All Creeds and Colors

I was reading in the paper yesterday that on a recent flight, a group of six Imam's were asked to leave a flight because they made some of the passengers nervous with their behavior. For those of you who don't know, Imams are Islamic holy men and what three of these six gentlemen started doing before the flight left the terminal was to stand in front of their seats and say their evening prayers. Now I grant you, the world we live in today, unfortunately the Islamic culture has gotten a bad rap.

Some would argue that all one needs to do is look at the actions of some members of that community in recent years and that is all the justification they need to say that some or all of the members of this religion are 'evil'. I am not a perfect person, but even I hesitate in taking such a narrow view of a group of people. To stereotype someone based solely on the actions of some members of their religion is wrong and is not helping anyone move to gain a better understanding of these people or their culture.

For good or for bad, a great deal of what we learn or know about various cultures or religions or races comes from television and the media. That's not to say that some of what we learn is completely wrong but that's also not to say that some of what we learn is right to a certain degree either. Think about this, whenever any country is described on the news as having worked to develop a new missile the very next image shown is the army marching in the streets and the people cheering on their brave troops. This would lead one to believe that these people are completely obsessed with war and will seek to attack anyone who gets in their way. Similarly, any country that is undergoing famine or drought will only be shown in the worst possible conditions. People barely clothed will be seen sitting dejectedly in front of the camera, unable or unwilling to speak.

Many people come to take these images and these descriptions to be the only truth. As a result we perpetuate the ignorance we have about other cultures and other races and the other peoples of the world. Getting back to our six Imams; they had been returning from a conference of Islamic leaders in the United States. To avoid any possible problems with the FBI, the leaders of the conference (one of whom was on the flight in question) had notified the FBI of the conference and had them attend just to be put at ease. The actions of the three Imams could make anyone nervous; if you don't know or don't realize that Muslims pray several times throughout the day, the sight of a fully dressed Imam can be a bit disconcerting.

By the same token, one can argue that the sight of a passenger reading the Bible on a plane may be preparing their soul for death prior to taking a plane hostage. It all comes down to a matter of perspective and wanting to understand other races and cultures. The Imams were asked to leave after some passengers complained; the Imams refused on the grounds that they were not doing anything wrong. Eventually they were arrested and escorted off of the flight. Such incidents are becoming an unfortunate commonality these days. We must strive to learn more about one another if we wish to progress as a people and a society. Baby steps would be better than no steps at all.