Thursday, July 25, 2002

[9:49 AM] September 11th has forced Americans to confront more acutely issues of race, religion, ethnicity, and nationality (many times bringing out the worst). Misconceptions and ignorance of Islam has been prevalent. As I've written here before, it is disturbing when journalists equate Muslim with Arab with Middle East (and generally with terrorist). And journalists aren't the only guilty ones.

This otherwise interesting Washington Post article about the some of the bizarre briefs filed by Zacarias Moussaoui caught my attention. The author's own analysis of some of Moussaoui's writing is whimsical and speculative and seems to eminate from a lack of understanding of Islam or at least a willingness to buy into a lot of stereoptypical thinking about it. But what actually made me pause for a second was this line:

His pleadings, sometimes filed at a rate of five or six a day, are handwritten. They are not always grammatical and his spellings are frequently phonetic. At times he reverts to spellings -- Americain for American -- that remind the reader that he grew up in France as a French citizen of Moroccan descent.

Some would say it's a minor, irrelavant point, but why do media sources feel they must include "of Moroccan descent" in their description of Moussaoui? Is it some sort of predjudice against Arabs creeping out ("sure he was born in France, but deep down, he's just another one of those Arabs.")? Am I nitpicking? I just can't see how being of Moroccan descent somehow affects the French spelling of American. Is this revealing about the author's feelings or has it just become standard to refer to Moussaoui as being of Moroccan descent? I go with the former.

# posted 9:59 AM