Final Media Project

Ann and I looked at the opinions Gustavus students had on Islam, 9/11, and Park51, and focused on the associations between the the terms. We were pleasantly surprised when the answers from Gustavus students supported our hypothesis that education seems to be a great way to overcome the negative views the media portrays of Islam.
However, when asked about Park51, students without any personal encounters with Muslims claimed they did not believe building a Mosque in that location was an appropriate thing to do.
I strongly feel that this view of thinking has a lot to do with the fact that the media (of course) belabored the fact that Al-Qaeda is an extreme group of Muslims, and this Mosque will be seen as a 'victory Mosque' for the terrorist acts of 9/11. I believe that if the media had pointed out that: 1) there are already Mosques in that area that no one seems to have a problem with, and 2) family members of the victims of 9/11 were on the planning committee for this Mosque, then students would have had a much more accepting opinion of the prayer center.
Anyway, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDAsmZABR20

A tangled web of race and religion

Article by: Chun Han Wong

Nov. 29 2011

Wall Street Journal

Wong describes the problems in Singapore consisting of facebook harassment toward the population of Muslims residing there. Singapore has laws forbidding hostility toward any ethnic group, and also outlaws fostering discontent among citizens.

Clearly, posting a picture of Muslim school children with the caption "Bus Filled with young terrorist trainees" goes against that law (yes, that actually happened).

The statement made by the Ministry of Home Affairs quoted in the article basically sums up my thoughts on this as well. The gist of that statement was: just because you have the right to freedom of speech, that does not allow you to insult other races, religions or ethnicities. This ideology also applies to a lot of other scenarios all over the world...think about all the politicians who are constantly insulting the perspectives and beliefs of people that are opposite their own (mormons, homosexuals, and of course American Muslims). Are they proving anything besides their ignorance, rudeness and inability to tolerate differences? People should consider the rule we all learn in kindergarten before speaking/posting/blogging: If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all.