The commerical is presenting this Muslim-American in a way that nearly every American of his age could relate to. Instead of being seen as a "threat to national security" as, we hate to believe it but, many stereotypes make him out to be, he is in a position that allows for him to be seen as a "normal" American. Mr. Abdul Rashid commented on the fact that being Muslim got him the commercial by saying, "I'd never thought about the ad in those terms, because the thrust of the commercial had nothing to do with my religion whatsoever"(New York Times). Can this really be true? I feel like the American people are trying to become more accepting of Muslims and seeing a commercial with a Muslim categorized as a "normal" American would only enhance this process. In other words, this commercial seems like a way of sending a message about the way American society should be. The commercial presented a strong man who was not afraid of his identity. Does this not sound like a definition of American to you?
Certainly Abdul-Rashid appears to be just like every American, his voice has very little accent, his skin is light and nothing about him seems to scream the "Muslim" image that Americans tend to have, which I really like.
ReplyDeleteThe radical turban wearing image of a man from the "Middle East". This image is kind of problematic, since it ends up confusing people at times. After 9/11 hundreds of hate crimes occurred towards turbaned men who weren't Muslims, but were Sikhs. Sikhs often wear turbans as a part of their faith (helps manage hair when you don't cut it), but to enraged Americans, the turbans and brown skin signified Muslim.
Despite the fact that Islam a faith, people seem to consider being Muslim racial, and so they judge by appearance. It's cool that this commercial does a good job of pointing out that you can't just look at someone and say he's a muslim, when there are famous converts like Lew Alcindor or Cassius Clay (better known by their post conversion names of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Muhammad Ali).