The New Jersey Chapter of the Muslim American Society chose YouTube as their medium to distribute the message of peace and unity in their video I Am Muslin (click HERE to view if player doesn't load). This witty short certainly gets the message across, challenging popular misconceptions, and white-robe wearing, camel-riding, date-eating, tent-dwelling stereotypes.
While we're at it: I am English. I do not have bad teeth. I don't know your friend that once visited London eighteen months ago. Nor do I know the Queen (though I have a friend that does). We have indoor plumbing (indeed our toilets flush way better than yours do and rarely get blocked thanks to wider pipes). We also probably have better cell phones than the one in your pocket or purse (thanks to more competition in the marketplace and the adoption of the GSM world standard). Our TV technology is also of a higher quality than yours; we have PAL versus NTSC, which even American techies and geeks joke is an acronym for Never The Same Color, AND we have set top boxes that deliver free digital TV, no cable or satellite dish needed (you could too if it weren't for the killjoys at the FCC). We're not all soccer mad (though most of us, guys as well as girls, like David Beckham). Our food isn't awful (where do American's eat when they visit the U.K.?). In England a crumpet isn't something you eat (even the mighty Wikipedia's wrong on this one), it's something you shag (like David Beckham). We don't live 24/7 surrounded by fog, and we don't all talk like Dick Van Dyke. In fact none of us do. He was born in West Plains, Missouri and had the worst Hollywood mockney accent ever in Mary Poppins
What stereotypes and misconceptions about your nationality, faith or culture irk you? Set the record straight in our comments section.
