We are NOT the same bro!
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In Edward Curtis's book, Muslims of the Heartland, he discusses the perceived differences that Syrian Christians and Syrian Muslims held about themselves and each other. In the early 1900s, Syrian Muslims and Christians disputed with each other to the degree of death. These disputes stemmed from the idea that some Syrian Christians believed that they were white and Syrian Muslims were not even though Syrian Muslims believed that they were in fact white. This, to me, connects to the idea that we had previously talked about - Islam and being Muslim is automatically perceived as "brown" and "foreignness." The crux of these disputes lies in this quote: "In truth, intra-Syrian disputes were not the product of ancient enmities between people from two different religions but between people engaged in a contemporary struggle for economic resources, social status, and political rights" (Curtis 92). This struggle translates to the "legal and social discrimination" that Syrians experienced when applying for U.S. citizenship (93). According to Curtis, the US Department of Commerce and Labor rejected Syrian citizenship applications on the basis that Syrians were Asiatic not white, which in turn lead to the media referring to Syrians as non-white and created more anti-Syrian hate in Michigan. In spite of all of the hate that the Syrian community endured in the 1920s, they established a vibrant community that involved both the Muslim and Christian Syrians.