The Bearded Wadi
Yesterday my landlady made good on her promise to get me a new bed and kitchen table. It should be noted that I didn't ask for them nor did I complain about them. She's just very interested in my well-being, which I don't mind at all.
To deliver the new furniture, she rented a truck and invited some of her friends to come over to help move the aforementioned items. So in the early afternoon some French locals showed up at my door to take away my old items and bring in the new. I welcomed and thanked them along with offering my assistance. They were quite jovial about the whole thing. About half-way through, one of them whom I hadn't seen earlier came up to say hello. After the requisite pleasantries, he asked me flat out, "are you a Muslim?" When I replied in the negative, he turned back to shout to his comrades, "don't worry, he's not Muslim."
Okay, so, yes, I have a big, bushy beard. But I simply cannot stand how people make the automatic inference that big, bushy beard=Muslim and Muslim=terrorist/violent individual. This is not the first time, and it's not likely to be the last. I just don't get it. Have there been racially motivated riots in France? Yes. Were the people involved Arab immigrants? Yes. But, 1) there's a big problem with how immigrants are treated in France, so while I don't condone violent protests, I see where they're coming from, and 2) I'm willing to bet that almost none of the protesters in France in the past few years had the big, bushy, Osama bin Laden-esque beard that people associate (incorrectly, of course) with terrorists. It's this very association and disconnect among the French majority that is central to the problem.
Is Islamic fundamentalism a problem in Europe? Absolutely. From the street murder of Theo Van Gogh in Amsterdam to the fact that young Muslim women in France have hymenoplasties to hide the fact that they've had sex, there are plenty of problems. But propositional logic has to enter into this -- as does elementary set theory. Hell, Monty Python knows how this works.
It's true that I, as a white, English-speaking, middle-class, educated, hetero male, live in Privilege, so my bitching about being Othered or discriminated probably makes a lot of people want to get out their World's Smallest Violins. Still, I think it goes to show how far we have to go -- not that we should stop when white men can have beards in peace. I also want to revel in the irony of being oppressed by the Patriarchy due to looking like a patriarch.
To deliver the new furniture, she rented a truck and invited some of her friends to come over to help move the aforementioned items. So in the early afternoon some French locals showed up at my door to take away my old items and bring in the new. I welcomed and thanked them along with offering my assistance. They were quite jovial about the whole thing. About half-way through, one of them whom I hadn't seen earlier came up to say hello. After the requisite pleasantries, he asked me flat out, "are you a Muslim?" When I replied in the negative, he turned back to shout to his comrades, "don't worry, he's not Muslim."
Okay, so, yes, I have a big, bushy beard. But I simply cannot stand how people make the automatic inference that big, bushy beard=Muslim and Muslim=terrorist/violent individual. This is not the first time, and it's not likely to be the last. I just don't get it. Have there been racially motivated riots in France? Yes. Were the people involved Arab immigrants? Yes. But, 1) there's a big problem with how immigrants are treated in France, so while I don't condone violent protests, I see where they're coming from, and 2) I'm willing to bet that almost none of the protesters in France in the past few years had the big, bushy, Osama bin Laden-esque beard that people associate (incorrectly, of course) with terrorists. It's this very association and disconnect among the French majority that is central to the problem.
Is Islamic fundamentalism a problem in Europe? Absolutely. From the street murder of Theo Van Gogh in Amsterdam to the fact that young Muslim women in France have hymenoplasties to hide the fact that they've had sex, there are plenty of problems. But propositional logic has to enter into this -- as does elementary set theory. Hell, Monty Python knows how this works.
It's true that I, as a white, English-speaking, middle-class, educated, hetero male, live in Privilege, so my bitching about being Othered or discriminated probably makes a lot of people want to get out their World's Smallest Violins. Still, I think it goes to show how far we have to go -- not that we should stop when white men can have beards in peace. I also want to revel in the irony of being oppressed by the Patriarchy due to looking like a patriarch.