Warning: This thread is all about Muslims and Labels

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis...heguardian/commentisfree/rss+(Comment+is+free)

Personally, I object to the "who's with me?" line of thinking since most people fall into the "not with you and not against you" category. Polarizing position to take, and polarization contributes to the problem he faces.

If he holds himself out as a Pro-Muslim Muslim, then I think the "criticism" he receives should be somewhat expected, though still inappropriate. Initially I thought that this is relatively not that bad since there are lots of non-Muslim groups receiving this type of "criticism", so the notion that this is Muslim-related seemed weak. But then I realized probably all those groups have valid reasons to feel exactly as this guy does, and none of them should accept this behavior on the basis that it happens to others.

He's correct about this IMO: for better or worse, there seems to be a persistent and dramatic shift in perception about the appropriateness of seriously throwing labels like "militant", "islamist", etc at any person perceived to be Muslim. Some things have now broken the barrier of appropriateness and orbit on the flexible border of political correctness.

I think the bolded paragraph also speaks volumes. There is a large but unorganized movement to label every moderate Muslim a potential extremist, every extremist a convicted criminal, and every non-practicing Muslim an acceptable Muslim. This is particularly sickening. I think this movement is steered by long-time racists and bigots who have now found a movement they can join where their behavior is not only tolerated, but praised as nationalism or patriotism or genuine interest in helping Middle Eastern victims of Middle Eastern terrorism.

This topic is particularly discouraging to me because I'm weeks away from applying for further studies and I was considering journalism.

 

Thanks for the kind words!

To be honest the last thing I want is to use journalism to represent a faith, but I completely appreciate what you're saying. My interest in journalism is not a crusade against anti-Islamic journalism, rather it's a crusade against the slowly-dying standards in the journalism industry as a whole.

I also feel that the younger people in the world need to rediscover journalism and its fundamental utility. IMO there are few areas where 2 or 3 policy changes can achieve such a dramtic shift in bringing people's wishes closer to fruition. More importantly, I think the dominant owners in the journalism industry have a disproportionate power over people such that we can't treat them like regular people/corporations. It's amazing that we've seen in the tobacco industry the consequences of a colluding oligopoly, but we ignore the possibility of the same problem re-occuring in the journalism industry where the consequences are potentially far worse.

So while I do defend Muslims more often than anyone else, I HOPE that it's a product of knowing Muslims and their faith better than the average non-Muslim in a time of their weakness. I HOPE that if it were a different decade, my principles would lead me to defending Jesus, blacks, native americans, south americans, cubans, vietnamese, buddhists, jews, whoever is in need of it in that decade. I'm in the awkward stage of my life where I want nothing more than to help people who need help, but find myself constantly pre-occupied defending my own genetics and my personal beliefs and my own oppressors. But it's not new, this is what opposers of apartheid, opposers of slavery, opposers of war on vietnam went through. This is what supporters of apartheid, slavery, and invasion subconsciously want - to keep you sifting through the BS.

As for journalism not paying well, I've rented my soul out for some years now trying to save enough money so that I can do something I'm passionate about. So while I have to sit in my car for a few minutes every day taking deep breaths reminding myself that my mind is for rent and not for sale, and that there are people in far far far less fortunate circumstances, I hope it will all be worth it soon.