Beware of Islamic Fruit
- Details
- Category: Jeremy Addis-Mills
- Published on Tuesday, 21 September 2010 23:26
- Written by Jaddis-Mills
I recently went on trip to the Temecula Wine Valley in California. The Temecula Wine Valley is located about 90 miles north of San Diego. In between sipping on wonderfully inspired Zinfandels and Italian inspired wines, I took a moment to leap into the world of the Temecula Valley regional newspaper simply named the “Valley News.”
At first glance, it was not much different than your typical community weekly. Alongside advertisements for casinos, medical marijuana, and realtors, there were articles about a local 48 year old women completing a regional bikini contest and the local high school football highlights. As I continued to look more closely at the paper, an article caught my attention; it was entitled “Popular Islamic Holiday Fruit Seized at LAX”. On the surface it did not seem that this article would be anything but an article about…let’s say… an Islamic Holiday Fruit being seized at LAX. Fascinated by the title, I dove into the article head first with curiosity about what this Islamic fruit was, why it was being brought to America, and what was the crisis that required folks in Temecula to be so alarmed. Once consumed in this approximately 200-word article, I discovered that none of my questions were really answered. I did find out that the fruit was dates and that the collective concern in the Temecula Valley should be that diseased agriculture from outside the United States could pose a threat to the domestic agriculture. This threat is a reality and I don’t mean in any way to diminish how foreign agricultural bugs and disease are taking their toll on domestic food production. I do, however, want to talk about the connection to the use of the word Islam.
The title of the article was called “Popular Islamic Holiday Fruit Seized at LAX.” At no point did the story lay out any real connection to Islam except these fruits where coming from countries that have Muslim majorities. As far as I can tell, dates don’t play much of a spiritual role in the practice of Islam. Therefore, this headline is alarming because it seems to simply drive more fear and hatred in to the minds of people who are ignorant to Islam, without providing a connection to Islam. The title could have been: “Increased Seizures of Smuggled Fruit at LAX Pose Threat to Local Agriculture” or “Smuggled Foreign Fruit Potentially Threatens Local Agriculture.”
This headline is only likely to inflame confusion and ignorance by directly relating a seemingly unrelated group (Islam) to a real or common local treat. This does not seem to be too outlandish; a week earlier, residents of Temecula received national converge when they staged a protest against the proposed cultural center near Ground Zero outside a Mosque.
This use of fear simi-related to market products or political ideas has gotten totally out of control and has been used to manipulate A
mericans’ perspectives about the world and its people. This ignorance is not simply innocent any more. It has not only resulted in violence against people and property in places like Jacksonville, Florida but resulted in things like the proposed Koran burning in Florida on 9/11 to gain a national platform. This toying with the fear of the unknown and ignorance towards others will only turn out bad.
Everyone from the Press down to the man or woman on the street needs to be cognoscente of what they say and what it trulymeans. People should always be skeptical and listen with a thoughtful ear to proposed ideas and/or statements made by others. The only real solution to ignorance is for each person to avoid his or her own ignorance.
