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Misconceptions About Language Community

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Submitted By runlola2001
Words 2072
Pages 9
Zishan Mahbub
Instructor: Cami Nelson
Writing 2010
29 October 2013
What Are They Talking About?
“I want to meet the President and tell him, my name is Khan… and I’m not a terrorist”; that was Rizwan Khan pleading to the officer of Dept. of Homeland Security, after he was detained by authorities at Los Angeles Airport who mistake his disability for suspicious behavior as he was reciting prayers in Arabic in his own way. Rizwan, A Muslim who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism that complicates socialization, embarked on an extraordinary journey to meet the US president to clear his and his son’s name, when his teenage son was killed in a racial violence after the 9-11 terrorist attack.
It’s not a real life story; it’s the plot of the world-renowned movie “My Name is Khan”. Unfortunately real life tragedies of Arabic speaker in everyday life don’t always have happy endings like Rizwan’s, in that movie. After 9-11 Arabic speakers were blacklisted, shunned and suffered losses, and some were killed; In the catastrophic event of 9-11 along with the religion Islam, the language got agonized, anyone who speaks it, anyone who is directly or indirectly attached to it – Arabic, the most misunderstood, misjudged and unappreciated language of current Western world. The aim of this essay is to discuss the negative stereotypes of Arabic speakers portrayed in western society with examples given in relation to the role of the media and the effects of religious racism on average everyday life of users of this language.
Religiously and ethnically diverse societies produce a range of constantly changing issues and challenges for society, groups and individuals. Some of these issues include exclusion of minority groups, racism, harassment, stereotyping, intimidation, denial of employment, disapproval to build religious establishments and problems

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