the females sport. We have all met people and instantly thought “Wow, they are totally from the suburbs!”based on nothing more than the deviant or unrealisitic responses that they provide about a given situation.
I can’t help but think that as a nation, we have crossed a line and been distanced from reality and reason. The source of this disconnect is simple, it is “illigetimate censorhsip.” A human with even the slightest amount of intellect should be able to understand that people are and always have been easily misrepresented. Spreading terror thorugh the media is easier than one might think. In the late 1800’s mexican workers in America were labeled as drug addicts because of the medicinal use of marijuana that they introduced to the US. The government set a huge campaign to make the American public afraid of the Mexican workers in order to reduce the risk of having an abundance of Mexican-Americans in this nation. Japanese Americans were depicted as the threat of the world and set into internment camps, during the cold war Russian Americans were portrayed as the emobiment of the “Red Scare,” and more recently, Mexican Americans are presented as the threat to our work force. This is just a limited number of examples that I have mentioned, we are all aware of the countless other examples. It is understandable that with every period in time, there are different ways to react to a specific situation. What is the most troubling fact, is that so few people question the validity of these accusations. A small or rare threat has been thoughtlessly generalized to an entire peaceful and productive community. Some of the worlds greatest tragedies have occurred because people have not searched for the truth or have simply denied it.
I have been assisting this organization named ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) and have encountered a dilemma. I was requested to contact billboard companies and locate a billboard for the organization to advertise Islam (the “new great threat” to the west) and their 24 hr 1800 number designed to answer ?s about Islam from people who actually practice it. For all of the negative media, which just so happens to be all of the media, that Islam and muslims receive, the biggest struggle is to combat it. So, this billboard had the names of our Prophets (peace be upon them all) across the top with ISLAM across the entire board. The lower corner had the 1800 # inviting people to inquire about this thing called Islam. After having one billboard setup on I-294, problems arose as the second billboard was to be placed in Lombard. The company refused to publish the billboard with the names of the Prophets (peace be upon all of them) and claimed that it is secondary to their risk of being sued. So this began to resonate in my mind and really frustrated me. I could not understand how strip clubs and exotic massage parlors can advertise their horrendous businesses and portray half naked women resting over the higway, but muslims could not list the names of the amazing characters that they try to emulate. Moreso, the histrocial figures that muslims hold in common with other religous traditions like Judaism, Christianity, and Bahai. Why is it that we are being limited in the defense we can provide for ourselves? People across the world are dieing, and for no apparent reasons very few people seem to care. Yet we can not even even have the freedom of expression to defend our ways of life. I cannot blame the company for their fear of being sued by other religious organizations. However, I can blame my finger at this idea in our society that limits us from looking objectively at situations.
Dr. Scott Alexander once spoke about this concept of the master narrative of supremacy. This is an idea that is established in every single persons mind. It’s most apparent manifestation is when a person refers to a different group as “they” or “them.” Using these words is a covert method to display an endogenous belief that you are better than another group of people. History is riddled with such examples of this subliminal form racism or prejudicial beliefs. I believe that a nation that prides itself on it’s intellectual vigor must begin to reclaim that phenomenal quality. It begins by learning about concepts from a holisitc approach. Don’t just read the books you find at Borders or Barnes and Nobles, but venture out and find the real sources of knowledge about a specific subject. I am sick of being victimized by ignorance and pray that no other groups of people will ever have to endure this victimization in the future. A common Islamic principle is to fight injustice wherever it may be found even if it has a negative impact on yourself. This is a concept that all moral people practice and most people are oblivious to the existence of this ancient Islamic tradition. The main point I am trying to illustrate, is that living in this amazing country, every American should strive to be virtuous and stand up for their fellow Americans regardless of how different they may be. Speak out against any ridiculous illegitimate censoring of the truth.
"The greatest jihad is to speak the word of truth to a tyrant." -Prophet Muhammad 'salAllahu alayhi wassalaam' (Mishkat)
"Knowledge is of two kinds: that which is absorbed and that which is heard. And that which is heard does not profit it is not absorbed" -Ali ibn abi Talib (rAa)
