During Christmas it’s socially acceptable to see people supporting the holiday season by dressing up as Santa or decorating their property to resemble the Christmas theme. It would be obvious even to foreigners that some special traditions are occurring. However what is not so obvious are the powerful religious messages that Christmas and other holidays bring with them. These religious messages have become as widely accepted and silently understood as life itself; however there are other religions that are socially acceptable to be practiced but not necessarily publicized. In particular Islam falls into this category of…we’ll call them shadowed religions.
A close personal friend of mine is Islamic. After fasting during the month of Ramadan he decided to go to his college classes dressed in traditional Arabic attire. By the end of the day my friend could only tell me about the “dirty looks” he had received all day long. Possibly the first thing going through your mind is what college did he go to? If you were to list the top 5 universities in North Carolina his college would easily make the cut. Now you’re probably asking if it was really as bad as he said. To that thought I say imagine how people you know would react, the vast majority may have a negative reaction. Now the question is why, why do people have the initial negative reaction; why are certain religions socially permitted to be publicized while others are sanctioned; why can’t people acknowledge and respect other ideologies; why is it so difficult to separate extremists from true believers. In the case of my friend, he received dirty looks due to the social stigma that is associated with the attire he wore. It’s sad that we look at clothing and formulate instant conclusions about people’s personalities, beliefs, values….and yet we are all guilty. We see a certain style of dress and our minds race to stereotypes, and we draw our conclusions based off of these shallow assumptions. That day my friend wasn’t seen as a great student or caring individual, no he was seen in a darker light. That day people who saw his clothing probably assumed he was Muslim or Islamic, and immediately their minds scattered to the media or their memories, anything that they could associate with his clothing. Undoubtedly their thoughts were negative as the scowl crossed their face. If this were the reaction my friend received on an upstanding college campus, imagine the reaction of people in a more controversial location. If you were looking at him, what would cross your mind?
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