Has discrimination towards Muslim Americans gone unnoticed in the South?

Markus Coward talks about his views of Muslim discrimination in the park in Oxford, Ms.

OXFORD- Miss. 

Alexandra Harper

Has discrimination towards Muslim Americans gone unnoticed in the South? 

Negative stereotypes of Muslims have been more prevalent since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  Abraham J. Heschel, Jewish theologian and philosopher, once said, “Racism is man’s gravest threat to man- the maximum of hatred for a minimum reason.” It is important to identify negative attitudes regarding Muslim Americans so that future problematic situations do not occur on the Ole Miss Campus. 

After the events of 9/11 the FBI reported a 1,700 percent increase of hate crimes against Muslims Americans. Since then, increased racial hatred has left Muslims, and those who contain similar physical resemblance, scared of potential threats and hatred among their peers. 

Muslim American student, Markus Coward, said, “It is hard watching people stare at you in a different way like you are some kind of criminal.” He continues, “but it’s not like Ole Miss is the cause of it all, it’s what happens really wherever I go.”

The FBI conducted a test in last year in order to examine how people responded in situations where a Muslim American is present. Their reaction would determine whether or not there is a social desirability to interact or if there is a negative attitude and/or perception of the individual. The participants were chosen by recruiting from the psychology subject pool at California State University in Sacramento. A total of 208 subjects participated in the study; only 3% were Middle Eastern and Muslim and they were excluded from the analysis. Each person had a number of questions and situations to respond to. These included “You are standing on a crowded bus surrounded by many (Muslim American) people,”; another situation, “You are boarding a plane for a vacation in Florida and two young (Muslim American) men are boarding immediately behind you.” The results indicated that in three out of ten situations, attitude scores were significantly different regarding the Muslim American individual versus the individual of “unspecified ethnicity.” 

According to Markus Coward, the results of that test would have been much higher for discrimination towards Muslims if done at a Southern school such as Ole Miss.

On the other hand, South-African and Muslim comic-turned-movie-actor, Riaad Moosa, jokes about the prejudices many people have developed about Muslims because of their fear of violence or terrorism. In his latest film, Material, he plays a young Muslim comedian who is working to be successful. In an interview in November 2012, in response to being approached by discrimination, Moosa said, "I'm a comedian who happens to be Muslim [and] my comedy stems on all forms of my identity.”

It might be “okay” for a Muslim to joke about Muslim stereotype, but not for someone else to. A study done by the Abu Dhabi Gallup Centre in 2011 surveyed over 870,000 adults over a three year period of time. The results showed that Jewish Americans are even more likely than Muslim Americans to believe that there is a prejudice against Muslims. All that to say, racial slandering continued to be a problem shortly after, as Peter King, US congressman from New York, experienced first hand. 

Carrie Donald, former student of Ole Miss, said, “There are always many ‘tests’ done on Muslim American discrimination in the North and other parts of our country- but not one of them has been done at a Southern school.” Donald continued, “I would think that since the South, is known for all the segregation between black and whites, especially on our own campus with James Meredith, that analyzations of other students behavior towards Muslim Americans would have already been done!”