ISU professor looking to change perceptions of Middle East

Last week, video and sounds of the terror attacks in Brussels took center stage in major media outlets. With the attacks claimed by the militant group ISIS, anti-Middle Eastern and anti-Muslim rhetoric re-emerged, most noticeably on the presidential campaign trail.

In 2001, very similar video and sounds of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York City is how people were exposed to the Middle East and Islam.

“To be introduced to a culture and to a religion in that fashion was a very jolting experience,” said Zack Heern, a history professor at Idaho State University who teaches about Middle Eastern and Islamic culture. “For a lot of people that’s the only context in which they think about the Middle East and Islam, which is extremely unfortunate because there’s so much more to the culture.”

The growing negative perceptions cause people the need to prove they’re American. On Friday, Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans in Utah protested a law that makes it harder for them to travel globally, since most were born in Muslim countries.

While Heern teaches about it, he’s also lived in it. As a graduate student he lived in Egypt and traveled to other countries, such as Lebanon and Turkey.

Having lived in the culture, Heern said there’s nothing else like it, even going as far as to say Middle Eastern hospitality is “unmatched.”

However, he’s learned something bigger.

“The average Middle Easterner, or the average Muslim, wants the same thing that everybody else wants. They want access to things like opportunity,” Heern said.

When asked about a New York Times articleabout the “cultural clash” between Middle Eastern students and Pocatello residents, Heern said he was disappointed it didn’t detail any positive interactions.

Heern also says while most got introduced to the culture from the 9/11 attack, Middle Easterners and Muslims have been very well-integrated in the U.S. long before then.