Rough Draft for Assignment 3

Migrating to other countries can be resulted in some hard choices for first generation of children. The struggle to blend in a new community, to own a new culture, to keep in touch and follow their own virtues and ideas can easily make them confused and frustrated. They often feel ashamed for being different and try to deny their stereotypes. For our third and final assignment, we read a comic series named ,”MS.MARVEL”. It is a story of a teenage girl who was born in New jersey, where her parents moved from Pakistan. In the beginning she seemed a bit confused and scared while she tried to adjust herself in the community and be like her friends. This comic series does a great job at portraying the actual version of Muslim people living in the states.

This comic series shows us the insights of Muslim immigrant households and their way of life. We all can clearly see that dividing wall between the beliefs of two completely separated communities. For instance, in the very beginning scene. The main character “Kamala Khan” is  trying to smell “Bacon” but she can not eat it because that is against her religious belief. And when she goes to her friend’s party and accidentally drinks alcohol, she gets so terrified ans spits it out. These are just some examples of how Muslim people have to be careful and terrified while trying to adjust themselves in western culture. This comic series also does a fine job in highlighting stereotypes of Muslim people. For example, the idea in American’s mind that muslim women are required by their parents to wear headscarf and like it is a matter of death and life. There is a scene in this comic series where a white girl named Zoe asks Kamala, “But I mean… nobody pressured you to start wearing it, right? Your father or somebody? Nobody’s going to like, honor kill you? I’m just concerned.” Well this is pretty much the mindset of an average American. They believe that all religious practices are accompanied by someone else’s pressure. And ironically nowadays these same people are identifying Muslim women by their headscarves and harassing them. Another idea that I think this comic series shed some light on or tried to defend it was the most famous and everlasting thought that “All muslims are terrorists”. (Period. No exception). So when Kamala becomes Ms.Marvel and gains super powers, she then jumps into the lake to save Zoe from drowning. But before doing that, she remembers something from Muslim religious book. Which is, “WHOEVER KILLS ONE PERSON, IT IS AS IF HE HAS KILLED ALL OF MANKIND– AND WHOEVER SAVES ONE PERSON, IT IS AS IF HE HAS SAVED ALL OF MANKIND.” This verse clearly tells us what are the actual Islamic views on violence and humanity. But people still find a way to ignore the actual version of the religion and blame the whole following of that religion because of an individual person’s acts.

These are the two ideas that stood out to me in this comic series. It can be really helpful for Muslims living in states if people read this series and get a new perspective on several issues. But the problem remains the same, because people who are Islamophobic and believe that is a religion of oppression, are not going to even touch this book because it advocates the “Liberal Agenda.”

Questions for peer review

1) Is it clear from my introduction of what I’m going to talk about next?

2) I had a hard time in gathering my thoughts to write this essay, so is there anything that you would want me to add or expand or remove?

3) I tried to describe two separate ideas in this paper, and gave them equal amount of attention. How successful was I in that process?

4) What do you think of my use of quotes from the book? are they completely relevant of what I’m talking about?

5) I tried to make my conclusion a bit short, because I didn’t want to add new things in it. But if think that I need to expand it or add something, let me know.