Immigration to the West [Archives:2004/739/Culture]
By Fatma Al-ajel
For The Yemen Times
Many people leave their countries to other countries to look for the rest of their lives. They do that for one reason or another. Emmigrants from Arab countries travel to the New world, the US, Brazil, Canada etc, because of the good job opportunities that are available in these countries.
There are several reasons for thinking of immigration. Some reasons are major and the others are minor. The emigrants who emigrate to the western world live in these societies and their life becomes a kind of conflict between their Islamic instructions and what they see in these societies. In this case, even the Muslim immigrant is affected or influenced by these societies' concepts and traditions.
They are divided into two kinds. Many immigrants are active; they travel to gain knowledge or develop their personalities and earn money. There is nothing which affects their religious instructions. They move from one place to another to work hard. They explain the real meaning of Islam. They become good examples, a real picture about Arabs and their life.
On the other hand, there are many immigrants who reflect a different picture of Islam and Muslims. They travel to the West and they don't know the aims of their travel. They spend their time and money they spoil their children who grow up in these countries. In addition to that the children lose their identities and miss their birth place. They feel no responsibility for anything, they look like the western people, and they ignore their traditions and customs. The western culture affects their personalities and characters.
Muslim immigrants face a lot of problems after 11th September events. Western nations think that Islam is a symbol of terrorism and Muslims are terrorists. As a result of these events, western people hate immigrants, especially the Muslim immigrants without thinking of their job for no reason; just because they are Muslims. There becomes a kind of paranoia. In this time, Muslims in the West have responsibilities to change the bad opinion of the Western nations. They must show them that our religion is great and what the real meaning of Islam is. Islam means peace. Islamic instructions stand against war. In addition to that, Muslims should be honest with people faithfully, because our religion orders us to be like that. When a Muslim performs his duties and implements Islamic instructions, he will live a peaceful and comfortable life.
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[archive-e:739-v:13-y:2004-d:2004-05-20-p:culture]
