Hicham Maged's blog Inquisitive curiosity paves knowledge path

De-Stereotyping the Image?

I followed up the aftermath of murdering Marwa el-Sherbini since one week ago in Germany either online or offline, and have to describe how horrified I am by the various reactions that sparked out regarding this event. Hence I have twittered that “I am afraid of abusing Marwa’s case: killer should be punished according to the law + working on de-stereotyping!”

De-Stereotyping the Image

It seems what I fear might come true unless we wake up somehow. In my previous post, I was wondering about the silence of the worldwide mass-media regarding this event and explained my thoughts on why this case was ignored at the beginning.

Consequently, I played the what if game in order to raise the awareness about the case but unfortunately I found some reports, blogs and threads referred to my blog entry and criticizing this in a way that shows how they even missed the meaning of the title which aimed to reflect the murderer’s state of mind; something that makes me wonder whether people read the whole post to got the meaning?!

Stereotyping + Selectivity = Exaggerating

This equation summarizes the situation as unfortunately, majority of people behave in an attitude of selectivity where they highlight what matches with their prefabricate opinion. Hereby I found two extreme sides of the case:

• Side One: those who minimized the whole case to be Martyr of Hijab only, calling for boycotting Germans, and chanted anti-German chants during the funeral;
• Side Two: those who see nothing in the what if game but Muslims outrage for the brave Muslim lady and wonders where they in other cases of Non-Muslims.

You shall notice that I did not portray Muslims vs. Non-Muslims for the two previously mentioned sides because you will find this attitude from both teams alike. Hereby, I do not like exaggerating and do believe it is a sign of non-healthy conditions that prevail in whatever society.

This case is described in the media a lone wolf case but did not this also apply on the Muslim extremists? They do not represent Islam in general same as others do not represent the West in general but here – by the way – I am wondering about the “Srebrenica Genocide” between 1992 and 1995 in Bosnia at the heart of Europe in the 20^th century. Simply, you see how it is an easy shortcut to take and talk about through this mentalities; however who spend the time to think and debate about how to reach a better understanding based on the common grounds in human nature! Surprisingly, this is the main theme of my previous post for who takes time to read out of the box and this is what Marwa’s case should elaborate.

Ironically, this is what I understand from Islam as accepting the others not neglecting them because your faith is something up to you to choose and it is between your and the Creator. Consequently, the citizens of any society cannot be neglected or stereotyped just because they are Muslims! For that matter, neither debating about whether she is a martyr of Hijab nor about whether Muslims hate the West or not shall solve any ground problems that we are facing.

Indulgence: for Who by Who?

On contrary, I do believe that we need to take serious steps to bridge people together on a solid base of respecting each other; so the fear of Muslims just because they are so, known as Islamophobia, is equivalent – for me and any body who understand the core of Islam – to fear of non-Muslims and that ridiculous portraying from one side against another is non-healthy, stupid and narrow-minded actions.

This reminds me with the 44^th POTUS‘s speech in Cairo on the 4^th June 2009, where I wonder for the third time: is this a work of the elite and intellectuals only? If so then what about the public? Let us face it; majority is stereotyped and this returns to my wondering about de-stereotyping the image?

HATS OFF for Marwa and Elwi

Nevertheless, I cannot end this post without saying hats off to Marwa and Elwi with a especial one for Marwa as she was brave enough to stand against someone who try to discriminate her and her identity by following the legal way via court; she was saving her dignity as a Muslim Woman and the place that witnessed her killing should be the same place that witnesses applying justice against her slayer. God she and her unborn baby have been killed in front of her 3 years old son, husband and people.

That is what we need to see in action besides de-stereotyping the images of racism. Moreover, no body can offer an indulgence to other yet we can offer understanding, but who is brave enough to do so other than offering a bill of indictment? This is the hard question you should ask yourself at first place!

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Tags: human intellect, islamophobia, marwa el-sherbini
Categories: Critiques
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