White Muslims

Caucasian Muslims are widely under represented not only in American media, but within global media as well. Only the stories of people who were famous before they converted, and extremist are told. While these two presentations of white Muslims are largely conflicting, they come together to tell the single story most people see of white Muslims.

The most widely presented view of white Muslims in mass media are famous converts. These people are usually men who faced some kind of tragedy or life changing experience. Two basic examples of celebrity converts are Liam Neeson, and Cat Stevens. When Neeson’s wife Natasha Richardson died in a tragic skiing accident in 2009, he was distraught. During his time of devastation he was filming The Grey in the Turkish city of Istanbul, which has over 4,000 mosques. As a result of his horrible loss, he was looking for ‘something more’, and his interest was peaked by the Islamic religion he sought to learn more. After meeting with prominent Muslim leaders, he decided to start praying five times daily towards Mecca. Neeson talks publicly about his initial struggle with praying so frequently, and how he now loves it saying, “ it just gets into your spirit and it’s the most beautiful, beautiful thing”. While Neeson no longer gives interviews about religion (and thus has not officially confirmed he is a convert), there are many credible stories about him leaving meetings with Hollywood directors to pray towards Mecca. Another example is Cat Stevens (a famous singer from the 70’s) who experienced a spiritual awakening after having a near death experience. Steven’s, now know as Yusuf Islam, was visiting a friend who had a beach house in Malibu when he nearly died in the ocean. As the current was pulling him far out to sea and under the water, Yusuf realized he was going to die and made a final plea to God that if God would save him, he would dedicate the rest of his life to religion. As he describes it, he was instantly saved by a wave that carried him safely to shore. After being given the Koran by his brother, Yusuf studied it and a year later officially joined the Muslim faith. Even now Yusuf occasionally receives media attention as he has released 7 albums since 2000 all in a style that adhere to the strictest of Muslim music codes. The media focuses on the extreme circumstances that led these celebrities to choose to join the Islamic faith, strengthening the perception that had tragedy not struck, these men would not have joined this faith. The media also chooses to put a large amount of emphasis on what has changed about these celebrities; Cat Stevens no longer using instruments in his music, and Neeson leaving meetings to pray emphasize how Islam has changed them and causes them to do things the majority of media consumers think are “weird”.

The flip side of the single story of white Muslims is the ‘common’ converts who commit horrible crimes. The best example of this is Samantha Lewthwaite, commonly called “The White Widow”. She is a Caucasian woman born in Aylesbury, England, who converted to Islam while at a boarding school as a teen. She married a Muslim man who she met on a chat room and is now known as the “White Widow” because in 2005 because her husband killed himself in the terrorist attack of London’s King’s Cross station, which killed 56 civilians. Following her husband’s suicide, Lewthwaite cut all ties from her family and has been tied to a number of terrorist attacks around the world since then, the most recent being the three day attack of Kenya’s Westgate Mall. While Lewthwaite’s story is the most relevant at the moment, there are a number of stories of white female converts who commit violent acts of terrorism to prove their allegiance to Islam. By telling only these stories (and not the stories of white Muslim women who live long prosperous, loving lives) the media is instilling fear in its consumers. It furthers the notion that emotionally stable people with good intentions are not Muslim. There is a stigma, especially in America, that Muslim women are oppresses and ignorant. The media circulating ONLY stories about white Muslim women who are willing to commit mass murder and stage attacks that make global news does not help the public understand that white Islamic people can be good, law abiding citizens.

The social implications that this “single story” has for white Muslims in America are not good. They are not only actively promoting the notion that Muslim’s are different from ‘normal’ people (which leads to discrimination) but by never telling the stories of ‘average’ white Muslim’s they are buying into the notion that white Muslim’s are unstable in some way (emotionally, or mentally). Also, the use of the phrase “white Muslim” makes the two terms seem mutually exclusive, which isn’t true. The use of this phrase in the media further promotes the notion that people who belong to the “white Muslim” demographic are a strange and small group.

While I strongly disagree with the “single story” of Caucasian Muslims, I think that all of the stories I read are accurate and needed to be told. The framing may have been a bit skewed, particularly pertaining to Neeson, but they were all important and culturally relevant. I think that the solution is for the media to include the stories of more average white Muslims. I have white Muslim relatives who pray 5 times a day, have been to Mecca, and are truly Muslim in all senses of the word. However, based on the way the media portrays Caucasian Muslim’s most people would be shocked to know they are Muslim. They do normal things. They wear normal clothes. They have normal jobs. None of them were brought to Islam by near death experiences. They do not hate Christians or plan terrorist attacks—in fact they celebrate holidays with Christians. These articles are not inherently bad, however, these articles should be the shocking outliers in the single story of white Muslims, not the norm.

Sources:

http://www.ibtimes.com/what-earth-white-muslim-722565

http://www.vice.com/read/the-problem-with-white-converts-to-islam

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/27/white-widow-muslim-samantha-ewthwaite

Cat Stevens:

Documentaries:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZivWf3nKVs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV8keAZHQx8

News stories:

http://www.biography.com/people/cat-stevens-16548027

Music:

http://www.yusufislam.com/songs/

Samantha Lewthwaite

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikehayes/meet-the-white-widow-the-mysterious-female-british-terrorist

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2444552/White-Widow-Samantha-Lewthwaite-raising-Jihadi-children-murder-Islams-enemies.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2449411/White-Widow-Samantha-Lewthwaite-plotted-blow-UN-offices.html 

Liam Neeson

http://rollingout.com/entertainment/liam-neeson-to-convert-to-islam-5-more-famous-white-muslims/

http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/43129/liam-neeson-converts-to-islam/

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/natasha-richardson-wife-liam-neeson-dead-removed-life-support-article-1.368099