Abstract
On a recent trip to Florida, I was struck by the strong Christian presence: the radio picked up a Christian station that spoke constantly of Jesus and his blessings, large signs urged passersby to be saved by Jesus, skywriting above Disney World spelled out “I love Jesus” and pro-life billboards loomed large above passing cars. As a Canadian Muslim who is cautious about—though not necessarily opposed to—expressions of faith in the public domain, I found the explicit declaration of religiosity fascinating. While Muslim-majority countries may lend themselves to such declarations in an Islamic-themed way, attempts by Muslims to practice their faith openly in North America can generate tension and resentment.1 Recent examples include the niqab ban in Canada and the controversy over the Park51 Islamic community center in New York. Why is this the case when Canada is a place that promotes freedom of religion and pluralism and the United States is a place that appears to embrace religious practice? Is it simply that Islam is an unknown quantity? Is it that the two countries see themselves as mainly or exclusively founded in a Christian tradition? Both of these may be true, but I would argue that media portrayals have played a significant role in creating tension around the presence of Islam in North America.
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© 2014 Karim H. Karim and Mahmoud Eid
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Hirji, F. (2014). Producing Alternative Media Discourses on Muslims. In: Karim, K.H., Eid, M. (eds) Engaging the Other. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137403698_10
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