How Americans Perceive the Middle East

In my English class we are learning about the Middle East and have taken a couple of days to address common misconceptions about the area. I was struck by how prevalent these misconceptions were and how I was tempted to accept some of them as fact. I will address the five that were the most striking to me. It's incredible how wrong our perceptions can be.

1. All Arabs are Muslim and vice versa. Actually, most of the world's Muslims live in South East Asia in countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Click here for a map of the world's Muslim population. A minority of all Muslims are Arab, and not all Arabs are Muslim. There is a sizable Christian population in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. There are also Zoroastrians and Baha'i followers, although most of them are in Iran and Iranians are not Arab, they are Persian, which is a whole new misconception.
2. Islam is a violent religion. "Islam" itself literally means "peace and submission to God", and every chapter of the Quran (the holy text of Islam) begins with, "In the name of God the Merciful and Compassionate". That was about all the convincing I needed to prove that the religion itself isn't violent, but instead a small minorities interpretation of the scripture is violent.
3. Islam is oppressive towards women. Again we are confusing the culture of some Muslim societies with the religion of Islam. Just like there are conservative Americans who argue that women should "stay in the kitchen", there are conservative Muslims that believe in a domestic and restricted role for women. The difference is that in America, those who advocate fewer women's rights are not in power whereas the Taliban of Afghanistan, the Al Saud family of Saudi Arabia, and Islamic Republic Party in Iran are actually in power.
4. The Middle East is one big sandy desert with lots of camels, populated by... men in turbans and long white robes... women in black with their faces covered... men waving long curved swords... harems with scantily clad women serving one man... husbands with four wives... rich oil sheikhs... and terrorists. I borrowed this from a PBS article because I believed it captured exactly how most Americans perceive the "Middle East". I don't think many people understand that the Sahara is in fact in Northern Africa, other than that the Arabian peninsula has deserts, but Iraq and Afghanistan are mountainous. Also turbans are not exclusive to Islam, Sikh men also wear turbans, and the harems and swords are reminiscent of Aladdin. Here again, most of Americans' knowledge of international culture comes from Disney movies.
5. The veils are a sign of oppression, and all veils are burqas. First of all, there many different styles of veils ranging from just a head scarf or hijab, to the ultraconservative burqa which is extremely rare. Click here for an illustration of the different styles. Although we've adopted the word burqa, it is the most uncommon form of veiling. Even in Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative Islamic states the burqa is uncommon. Secondly, the veils are not always a sign of oppression. Many women feel freer while wearing a veil because they are free from unwanted male attention; they feel less likely to be sexualized and viewed as an object while veiled. Some Muslim women also believe that women in the West are more oppressed for this same reason. Because we are so sexualized, they view that as just as much oppression, the same way we view the veil as oppression. These opposing view points really interested me because I had never imagine wearing a veil as freedom, but then I thought about how nice it would be to avoid unwanted attention...

Another great resource, click here to read Ruben Navarrette, a Muslim and Chicago native, debunk more myths and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims.