Muslims in International Media

View of Boston as we drove into the city.

It has been such a busy week!

Eight students from the Mercyhurst Communication Department and I traveled to Boston early Thursday morning and returned this evening.

All nine of us were selected to present our research at the Eastern Communication Association (ECA)'s 103rd Annual Conference.

Kelly, Lindsey and I were selected to present our research involving the portrayal of Muslims in international media.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, we have researched how Muslims are framed for more than a year and a half.

We looked at how news and opinion articles from NPR, Fox, CNN, New York Times, Al Jazeera and BBC frame Muslims and America together.

We collected articles from September 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011.  This gave us a little over a year's worth of articles to analyze

We stored the articles into respective documents and then ran them through CATPAC, which is a content analysis software. This program gave us the 40 most unique and frequently occurring words and graphed which of those words showed up together. From here, we went back into the articles and analyzed the context of the words.

Standing with our poster before the presentation.

Some of the results we found were surprising.  Opinion articles were pretty much what we expected, but news articles threw us for a loop.

The two most surprising results were from Fox and CNN.

Fox articles that were strictly news framed Muslims in a way that made them human, rather than depict them as the enemy or terrorists.  Since Fox is stereotypically a very conservative and "right" network, this is not what we expected.

On the other hand, CNN -- which is seen as neutral or sometimes a liberal network -- framed Muslims in a negative way.

Many people at the conference who told us they get a lot of their news from CNN were surprised by this. They discussed with us how we must be aware about what we are reading and not follow the media's information blindly.  All of us must stand on our own two feet and do a little extra digging to really know what is going on in the world.

We also met faculty member Nick Bowman, Ph.D., from West Virginia University who told us he would love it if we could read over his research about how the death of Osama bin Laden was framed in newspapers. He explained that is it always good to find others doing the same types of research and having them look over your own, especially if the findings support each other's research.

I will definitely be looking at his blog and looking into his research on Osama bin Laden's death.

If you'd like to know more about our research on Muslims in international media, feel free to contact me and I will send you a copy of the paper (graphs and all, it's kind of fun to look at).

Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have about the research as well. Do you have any thoughts or possibly disagree?

Global Peace Index

I don't know if you've ever checked out the Global Peace Index, but when I was looking for study abroad trips to the Middle East I frequently looked at this website. Not only because my mom wanted to check, but because I was fascinated by each country's ratings throughout the years.

This index analyzes each country's level of peace each year.

Global Peace Index 2011 - Click to englarge

Check out the website and see how it changes throughout the years too.

How does your country rank?

A Lesson in Arabic: Useful Words and Phrases

After people ask me about the language, they usually want to know some words and phrases.

My roommate's personal favorites are habibi (my darling) and telling people when I am fii al-hamam (in the bathroom).

I made you a chart of a few useful words and phrases. I included the English, Transliteration, and Arabic of each word or phrase.

English	Transliteration	Arabic
Hello.	Ahlan or Marhaba	اهلا  or  مرحبا
How are you?	Kayfa Halouk/Halouki.	كيف حلك؟
My name is…	Ismi…	اسمي
What is your name?	Ma ismouk/ismouki?	ما اسمَك
Nice to meet you.	Tasharuffna	تشرّفنا
Thank you.	Shokran	شكرا
Congratulations!	Mabrook	مبارك
I’m sorry.	Aasif.	آسف
I don’t understand.	La afham.	لا أفهم
Yes	Na’am.	نعم
No	La.	لا
Goodbye.	Ma-Salaama	مع السلامة
Happy Birthday!	‘Aed Meelad S’aed	عيد ميلاد سعيد
My darling	Habibi/Habibiti	حبيبي
Life	Hayat	حياة

Some pronouns that would be good to know are:

English	Transliteration	Arabic
I	Ana	أنا
You (singular masculine)	Anta	أنتَ
You (singular feminine)	Anti	أنتِ
He	Huwa	هو
She	Heya	هي
You (dual male or female)	Antuma	أنتُما
They (dual male or female)	Huma	هُما
We	Nahnu	نحن
You (plural masculine)	Antum	أنتُم
You (plural feminine)	Antun	أنتُن
They (plural masculine)	Hum	هُم
They (plural feminine)	Hun	هُن

Here are some question words you can check out as well. For this I put the English then the transliteration.

When?	Meta?
Where?	Ayna?
How?	Kayfa?
Why?	Leematha?
What?	Ma? or Matha?
Who?	Men?

Some more things you should know about Arabic words:

1. You address males and females differently. For example, in 'How are you?' you ask a man using 'halouk' and a female using 'halouki.'  Words that end in -i are used for women and no vowel or -a is for men.
2. In the present tense, the verb 'to be' is not used, it is understood.  So if I want to say 'I am American', I would say 'Ana Amrikaya' (literally translated to 'I American').
3. There are two words for 'what'. 'Ma' is used for questions without verbs and 'Matha' is used for questions with verbs.
4. Plural pronouns are used in the masculine form if there is one or more man in the situation. Dual pronouns are used for 2 people and plural pronouns are used for 3 or more people.
5. Transliterations with a 'u' like 'hum' is pronounced like a long 'o' in English. Ex. 'hum' is pronounced like the English 'whom.'

Some additional resources for you are:
Arabic Phrases and Expressions
Learn Arabic with Maha

I leave you with a video from Maha about Arabic Pronouns.

If there is anything you would like to know that I forgot or did not include, let me know.

A Lesson in Arabic: Dialects

Ahlan Sadeeki.

Before we begin the lesson on words and phrases, I want to talk about dialects.

There are many Arabic dialects.  While many may be similar, others are very different.  There is Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as well as colloquial dialects.

I am familiar with MSA and Egyptian dialects as well some some Moroccan and Tunisian.

The map shows the breakdown of dialects in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Map of Dialects - Click to enlarge

Note that Egyptian Arabic is more popular than this map shows.  From what I have learned, as well as other students studying this area, Egyptian Arabic and MSA are the most widely understood dialects.

MSA is used for reading and writing and in formal situations such
 as the news or  the Quran.  It is typically understood, but isn't really helpful for conversations.

It is suggested you learn a dialect as well as MSA.  The dialect will help you converse and MSA will help with reading and writing.

Keep in mind, if you talk in a different dialect it may be understood, but you aren't necessarily going to be answered in the same dialect.

Many dialects were influenced by other languages in the area.  Moroccan Arabic, for example, was influenced by Spanish, French, and Berber.

I found this interesting blog post from a couple years ago where one person talked about their experiences with different dialects in the Middle East.  It gives you a good first hand perspective.

The websites Importance of Languages provides some useful pages about MSA and where to find certain dialects.

Another resource you can use is by YouTube user, LearnArabicwithMaha. In this video she explains Standard Arabic and Dialects.

Now that you have a better understanding of the dialects, in the next post I will teach some useful words and phrases. Many of the words I will teach you will be in Modern Standard Arabic, but I have still heard them used in conversations (such as yes and no).

If there is anything in particular you would like to learn, let me know.

Teaser for Your Next Arabic Lesson

Here is a music video for you, Habibi Ya Nur Al-Ein. Listen to this catchy number that everyone studying Arabic must be familiar with.

Don't know what they're saying? No worries. Next post, I will teach you useful words and phrases - some that you can hear in this song.

Get excited, folks!

Listen to this enough, and you'll be singing and dancing along in no time!

Mercy Corps works in Gaza

My dad sent me a video the other day that introduced me to what Mercy Corps is doing in the West Bank and Gaza to provide opportunities to young people who are surrounded by conflict and lack of jobs.

Mercy Corps already works in West Bank and Gaza through economics, food security, youth development and various other ways.  There is also a fairly new program that works with youth and technology.

They partnered with Google and  the Source of Hope Foundation to create the Arab Developer Network Initiative (ADNI).  According to Mercy Corps, this program gives youth the ability to work in the "global digital marketplace" through means such as training, networking, and mentoring.

In the first year, over 1,000 Palestinians worked with this program.

The video below, is Alaa's story about her experiences with this program and her interests in Information Technology (IT).

Mercy Corps updates their website frequently about this program in Gaza and is worth checking out.  They have information such as new affiliates, personal stories, speakers and much more.

You can also find out the history of Mercy Corps's work here.

The Muslims Are Coming!

The Muslims Are Coming! is a documentary based on a tour of Muslim-American comedians battling stereotypes of Muslims and Islamophobia with jokes.

Comedians Negin Farsad, Dean Obeidallah, Maysoon Zayid, and Omar Elba travelled across the Southeastern United States and eventually branched out West.

They used stand-up comedy as the primary tool of the tour, but also used means such as 'Ask a Muslim' and 'Name that Religion'.

The documentary also includes commentary from figures such as Jon Stewart, Lewis Black, Rachel Maddow and Soledad O'Brien.

The Washington Post has an interactive website for this that lets you learn a little bit about the comedians, some comedy, and their thoughts on the subject on Islamophobia.

After watching them do 'Name that Religion' on The Washington Post's website, I found it interesting to see what some people thought was from the Quran ended up being from the New Testament or the Torah.

The film will be released soon. Unfortunately I found no release date, but it should be later this year, inshallah (God willing)!

This news video from CNN gives a great look at the project.

Check out the film's website and maybe even request to bring the film to a city near you

A Purpose and Some Research

Marhaba! (Hello)

I've run into a lot of questions about why I study the Middle East.

Kelly, Lindsay and Me (right to left) outside one of the Smithsonian
Institutes when we were in Washington D.C. to present research.

This became a serious interest of mine in my freshman year at Mercyhurst.

Basically, I am good at picking up languages so I wanted to put that to good use with a more difficult language. I also hate the generalizations made about Muslims and the Middle East, so what better way to work against the stereotypes than to immerse myself in this subject.

I created a minor, took classes, found Arab stores in Erie, and practice Arabic with friends. I try to involve this in everything I do.

I am always sharing my experiences with friends and inviting them to join me at the market, get dinner, do henna, etc. Sharing these opportunities with others and starting the conversation helps foster understanding among cultures.

An additional project I do involving the Middle East is my research.  I have spent more than a year and a half researching the portrayal of Muslims in the media and presenting my findings.

My friends Lindsay, Kelly and I began this research together.  We analyzed news from American news sources and eventually grew the project into an analysis of Muslims in international media sources.

We presented our information at the Eastern Communication Association's (ECA) annual conference and at the University at Buffalo.  Our first study was also published in the University of Alabama at Birmingham's online journal Human Communication.

We will be attending ECA's conference again this year in Boston, MA.

The research definitely showed some interesting results and we have come a long way. If you want to know more, feel free to ask questions about the results or the topic in general.

I hope this answers some questions for you and you learned a little bit about myself as well.

Ma-Salaama! (Goodbye)

The Hardest Languages to Learn

I found this chart online and was very interested in it.  It looks at the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.  It also explains how much work needs done to learn the language.  Take a look!




Via: Voxy Blog


2,200 class hours for Arabic? Off to study on my Rosetta Stone...

The "Velvet" Class of Saudi Arabia

I wanted to look at another Middle Eastern themed book today.

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea has an interesting story behind the book. It began as a type of blog.  Every week, Alsanea would send out stories to subscribers about her friends, whose names were changed in the book. Each story builds to the larger story of the book, it isn't just a collection of random stories.


The publishing group sums up the book as so:

When Rajaa Alsanea boldly chose to open up the hidden world of Saudi women—their private lives and their conflicts with the traditions of their culture—she caused a sensation across the Arab world. Now in English, Alsanea’s tale of the personal struggles of four young upper-class women offers Westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. Living in restrictive Riyadh but traveling all over the globe, these modern Saudi women literally and figuratively shed traditional garb as they search for love, fulfillment, and their place somewhere in between Western society and their Islamic home.

In each chapter, before she starts that week's story, she responses to her readers and also provides a lyric, poetry, or line from the Quran.

This blog turned book caused quite the buzz in the media in Saudi, which can be seen in her commentary in the beginning of each chapter.

After its debut in the Middle East and the author's tough decision, it was released in America.

It was definitely an interesting read because of the life this took on in the media.

Girls of Riyadh is more of a young adult read that talks about four friends in the wealthy or "velvet" class. These women are in their 20s and are experiencing things like marriages, school, and discrimination.

As I've read in reviews, it isn't an accurate depiction of a typical Saudi woman's life.  I believe, however, it is a good book to read just for what it went though in the media and that she does real life accounts of her friends lives.  It was a nice addition that at the end of the book she told what her friends thought of this project, how some of them helped, and how some of the friendships were severed because of it.

If you want to read more about the book or find an excerpt, head over to Google Books.

A Lesson in Arabic: Part 1

Ahlan.

A lot of people ask me to explain how the Arabic language works.  If friends have these questions, I'm sure other people do too.

Today I'm going to begin teaching you the alphabet and some basics.  Later I will teach you useful words and phrases.

Alphabet - Click on for bigger picture.

Above is the Arabic alphabet with the pronunciation of each letter's name.

Some basics you need to realize are:

1. Arabic is read right to left. Numbers are written left to right.
2. There are many sounds in Arabic that we don't have in English and vice versa.  For example, there is no 'p' or 'v' sound in Arabic, so 'b' and 'f' are frequently used replacements when putting an English word/name into Arabic.  
3. There are quite a few Arabic letters that sound the same, but are very different.  These include س / ص, ط / ت, د / ض, ك / ق.
4. There are long vowels and short vowels.  The long vowels are ا, و, ي.  They make the sounds for a long 'e', 'o', and 'a' (respectively).  The letters ي & و double as consonants as well.  Short vowels are damma - ُ , kasra - ِ, and fatha - َ.  They make the sounds for a short 'o', 'e',  and 'a' (also respectively.)
5. There is also a letter called hamza (ء).  This letter signifies a glottal stop.  An example of this would be the sound the vowels make when you say the word 'water' without the 't' - wa'er.
6. A final basic to cover is taa marbuta (ة).  This comes at the ends of words. It is pronounced at 'aht', but many times the 't' sound is dropped.  The 't' is pronounced when it is in a possessive case.  Commonly the taa marbuta signifies feminine forms of words.

Arabic is written similar to how we would write cursive.  Many letters have what is called an initial, medial, and final position.  Some letters also do not have a medial position and cannot connect to letters that come after it.

Positions of each letter - Click on for bigger picture

It is a lot to take in at once.  If you have any questions feel free to ask.  If it helps, you can also check out this video.

Challenge: Watch this video and try to learn the alphabet that way.  When I started learning Arabic, my professor had us try to sing along with this Arabic equivalent to Sesame Street.  See if you can do the same.

For the record.

Ahlan sadeeki. Hello my friend.

Happy April!

First, I thank you. I'd like you to know that I love that you're reading the blog! If there is absolutely anything you'd like to see or talk about then leave a comment or email me - I am open to anything, so don't be shy.

In the past week, I have received so many responses about my picture against discrimination.  Not only was it liked, commented on, and shared on Facebook but I also had a lot of people talking to me about it in person.  My Arabic professor actually told his students and the chair of the world languages department about the photo.  When he saw me, he continued to express his appreciation.  Who knew that something I was actually hesitant about posting would get so much of a positive response! Moral of the story: don't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in.

One last story to leave you with, a couple weeks ago I was at work when this man came in with who I believe was his son.  I've seen the man before around campus and he has helped me with Arabic before, other than that I really haven't talked to him.  He brought his son up to me and introduced him and the boy greeted me in Arabic. After that, I had a small conversation with the man and his son and the boy showed me his reading skills in Arabic.  It is a simple story, but it definitely made my day.  Being able to communicate with people in Erie in Arabic is not something that happens frequently.  I appreciate every chance I get.

Next time I post I will be issuing you a challenge - I hope you're up for it!