Muslims Wearing Things

Tumblr called “Pictures of Muslims Wearing Things” shows that there’s no such thing as “Muslim garb.”

October 25, 2010

Comments

Charli Carpenter points me to a new Tumblr called “Pictures of Muslims Wearing Things” and devoted to making a not-so-subtle point:

Former NPR analyst Juan Williams, among other ignorant people, has an irrational fear of Muslims, and thinks you can identify them based on what they look like. Here I will post pictures of Muslims wearing all sorts of things in an attempt to refute that there is such a thing as “Muslim garb” or a Muslim look.

The most recent photo as of this writing:

The subject is Melody Moezzi, an accomplished American-born-and-raised “writer, speaker, activist, columnist, author and attorney” of Persian descent. To the extent that she’s a threat to Juan Williams, it’s not because of her propensity to commit acts of terrorism.

Then again, Williams might reasonably counter, he wouldn’t think twice about boarding an aircraft with any of the people pictured in this photo collection. He’s worried about people dressed in traditional Islamic garb, which he takes as a sign of people unassimilated into modern society.

Now, the counter to that is: None of the 9/11 hijackers were wearing “Muslim garb.”

One response to “Muslims Wearing Things”

Joe Tetreault

October 25, 2010 at 2:26 pm

Your parting comment as counter to the irrational fear of those wearing Islamic garb is what fascinates me about the whole NPR fires Juan Williams kerfuffle. It suggests, to me at least, Williams is acknowledging (what I suspect is) an unconscious indifference to the threat of Islamic terrorism when it is not obvious. And most such plots would be relatively useless if the perpetrators were particularly obvious. The presence of traditionally clad Muslims serves as reminder of the threat which prompts the irrational fear. In many ways it strikes me that the mindset is very Pre-9/11.