For many years, the relationship between Muslims and the West has been displayed as a contest between cultures. In the cast, one civilisation is always destined to prevail over the other. But is this the case? Are the views of ordinary Americans and ordinary Muslims always taken into account before the display of the differences between the two civilisations is aired in the media houses?

Crossing borders is a documentary about four American and four Moroccan University students who travel and live together through Morocco. Despite the current world tensions, the students share experiences between each other and in the process, the students end up discovering themselves. Through their discussions and sharing of their experiences, the students find themselves discussing the complex implications of the supposed civilisation clash. Through the talks, the students reveal some of their stereotypes against each other.

One of the American students brings about the idea of terrorism. Stereotype Americans think that all Muslims are terrorists. The student brings out the incident when his mum had that he was going to Spain. His mum’s first reaction was that there were a lot of Muslims in Spain and thought that her son would fall a victim of terrorism in Spain because of the large number of Muslims there (Janson Media, 2011). Consequently, one American brings out the incident when a person draws a Muslim on a paper in Denmark and the next time a nun is killed, the drawn picture goes viral in the media. To add on, Moroccan student shares that their people always think that Americans are arrogant, selfish, and egocentric people who only care less about the wellbeing of others from other walks of life across the globe. The experience with the America students makes her learn how the Americans are caring and value people from different worlds.

I agree with the points that the students brought forth during their discussions. I want to commend the students for being honest and frank with each during the talks. For instance, I am not surprised by the fact that the mum of one of the American student feels afraid for his son who is travelling to Spain because of a high number of Muslims in Spain (2016). The mother thinks that the Muslims who are in Spain are all terrorists and his son would fall a victim of the terror attack. I highly condemn the American people for thinking that all Muslims are terrorists. It is therefore vital, before generalisation of opinions, for Muslims and Americans to engage in intercommunication between the two cultures to come up with some truths about their hatred just as the eight students did.

Precisely, intercultural communication is a vital tool in establishing a good relationship among groups that hate each other. Through cross-cultural interactions, the two groups get the opportunities to share the different notions that each group hold against each other. By interacting together, the two groups get to learn about each other and forget the grudges they hold for one another (Martin & Nakayama, 2014). Additionally, intercultural communication gives the two conflicting groups to learn about the culture, languages, and customs of people from other countries. For instance, when an American gets to see a Muslim wearing a hijab, the American will get to understand that that is the customs of the Muslims and not that they are terrorists who are hiding something under the veil.

References

Janson Media (Jun 16, 2011). Crossing Borders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q17Giuv-sEQ. Last Retrieved on March 23, 2019.

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2014). Experiencing intercultural communication. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.