Judge and You Will Be Judged

DISCLAIMER: This blog will not be like the others. There will be no humorous comments slipped in between lines nor will I make light of sometimes rather unpleasant situations. I am going to be honest, possibly politically incorrect and potentially offensive to certain people. If you are sensitive to any particular topics, please be warned. Of course, it is not my intent to offend anyone, but there are certain thoughts I feel I need to share that may not want to be heard by some.

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All my life I have cringed at negative comments regarding a certain culture, religion or race. Usually, these comments were regarding a certain stereotype that many believed to be fact. I have always felt that each individual deserved a chance to be who they are and only then would my judgements be based on sound information that I've gathered from personal interactions. I've refused to make particular judgements because of the way someone looked or something that they believed in, even though there may always have been a slight internal battle. Humans cannot be categorized objects, as there is not one person in this world than can be the same as another.

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Media in and of itself is very difficult to avoid, especially the news. I turn on the radio - I hear the news, I watch TV - I see the news, I open my homepage - I read the news. In the streets, I hear bits and pieces of people's conversations that are discussing current affairs. I talk to friends and family and I hear and see their reactions when a specific term is mentioned in a dialogue. Certain thoughts are just fed to us consistently and sometimes without our conscious' awareness. We digest information subconsciously and don't even realize when we automatically react to these things we've heard.

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M-U-S-L-I-M ... Yes, I said it! (What was your initial reaction?) The word almost seems taboo, at least, from the environment that I come from. We consistently hear that Muslims have been making these threats, and Muslims planned to annihilate this building and prominent Muslim countries are dangerous... What we don't hear is how many billions of Muslims there are in this world and how such a minute fraction of them can even be considered the "Muslim Extremists" that we view on TV and hear about in the media. We are fed information that causes us to have knee-jerk reactions to particular trigger points and, with much regret, I, myself, had one of these reactions and it was not a subtle one.

I was on my way home on the metro when I glanced over to the seats across from me and saw a young gentleman reading and cross-referencing a notebook. Me being the curious person I am tried to decipher what book it was and what language it was in. With a closer look, probably a blunt squint, I noticed the book was in Arabic and my mind immediately jumped to a dozen consecutive conclusions.
1. It's the Qur-an.
2. He's of Middle-Eastern/North-African decent.
3. He has a backpack.
4. Does he look nervous? He doesn't have any of the typical inadvertent body gestures of a nervous person, but does that mean anything?
5. Nonetheless, how long until the next stop? Should I get off?

WHAAAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??! My mind has officially failed me. I have succumbed to media's antics and society's stereotypes and am so ashamed to admit it.

After assessing the situation and realizing what I had automatically assumed and the rash judgements I had made, I stayed on the metro. My heart was slightly pounding, but I saw him put the book in his bag and I looked inside. Nothing there. Rationalization. He got off a few stops later and off he went. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. My fears were calmed, but my anger at myself had risen. How could I, who have tried so hard my entire life to be open-minded and delay my judgements, become such a disciple of mass media's brainwashing?! I have no one to blame, but myself.

I acknowledge everything that happened as a learning experience and will do my best to not make such rash judgements in the future. I regrettably say, that most that I know about the Muslim religion is what a select few have explained to me each from vastly different perspectives. I have never dove into concrete studies of the history and politics of Islam. I have friends who practice Islam and have asked them many questions, but apparently not enough to prevent my mind from stereotyping. I see this as an opportunity to learn and grow.