Students gain new perspective on Muslim-Americans

     On Thursday, the Student Union's Pegasus Ballroom was filled with about 80 students, faculty, and visitors awaiting Mohammed Younis and his oration. Against the backdrop of a slideshow to present his facts, Younis began his lecture titled "Muslim Life in the West: Addressing Muslim Integration into the U.S. and Western Europe. "

     He began by introducing the Global Perspectives Office and the results of the Gallup Center's project he based his presentation on. Aside from striving to offer exemplary education, the Global Perspectives Office at UCF seeks to provide international focus to the curricula and research programs, launch and sponsor different initiative, build international partnerships, and to become a more inclusive and diverse university.

The Gallup Center is responsible for one million phone surveys of individuals aged 18 and up; the findings of those surveys provided the foundation of Younis' lecture.

These key findings introduced the audience to some different facts about the Muslim community. For example, Muslim-Americans are the most likely major faith group in the United States to reject violent attacks against civilians.

"78 percent of Muslims say that it is never justifiable for the military to target civilians" Younis said.

According to the slideshow of statistics, Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, and Atheists are more likely to find attacks on civilians justifiable. Younis elaborated about general Muslim feelings toward violence.

"92 percent of Muslims do not sympathize with al-Qaida".

Some major points that Younis conveyed were discrimination against the Muslim community and the correlations between the Muslim and Jewish groups.

"Muslims express loyalty to their country but face distrust….One in two Muslims in our study stated that they have experienced discrimination sometime in the past year," Younis said. "80 percent of Jewish-Americans are more likely than Catholics, Protestants, and Mormons to see Muslim-Americans as loyal to America."

Based on the slideshow and facts provided, Jewish-Americans also tend to agree that there is prejudice toward Muslims in the U.S. at higher numbers than do Muslims themselves.

After his lecture, Younis invited the audience to engage in a question and answer session. He responded in depth to many different questions from students and visitors alike.

Engineering major Chris Cournoyer commented on the Muslim community here in America.

"People can be pretty tough on Muslims, even here in the U.S. but it's important to get along with different people in order to stop the misunderstandings. We all need to get our facts straight; not everyone is a terrorist and we need to stop stereotyping certain people like they are."