When we’re talking about stereotypes in the Muslim community, we’re basically addressing the wrong image given to Islam through the media which consists of :

Calling Muslims terrorists or associating them with any violent act

Assuming that Islam is an ethnicity (IT IS NOT, muslims are all over the world and can be from any race or ethnicity)

Calling Muslims oppressed because of what they choose to wear

In Islam, modesty is very important and is applied to both men and women, but in different ways. For example, modesty for muslim women is usually recognized by their clothing which is often the hijab (headscarf), and modesty for muslim men consists of covering their bodies from the navel to the knees as well as lower their gaze.

Assuming that women are forced into a subservient role

Islam is the first religion that gave women all of their rights and the problem is that in some cases, muslim countries use religion out of context to justify belittling women and oppressing them which leads to all of these misconceptions about Islam.

Cultural Appropriation

Cultural appropriation is the term used to mean adopting an element of one’s culture or identity. For muslims Islam is part of their identity and appropriating it by non muslims is very disrespectful and can be considered islamophobic in some cases. Some ways that this happens is if a non muslim:

Uses the praying mat as any other kind of furniture and decorates their house with it

Putting on the headscarf for fashion purposes that resembles the hijab

Microaggressions

Microaggressions can be tricky sometimes because they’re very subtle because they can be in the form of jokes or comments or actions that are not very clear. However they’re not acceptable even if it wasn’t intentional, so here are some examples so that you can avoid them:

Making a joke about Muslims being terrorist

Calling a girl’s hijab a towel

Asking a Muslim to drink alcohol or eat pork when it’s not permessibale in the religion

Joking about making a Muslim drink or eat during the holy month of ramadan when muslims fast from sunrise to sunset

Asking a hijabi to take off her hijab in a public setting or in front of people she’s not allowed to show her hair to or she’s not comfortable with

Muslim women put on the hijab as a sign of faith to god and modesty and no one has the right to tell her what to do with it.

A girl hugging a Muslim guy or a guy hugging a Muslim girl without their consent knowing very well that Muslims are not comfortable with it.

Making fun of Muslims for waiting until marriage to lose their virginity.

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