A few weeks in and I am quite fascinated by Jordan, much more so than I ever had anticipated. Traveling somewhere new always brings with it an initial feeling of elation. Being in a new place is exciting! However, I have been in Jordan for several weeks now and still, the feeling has not worn off.
Every morning, the call to prayer, in Arabic the “athan,” wakes me up at approximately 4:45AM. Upon four additional instances, throughout the day, mosques all over Amman turn on their speakers and the call to prayer sweep the city. The intention of the five daily prayers, according to Islamic scholars, is to briefly remind adherents of Islam of their duty to God and to improving humanity.
It is this small religious exercise that contrasts the general hustle and bustle of Amman. Traffic runs quite late into the night, with cars slowly moving in bumper to bumper traffic until at least 1:30AM. Hijabs of dozens of different styles don the heads of women who choose to wear them; many, in fact, do not. Men wear traditional white thawbs or American business suits, sometimes combing a blazer with a thawb. Everywhere, Jordanians wear jeans. Shopping malls here look identical to those in the United States, albeit with occasional Arabic translations.
It is with these overwhelming similarities between contemporary Jordanian and American culture, that I want to discuss my most troubling discovery. Muslims, Christians, all Jordanians are simply baffled over why it is that Americans have such poor conceptions of them. In taxis, restaurants, with politicians, professionals, students, shopkeepers, waiters, and even in my own family, I’ve embarrassingly had to admit that yes, there are some in America who cannot and do not want to distinguish between radical fundamentalists who feign adherence to Islam… and true, every day Muslims. How, they question, can the United States have the best schools and the most money and the most diversity and yet still, they think that all Muslims are terrorists? It strikes them as so irrational that in fact, the majority of people here do not believe it. American islamophobia, they see, is simply an impossibility because America is so rich in culture, education, capital, and diversity. Jordanians understand that in America, African Americans are not very well respected and are indeed quite often discriminated against. But they readily know and will ardently defend that not all Americans are racist with respect to minorities. I do hope that my trip sheds some light among my peers that indeed the Middle East does not consist of what the media portrays.
To end on a higher note, and to highlight the mutual opinions of Americans and Jordanians, the film National Treasure was on in the living room a few nights ago. And my host sister and I began discussing the rather absurd career of Nicholas Cage, in Arabic. we reached the conclusion that no matter where you are globally… Nicholas Cage is a strange individual.