The people living in Middle East in countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE etc are known as Arabs. The word is somewhat ethnic in nature. As far as Muslims are concerned, Muslims are the people who submit their will to ALLAH (God) and they are the followers of the religion Islam. They are scattered in different places in the world. Mostly Arabs are Muslims but they can be Christians and Jews as well. Moreover, certain people are under a false impression that anyone who speaks Arabic is a Muslim. However, Christians and Jews also speak Arabic language.
The treatment of United States and their policies relating to Muslims and the Arabs have drastically changed. After the 9/11 attacks a new scenario “War against Terrorism” was initiated in the Bush regime. In the current scenario every Muslim Arab is seen with suspicion and tougher policies are implemented regarding their mandatory registration, propaganda through agencies and media, immigration and further war against terrorism is somewhat extended to the region which is densely populated with Arabs (Tirman, 2005).
It’s basically an attempt of the westerners to understand the psychological aspect of the east. Orientalism is mostly related with Muslims and their beliefs. It’s a racial term that is mostly used by the western countries to refer the countries located in the eastern hemisphere. Its prominent characteristic is depicting ignorant behavior amongst the foreign countries. Another characteristic of Orientalism is that it is mostly used in sexual terms. In our society Orientalism and prejudice is a normal day affair. Media and the Government highlight these two aspects a lot. Therefore, people can easily understand that it’s propaganda against these groups (Nelson, 2005).
Individuals can contribute a lot in reducing the social evils like prejudice and Orientalism and they can create an atmosphere where tolerance is the utmost winner. Individuals though proper channels can initiate social gatherings and events where these groups can mingle up with other groups of the society. In cities and towns cumulative activities should take place and this would definitely result is harmony and tolerance (Collinet, 2008).
References
Tirman, J. (2005) Mistrusted Muslims. National Reporter. Web.
Nelson.D, T. (2005) Psychology of Prejudice. Allyn & Bacon.
Collinet, R. (2008) 101 Tools for Tolerance. Teaching Tolerance. Web.