International+Dialogue

Dear CI partners,

This is our feedback on Religious bullying. We are going to send some stories on Cyber bullying and Bullying in school as well. I. Religious bullying

A Recent Incident A young Muslim student, Rashida, is walking the hallway in a state school. She is wearing a hijab (a head scarf) and talking with several of her friends. Some are wearing a hijab and some are not. As they near the door of the classroom another girl and her friend approach the group, spit at them and call them terrorists. The Muslim girls are shocked and tell them to mind their own business. One of the non-Muslim girls runs up to Rashida and pulls of her hijab violently. Pushing and shoving follow this incident and teachers have to break up the fight. Rashida is in tears and cries that she wants to go home, where she feels safe from bullies.

This story shocked me deeply. I don't understand those girls. Maybe they had no breeding, since they rejected peers who were a little different. It is terrible when someone can feel safe just at home. Those girls had to be punished. I have never faced such a situation but in that case I probably wouldn't have stood by or watched how others spit and call Rashida a terrorist. I think I wouldn't have let them do it. (Ligita)

//A response from Aly to Ligita// //I fully agree with your statement on the issue. In my group of friends we are all different with ethnic backgrounds and different religions, but we don’t bash each other. We have respect for one another’s religion, points of views and who we are. It also angered me greatly that no punishment was given to the girls. Instead of Rashida being called a terrorist, I felt that the group of girls were terrorists to Rashida and her friends. Just because people from the same religion were the one’s who terrorized America doesn’t mean that all from that same religion are terrorists, they just abuse their religious beliefs.//

//A response from Ebony to Ligita I deffinitly agree with your statement! I know that this sort of thing happens alot but it is still really sad and upsetting to read about. I am friends with many different people and I can't understand why it's so hard for some people to accept those they don't understand! We would all want to have peace in the situation, so we should show them that same respect. Also, I think you really made it clear that we all need to stop bullying before it gets bad.//

After reading the text about the Muslim girls, I started thinking about the kind of students studying in that school. Perhaps they did not realize what the real meaning of life was? At first I did not have even words and found it difficult to express my attitude. I really thought that the non-Muslim girls were crazy and they didn't have any rights to behave like that. They had to be punished because we all are free and can wear what we like. I can say that was a form of racism. Personally I have never run into such a problem in my school, as this problem does not exist here. (Liene)

Response:

I find your response intresting for you are one of the lucky ones if you have never experienced any personal kind of bulying and are fortunate that bullying does not exist in your school. I agree with you that racism can exist awithout people being aware that they are acting racist until something or someone brings it to your attention.In my school bullying certainly does exist and some attempts are being made to curb this act of violence (Peter)

response Is nice to see some good opinions like yours. Today a friend of mine was threatened because she is a bisexual, and I am really mad with it. Is not right is not wrong is just different, but still people don’t know how to react when some one is different so they do those kind of stuff, is just sad. I hope that these kind of stuff continues not happening there. ( Stefano, the brazilian guy)

Religious problems are very pressing in some parts of the world nowadays. Although most people understand that everyone is different, they sometimes are cruel, unfair and unwilling to accept other religions. Even if there have been some religious conflicts, that is not children's fault. All the students should feel safe at school, as it is our second home, not prison. (Ineta)

Response: It is very unfortunate that people are being discriminated because of their religious beliefs.It is sad to think that this has been occurring for many many yeras. I hve always been taught that anyone has the right to practice whatever religious faith that they want to. I certainly agree with you that when students are attending school that this one place which should be a safe environment. (Peter)

//Response to Ineta from Jillian In my opinions, religious bullying is increasing rapidly. It's always existed, but since the September 11th attacks, the whole 'terrorist movement' has become a lot more public, and even more acceptable. I agree with what you say about school being like our second home, we do spend 7 hours a day, 5 days a week at school, which is more than some of us spend at home. We have the right to feel safe.//

After reading that really serious story, I was overcome with a lot of emotions. It was not Rashida's fault that people who belonged to the same religion were involved in the terror acts. In our country religious bullying is not so common but there have been bullying cases on the grounds of race in the capital city, Riga. (Anzelika)

//Response to Anzelika from Dedreanna.// //I agree with your response about Rashida. You were saying that there is bullying on the grounds of race in your capital city. I was wondering, what race are you referring to and how serious is the bullying?//

Response to Anzelika from Brittany I feel the same way as you Anzelika. There is not a lot of religious bullying here in Woodstock, but some people look at people differently if they have a different religion than them. For example, I am Pentecostal and some people treat Pentecostal people differently than people that are not Pentecostal, but are also of another Christian Religion. It’s not fair that people treat people differently because of their religion.

There have always been misunderstandings and people who cause them. Nowadays we experience changes in Latvia, when representatives of different other nations and races come to our country. I have heard and read about racial bullying in Riga, the capital of Latvia. Although these are quite rare cases, we should not understate them. I found this story on the website. (Diana)

Aggressive Youth Beat Somalis "Another time we just tried to run away, but for once skinheads stood around and started to push us ", told two Somalis refugee. Several youth in military clothes, black military boots and with shaved heads bespoken Somalis in one of Riga tunnels. Somalis just understood that they spoke in Russian. Although Somalis did not react to these cues, they caught one of them behind the jacket and did not let him go. So that Somalis could not run away, youth stood around them, started to jostle and beat. One of Somalis said, that they beat him in stomach, legs and elsewhere. There were a lot of people around, but nobody intervened in the fray. Instantly after the incursion, they went to the police. They told in the police, that several youth have attacked them, but policemen did not seize it seriously. "We did not understand why they laughed. Policemen gave us a number with four ciphers and said, that we can call to this number. We tried to call, but nobody answered. They did not take any explanations or statements."

response Skin heads are just cowards needing to beat weaker people to feel more powerful. The frustrating thing is that they got away with it in an easily way. With there is no punishment there is no justice, is like an eye for an eye, or else this type of crimes wont stop from happening. (Stefano, the brazillian guy)

//A response from Emily J:// //You are right on the mark when you say that these incidences should not be underestimated.// //This account of bullying really shocked me. It’s astonishing that even the police wouldn’t do anything! This type of bullying can escalate, and cause serious problems. It is unbelievable for people to have the ability to be so cruel to others. It sounds like the police need to get their act together and nip this in the bud now before it grows out of control. People should be able to feel secure, and if something happens, should have the right to have the law come to their aid. For their complaint to be ignored, disbelieved, and brushed off, is unjust.//

//Courtney to Liene:// //When I read the article about Rashida I felt the exact same way you guy did. Religious bullying isn’t so much a problem in our town as it is in the bigger cities in Canada. Here in Woodstock we are a Christian majority but in other places around Canada we receive many immigrants. It is interesting to see that our responses to the articles were so much alike! J// //Racial bullying is a problem in the major cities in our country also and continues to be a growing issue.//

Rashida’s story is truly angering. I wonder what it is in human nature that causes us to address labels so quickly, and to stereotype so freely. Simply because a few __extremist__ Muslims, (who violated several Islamic beliefs) committed acts of terrorism, popular society puts up a wall of hate and believes that anyone of the Muslim faith is without a doubt a terrorist. Just a thought: if anything we ought to admire the Muslims for their forgiving attitudes toward those of us who are Christians. After all, the Christians killed far more Muslims than they have killed Christians. We have given them nothing but hate, dating back to the days of the crusades. If I were a Muslim I am sure that I would hate all Christians because of the way society treats them, but instead Muslims (the vast majority) are peaceful towards us, and treat us just as we would want people to treat us. The only question remaining is this; why did the event in this article take place? When will we treat them with the same forgiveness and peaceful spirit that they treat us with? (louis)

//Although these circumstances are unfortunate, in Canada they are not exactly uncommon. I noticed that a lot of people were surprised by these instances, which actually saddens me about our own country. If racism and prejudice are so common, that we aren’t shocked by these incidents (though we are bothered) then they are obviously a huge problem. We live in a “multicultural” society which means that we are exposed to more cultures and religions. But somehow with all our diversity, we breed more ignorance. How did that happen? (Libby)//

//I can understand the racial behavior a lot easier in our country. Although we are usually very accepting of other ethnic backgrounds in Canada. In the post 911 North America there have been many problems for Islamic people in North America. The governments of Canada and the United States have been extremely hard on Middle Eastern people with extensive background checks and restrictions on freedoms such as traveling. Also news networks in the states such as CNN and Fox news have portrayed Muslims as dangerous. On a personal basis we have no openly Muslim students in our school however I could see some racial problems arise if there were.(Trevor)//

Reading Latvia’s responses was cool. It was nice to hear from our friends from Europe and understand some incidents that happened in their Country. They said there were skin-heads there and there are also some of them here in New Brunswick as well. I saw one of them in the mall in Moncton once and he freaked me right out and gave me a dirty look. I guess that just shows that Nazism is still a large problem not just locally but globally. It was also shocking that the police did nothing about this attack and it went completely un-punished. (Alex )