I’m sick of all the stereotypes I hear from people about different things, like Islam. I hear a lot about Saudis, but it really doesn’t matter because we’re ‘messed’ up already. What I’ll do is, I’ll try to clarify some of these false stereotypes through the way I perceive it..
1. The four wives stereotype
The fog (the bad idea): You can have four wives! (as if he’s saying four objects just collect them, or prostitutes just pay them, or girlfriends just play with them).
The clarification: To get married to another lady, a man is facing huge challenges. The basic main thing is finding a lady who accepts him! Then he should be prepared financially, because his spending will double, because treatment should be equal, so either two apartments or two palaces. Physical ability should be there, too; actually, the main concept of engaging with more than a wife is to regulate the person’s need instead of having a wife and a bunch of girlfriends with no responsibility towards them. (life would be easier for the guy! but it will make problems eventually in the family until it leads to divorce usually). The love can’t be split equal, and Islam said that, because a person has no control over it; but everything other than that should be treated equally as an obligation on the husband, otherwise he is officially a jerk/moron (whatever you like) & the woman can choose to divorce.
That’s why a husband most likely is engaged with one wife through the Islam history. Engaging with another wife is a regulated option/solution to solve some problems that may face them throughout life. it is not the default thing.
2. Islam and women, Islam and terrorism.
the fog is the image received.
the clarification: In Islamic history, there are a lot of great women written in the books with their biographies, from the beginning of the first woman in Islam who had a huge contribution with the prophet. These things won’t be seen in the news. Unless they are degraded, they won’t be mentioned. That’s why the image for Muslims now are unstable because of stereotype.
I saw many cartoons made in the 1960s showing Bugs Bunny in a racist behavior against Japanese (when the US had finished a war with them), against Native Americans, against Mexicans, against Vietnamese, and against Blacks. Any nation they have problem with, they degrade their image severely on the media, and some of the images last longer than planned. You can find these cartoons now only in the Congress archives (i guess), but before it was shown on public TVs, and the stupid Saudi TV was showing us these cartoons because when I was a kid we didn’t have people who produce cartoons (and I guess they didn’t know English so they didn’t realize if it promotes racism or not! idiots!). Our TV was like NZ TV, most of its programs were imported from the US, or other places. (later, cartoons begin to come from Japan itself! they’re smart!).
3. Any kind of generalization of idea over a large group.
the fog: Muslims are always in bad situations. (4example, other generalized ideas exist on different groups).
clarification:In human history, each nation had its own time when it led the science and civilization. Egyptian, Indian, African, Roman, Persian, Greek, Chinese (not sorted by time). and then a civilization that is related to a religion, not a nation, which is the Islamic, and then the European, and now it’s moving towards the east of Asia. The movie “The 13th Warrior” showed a slight story about an ambassador of a civilized country who came to Europe in its medieval era. A person shouldn’t judge people by observing a single segment or single sample. Life is wider than that. History is a good teacher.
These days, if you want to know about Islam, it’s better not to observe Muslims, because many are not applying the Islam they claim. Reading will clarify better.
4. fog: Arabians are Muslims (or vice versa).
clarification: Not all Arabians are Muslims, and if all Arabians become Buddhists, this doesn’t affect Islam in any way. Actually, ancient Jews are claimed to be from Yemen, which is Arabian. Jesus, peace be upon him, is claimed to be from Lebanon or Syria, and both are Arabian..!
Islam is a way of life, other than a religion that is separate from life, which let u have a goal to feel and live for in your daily life, other than “wake up – eat- work – sleep.. (and get laid occasionally!)”.
This post will be updated whenever I get bothered with another stereotype!
