Quinn Petre

Intermediate Composition
Professor Beckelhimer
11/1/17

Analysis of Activism/Civil Engagement

In the past year, there have been numerous terrorist attacks claimed by radical Islamic groups.

From this, millions of Muslim-Americans have been placed in the hateful line of fire of uninformed,

Islamophobic bigots. In attempts to prevent these attacks in the United States, President Trump has

proposed multiple bans that restrict citizens of six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United

States. This ban puts an umbrella over all Muslims, implies their joint effort in this terrorism, and

rationalizes hate crimes against Muslims across the United States. Many groups have protested the ban,

but one movement in particular has brought positivity to the civil discourse against islamophobia:

#StomptheBan.

#StomptheBan is a Twitter bomb campaign that promotes positivity, understanding, and protest

to the Muslim ban. The concept is that a user posts a video of themselves and possibly their Muslims

friends holding hands and dancing in a circle to stomp out the ban. Many videos often include friend

groups, religious communities, and any other group of people you can think of. The audience of these

groups is the entire world. Specifically, in the United States, it is supposed to target those who believe

there is a correlation between Islam and terrorism. This is a fallacy. Blaming an entire group of people

for the acts of one individual is completely unfair. Are all Christians seen as terrorists if one of them

commits an act of terror? No. They are not, as history shows. The purpose of the campaign is to show

Muslim-Americans partaking in activities that these islamophobes can relate to. Videos of Muslim-

Americans jovially dancing shows to Islamophobes that they are just like you and me. Islam is not

terrorism.
 This anti-Islamophobia movement may seem elementary and ineffective with just a cursory

overview, but it can open and change minds of those who see Muslim-Americans only as what the

media machine portrays them as: evil, terroristic jihadists. This gives them something to relate to,

something to connect to their own lives. This is why visual activism breaks down barriers. A picture is

worth a thousand words. Dance, song, artthey are common threads that have run through every

society. These videos humanize Muslim-Americans, and erase those evil, terroristic characterizations

that have been propagated by Islamophobes. Commonalities can reach deeper than an argument.

Finding these common grounds can be harder than you think when dealing with obstinate

Islamophobes. Bad dancing and jumping around with your friendsnow who cannot relate to that? If

not, you must not be human. Once this barrier is broken, only then can productive civil discourse ensue.

Humanization is key when trying to open up civil discourse, and this campaign did so successfully.

I chose this Visual Activism and Civic Engagement because it was one of the more lighthearted

ones regarding Islamophobia. With so many serious movements regarding a very serious topic, I believe

this was the most successful one. Breaking down the barrier of humanization is the key for civil

discourse in an issue where Muslim-Americans have been so demonized. Getting Islamophobes to see

their similarities through dance and song brings them to their own level. No longer are they seen as

something different and unhuman. Once over that bump, it is makes the road ahead a bit smoother in

civil discourse. Much discourse that becomes uncivil escalates as each party sees only the differences

between one another, not the similarities. #StomptheBan raises awareness, brings levity, and drives

discussion about Islamophobia on college campuses, religious groups, and in communities all around the

United States and world. Below, I have embedded a few pictures of #StomptheBan.
(NBC news,

2017) (Twitter @GloBrooklyn, 2017)