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2. Prejudice

Often in the form of racialized Islamophobia and sexism. The refusal to listen to me or believe me when I tell you that Islam has given me wonderful things. Painting a Muslim woman’s issues as religious when they may really involve class, or patriarchal manifestations in her culture, or race. Demonizing my religion or culture in order to paint me as a victim that must be released from both of these things, no matter how much I love them or how they have positively shaped me.
 

A few weeks ago I was watching some tv program where they interviewed this Belgian reporter who had gone to the Middle East to see the 'real' Islam. He visited, among other countries, Turkey, Egypt, Israel/Palestina and Saudi Arabia and interviewed people there. He wrote a book about it and also made a series of documentaries. Now, I've never read the book or seen the tv program, but seeing the guy talk about his experiences made me so angry! He was SO. STUPID.
For example, he interviewed the wife of a suicide bomber and asked her if she still loved her husband. She said yes, and that she missed him very much. The reporter then jumped on it (thankfully not in the documentary itself) and claimed that the women had been brainwashed and obviously couldn't really say the truth: that she hated her husband and what he did (i.e. blow up himself and several others). Because obviously she was way too oppressed by Islam and way too afraid to say what she really thought. No way that she actually loved her husband and could actually miss him. >_> Suicide bombers are all completely evil and there is no redeeming element to them, not at all. Even their own wives don't love him.
The end goal of the journey was Mecca, which is of course the holy city for Muslims. It's where Mohamed was born, and where millions of Muslims gather every year for the Hajj (pilgrimage which, according to the Quran, every Muslim should do at least once in his life if he is able to). Saudi law (Mecca is in Saudi Arabia) forbids non-Muslims to enter Mecca, using as justification a verse in the Quran that says 'pagans' (i.e. non-Muslims, although some interpretations think that other People of the Book (= Christians and Jews, who use - arguably - the same holy book) are fine) are unclean and should be kept away so as not to tarnish the Holy City. (As per Wikipedia, natch.) Although this isn't fun to non-Muslims (I wanna gooooo I wanna see the Kaaba :( Although not perhaps with 4 million other people), it's their country and so they can make the rules (particularly as nobody actually gets HURT through this law). So everybody who would like to visit Mecca and would even just leaf through a traveling guide could see: Mecca = off limits for non-Muslims.
But our intrepid Belgian reporter? He was AMAZED. He was INSULTED. HE COULDN'T GET INTO MECCA. WHAT THE HELL. LOOK, THEY EVEN HAVE THIS SIGN OVER THE ROADS TO MECCA: MUSLIMS THIS WAY, NON-MUSLIMS THAT WAY, AWAY FROM MECCA. LOOK, HE GOT PICTURES OF IT!!
Me: ... *RAGE* 
JUST... HOW... STUPID... You KNOW stuff like that when you go there, don't you?! Was he surprised women in Saudi Arabia wear the full veil, too?? Or that he should take off his shoes if he wanted to enter a mosque?? Grrrr grrr grrrrr. The one thing I hate more than ignorant people are people who don't even seem to bother englightning themselves. Or who point out such "shocking " things to people who don't know it and then get all scared and indignant. And it didn't help much that at the same table (it was one of those round table discussion programs) was Rita Verdonk, who of course fully agreed that Muslims were all dangerous and ready to take over the country/world with their dangerous Sharia law. (Oh God, the Netherlands under the Sharia Law phantom is a whole other can of worms.) Thankfully there was some other guy at the table (super-annoying self-help guru Emile Ratelband, who I was surprised to find I agreed with!) who thought it was all nonsense and told them so.