Upon reading this text, I was initially reminded of our class discussion on Tuesday. Susan Slyomovics starts off her writing by stating that we do not know for certain the number of Muslims in New York City because the US Census Bureau does not record religion. This goes back to the question as to why we care so much about “race” and why on forms (such as the SAT) we are asked our race. Why is it that we are asked “race” and not religion if we shouldn’t be judgmental of either?
Now, onto the article. I had actually never heard of the Muslim Day Parade so this whole text was interesting to me. As I began to read, I would have thought that this parade was a chance for the Muslims to show their pride and ‘broadcast’ themselves through a parade, but Slyomovics says that the Muslims rather considered it an “American setting of exchange”. After I read that, it made more sense to me as to why the Muslim Day Parade would be using “Irish and New Orleans” sounding bands. I was initially confused about that, but I guess it makes sense that if this parade was intended to be more inclusive and not just showy that it is okay to have participants in it who are not necessarily Muslim. I found it upsetting though, that when the Catholic priest participated in the parade, he spoke out against the phrases “takbir” and “allahu akbar”, which were phrases referring to praying to God. He thought that it would remind Americans of Anti-American acts, which brings me back to the thought of how we generalize groups of people (which we discussed when we heard about the struggles of some Mexicans coming to the US). Just because some people within a “race” or religion do something that isn’t good, doesn’t mean we should discriminate and form bad ideas about all people of that “race” or religion.
After I finished reading this text, I actually looked up the Muslim Day Parade. The previous parade was on September 26th, 2010 and it was the 25th annual parade. The parade takes place on the last Sunday of each September. On the official website for the American Muslim Day Parade, it states that the mission of the parade is to “bring communities of various ethnic and religious groups together to promote a better understanding of Islam and to establish interfaith cooperation between Muslims and all other religious/community groups”, which goes along with what Slyomovics claims the intent of the parade is. If anyone is interested in looking up more about the Muslim Day Parade, here is a link to the site:
