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
No comments:
Post a Comment