Reclaiming The Perceptions Of Muslims, pt. 1 - Be A Citizen

A lot of talk in the Islamosphere centers around the perception of Muslims by non-Muslims and by the media. "The media portrays us all as terrorists, they only cover Islamic terrorist attacks. We're all tainted by association, because public perception is twisted by media portrayal," the argument goes.

But this sentiment only examines the symptoms. It's my view that the behavior of the Muslim ummah itself is a significant contributor to the underlying cause. It's long past time to acknowledge our own culpability, in both action and inaction, in how we are perceived and portrayed. Fortunately, by taking responsibility for our own role in how we are perceived, we also empower ourselves to take ownership of it, reclaim it, change it.

In the following series of posts, I'm going to explore this: our failure of engagement from the grassroots level to established Muslim organizations, how media works, how and why our media messages fail, and improving civic and media relations (the two go hand in hand).

But I'll also look at remedies: writing more effective press releases, focusing and controlling one's message, ways to leverage new media and social networking tools, developing a sensitivity and attention to the comments of non-Muslims who seek to genuinely engage with us, the importance of overcoming the Muslim reticence to cultivate long-term, healthy relationships with local and national media outlets, and grassroots tips.

I'll start at the grassroots level and build upwards and outwards.

Underneath everything else, the root of Muslim culpability in how it is perceived and portrayed is the ummah's powerful inclination towards isolation and separatism. This pervades everything in the chain from grassroots on up, and needs to be kept uppermost in mind as we explore solutions throughout the chain of communications and relationships with those outside the Muslim ummah. We have been separatist and isolationist for far too long, and now to our own detriment.

At a simple, grassroots, individual level, we must begin engaging with our community as citizens first, Muslims second. I know that seems uncomfortable on the surface, and understand I'm not advocating we deny our faith or go into hiding -- in fact I'm proposing we need to be more visible -- but more visible as citizens who just happen to be Muslim, as opposed to Muslims who are preoccupied mainly with our Muslimness to the exclusion of our civic duties and neighbors.

We need to stop being defensive Muslims and start becoming concerned civic participants.

We need to understand that the Muslim ummah is not the only ummah we are a part of.

How to do this?

A) Get involved locally: go to a town hall meeting, your school's PTA or the school board, neighborhood association, etc. Find a civic cause and get involved. Invite your neighbors for dinner. Join a gym. Join any kind of recreational or social group, be it bird watchers, chess club, green causes, Democrats, Republicans, whatever.

The key is to connect outside of our sphere, human to human, person to person, townsfolk to townsfolk.

B) If you're a Muslim blogger and/or a follower of Muslim blogs: Congrats, you've worked real hard, shukriya for all you've done -- and now you've won a vacation! Here's your temporary exit visa from Blogistan!

Go visit some other part of the internet. Take a long hiatus from blogging about Muslim issues that -- let's be real here and call a spade a spade -- are pretty much only read and discussed by other Muslim bloggers blogging about Muslim issues. I'm not saying that kind of exchange shouldn't happen, of course it should. I love the Islamosphere, but we need to take a reality check and shake any delusions about its true external reach and influence on non-Muslims. There are ways to improve that reach that I'll address in upcoming posts, but currently that reach is not much at all.

Start a section on your blog (or set up a new one) about what's happening in your city. If you're personally involved in some of the community steps mentioned above, then blog on those. Link with other community bloggers, comment on their blogs, comment on your city newspaper or TV station web sites (most of those now have reader commenting mechanisms). How much and when you want to point to your Muslim blogging interests at this stage is up to you, but the key is to build a local voice and presence that actively demonstrates civic interest and concern. For that kind of audience and targeting, building your civic cyberidentity is more important than showcasing your Muslim one, at least initially.

In truth, I don't think Muslim bloggers are up for the challenge of a temporary vacation from the Islamosphere, but at least we can add these other steps concurrently if we can't fully give it up:)

Both these activities -- individual civic activism and playing a part in the local blogosphere -- have an additional benefit of setting the stage for a better long-term relationship and presence with local (and ultimately national) media. How media outlets work, the Muslim reticence to develop media relationships and failure to deliver effective lasting messages to the media -- and how that can be turned around --- will be addressed in the next post.

If Muslims are not willing to be known and be identified as fellow citizens -- fully participating in and concerned about our civic community -- then the only Muslims those communities will ever know about, are those Muslims that make the news when they commit senseless violent acts.

Our present isolationism has guaranteed that our civic communities know no other kind of Muslim.

But by undertaking some simple steps, we offer our civic ummah a wealth of positive experiences with Muslims -- alternative experiences that can counteract the singular negative experience we've allowed to flourish by our separatist stance.

More to follow.

Next; Reclaiming The Perceptions Of Muslims, Pt. 2 - Understanding The Media