A LESSON IN HUMANITY: WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU LOOK AT ME?

A great woman, a great speech

Hi everyone!  Recently we have seen  and discussed a touching video in one of our English lessons. It is a public speech delivered by an incredibly brave American woman,  Dalia Mogahed. She talks about equality and humanity but,  especially, about prejudices against muslims. Because she is American and a muslim and she has experienced those prejudices on herself more than once in her life. She explains what Islam is, what ISIS is,  and she says thought-provoking things that made all of us see things from a different perspective for once.


We all agreed on the fact that everyone should see this video and listen to Dalia's words, because she talks about present-day reality  and of events we cannot avoid to face and reflect on. That's why we wanted to share Dalia Mogahed's speech here as well as some of our comments. I hope you'll find it as touching and meaningful as we did.

What we learnt from Dalia

"Recently we have been hearing people speaking about ISIS, terrorism all the time. But I have thought the western world doesn’t get interested in the other side of the world, until a tragedy happens in Europe. We have always based our opinions on what the media say. We confuse Islam with ISIS. But it is not as simple as that. We see muslims as bad people just because they practice a religion from ours.  Dalia Mogahed is a woman  and a mom, she is like so many other women  in the world. She dreams of a better life, of being happy. But she doesn’t live a simple life, and in the video she helps us understand why. She lives in a world where all muslims are considered terrorists.  She must cope with hate and prejudices. We all should learn there is no need to judge or especially prejudge people we don’t know much about." ANGELA 3SC. A

"I was really taken by her words. I don’t think it’s possible to express properly what’s in my mind, now..I had already thought about this topic but never from this point of view. I have always thought we are the only victims, forced to live a scaring life without thinking  that this sort of intolerance is destroying our lives and theirs. It’s changing our values and our ways of thinking.. FEAR IS CONTAMINATING US. When we say something about intolerance or racism it isn’t us talking. It’s fear. That’s the most important thing I have noticed in her words..We have the same enemies and ISIS people are not truly Muslims."   MARTINA 3SC. B

 

"This video is very interesting and moving. Dalia is a really intelligent and sensible woman. She struggled with the Koran. She read, reflected, contested, doubted but finally believed in it. I agree with everything she said. Her words were very touching. I hate terrorism and ISIS. We should do everything possibile to stop them. I also think that Islamism isn't a violent religion. I don't think that Muslims are terrorists, but many Americans or Europeans want to expel Muslims in order to stop terrorism.

I don't like the way they have been treated. In my opinion it's not right that some people use this religion as a justification for their actions. We should not judge a religion based on the actions of a few mad people.

What I liked the most about this video is that most of the Muslims, after 11th September 2011, went to mosques, despite prejudices." LUDOVICA 3SC.A

"Dalia Mogahed’s speech really makes me reflect because her words can be adapted to every day’s life, since the majority of us has a false belief when we talk about Muslims.

Indeed, I often misunderstand the word “Muslim”, which makes me think of the word “terrorism“, I think for lack of solidarity and much prejudice, which are the most common teenage feature today.

In my opinion we should be more tolerant. I have tried to put myself in Dalia’s shoes and I

understood how she feels every day."  EUGENIO 3SC. B

"When I listened to Dalia's speech I felt amazed because I've never
deeply thought about what she said.

I think Dalia is a model person, she loves life and she wants peace. Her speech is meaningful and thought-provoking. Many people say that the right way to make our lives safer, is to close mosques. But Dalia says that people radicalize not in mosques but in their bedroom in front of their computer. Yes, this is right but it is also right that people are scared by the frequent terrorist attacks. In my opinion, the way to stop terrorism doesn't exist because there will always be an exalted person who will take a gun and kill other people. The best thing we have to do is to try to go on living our lives without letting fear stop us or limit us because those mad people want only to take our freedom." 

G. B. 3SC.A

"While I was listening to Dalia's speech I thought she has been a strong woman in her life, she had the courage of coming out ammitting she was a muslim.  Honestly,  I've never thought all the muslims are as bad as the ones who make terroristic attacks. I liked many things that she said and I think many people let themselves be influenced by negative prejudices on the muslims after the attack in 2001. Many people think muslims are all bad and they want to get rid of them but that's not fair. We are all human beings so we have got the same rights and we must understand that not all the muslims are terrorists, we don't have to be scared of them and we don't have to throw them out of our countries because as Dalia said, they are not a problem to be solved.

When she said that she was scared to be a muslim after the first terrorist attack, I thought that no one, in their lives, should be scared to show who they really are, not even once! When she entered the mosque she saw several of people standing there to help muslims because those people understood the difference between the muslims and terrorists and everyone should do the same, since terrorists are not certainly muslims!"  KARINA 3SC.B

What about you? What are your feelings watching the video? 

What do you think of Dalia's words? 

Looking forward to your comments!