Susan Slyomovics “New York City’s Muslim World Parade” is an investigation of the relationship between a street drama and the social context in which it is performed (158). As the title implies she is focusing primarily on the Muslim World Parade, although she mentions several other parades including the New York City’s Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, the Ashura Day Parade, and the Pakistan Independence Day Parade.
Slymovics writing hits on several substantial points that facilitate our analysis and interpretation of the Muslim World Parade. First and foremost we must understand that a parade is a subset of “civil procession” which belongs to a larger category of “processional performance” (158). Secondly, the organizers of the Muslim World Parade state that the parade is a show of community strength, and that interpretations are highly subjective (160). Lastly, we acknowledge the fact that the Muslim population is undercounted in New York.
With this in mind we can reorient our mindset from traditional parade spectacle, to parade with a socio-economical undertone. I admit, that much of the writing seemed common sense to me, i.e., “what is a parade and why a parade?”, but it made the writing much easier to absorb as a whole. Moreover, many of the questions raised were answered as you continue reading. This is not to say that no new conclusions can be derived from the information.
Slymovics explicitly states that the ethnic study of Muslims were not allowed under the basis of the parade encompassing all worshipers. We can draw conclusions that the Muslim population is highly varied, despite an emphasis on South Asians. We later see that groups from the Muslim parade include the Chinese Muslim organization and PIEDAD, a Hispanic Muslim community (167). From the reading, we can infer that many of these ethnic groups face inequality among the American crowd. For instance, Slymovics writes, “…a white, middle-class New York section of the Bronx readily accepted immigrant Muslim mosques in their neighborhood but rejected the presence of African American Muslim places of worship” (160). In addition, the South Asian Muslims themselves were not forthcoming with their relations with African American Muslims—there exists the need to distance themselves from the stigmatized race of African American coreligionists.
In addition to racial distinctions, the assertion from Susan Davis that parades serve a pragmatic purpose, closely apply to the Muslim World Parade (159). As we confirmed earlier the Muslim community is undercounted because no association exists to count Muslims (158). A sub-section of the paper is specified for writing and signs. In part, these signs are used to inform others about the presence of the Muslim community. The same can be said for the use of religious floats, which include floats in the shape of the Koran, the Kaaba, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and the Masjid al-Haram of Medina (171).
Through the use of parade, the Muslim community in New York is able to strengthen community bonds as well as draw attention to its specific ethnic groups (different signs that distinguish groups).
