YALLA VOTE ‘08 Our Voice. Our Future.

ABC Primetime ran a piece on how Muslims are treated in America… absolutely worth watching. They set up a bigoted, nasty character behind the counter of a bakery in Anywhere, America, and filmed the customers’ reactions when the actor refused to serve a Muslim woman–also in on the setup.

Jack Dovidio, social psychologist at Yale University, was invited to comment on Primetime’s experiment. “It’s justice that binds us together. It’s justice that makes us a society. Any threat to that kind of sense of justice and fairness undermines the entire system,” he said to explain why some people stood up for the Muslim woman’s rights.

When asked why he stood up for a stranger, one customer explained, “Every person deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. No matter how they’re dressed.”

The majority of the people involved in ABC’s experiment did nothing to defend the woman dressed in headscarf. 22 people stood by and did nothing while this woman was harassed. The good news? While six people showed their blatantly bigoted biases, 13 people stood up for her.

As our community is well aware, it doesn’t take a headscarf to erode civil liberties. Just looking Arab is enough to be harassed, denied employment, and generally treated like a leper. How many Americans take one look at an Arab American and assume he or she is a radical Islamist, not knowing that the community is Christian, Muslim, agnostic…