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At a time when Islam and Muslims are dominating the news, many Americans lack a complete understanding of the religion's scope. Most estimates rank Islam as the second-largest religion in the world (after Christianity), with more than a billion adherents, and despite the Middle East being the constant backdrop of reporting about Islam, the majority of Muslims live in other parts of Asia.
That's partly what brings Zin and his Malaysian perspective to Ithaca. The Fulbright scholarship program, funded by Congress and administered by the State Department, is sending Muslim scholars to 33 colleges and universities throughout America this spring in an effort to enrich understanding and correct misapprehensions about Islamic societies.
One of Zin's concerns is that many Westerners don't understand that the culture of Islamic countries like Malaysia is based not only on the religion, but also on the people and the history of those individual countries. "It is not only one factor that influences [culture]; it is not a straightforward thing. There are a whole host of factors that actually influence how we do things," he said.
Zin's own field is the media - his doctorate, from the University of Wisconsin, is in mass communications - and he's bringing his views on the Malaysian press to Ithaca. "I'm trying to look at the culture, the religion and the media," he said.
In addition to his meetings with faculty and his attempts to secure a grant for a group of Ithaca professors to provide professional journalism training in Malaysia, Zin is teaching a one-credit course on "Media in Malaysia" to 14 registered students. He's pleased with how that's going. "Fantastic," he said. "[The students] were very enthusiastic - young people wanting to learn, wanting to know more about things that they haven't any clue about."
The lively class, ranging from freshman to seniors, is composed largely of Park scholars - recipients of an all-expenses-paid scholarship to Ithaca's communication school - and bears out Zin's description. A recent session was characterized by rapid-fire questions from the students, many of whom seemed unafraid to admit to a lack of knowledge about the religion.
Sara Howard, a sophomore Park scholar with a double major in journalism and politics, said she's always wanted to take a class on Islam. "I'm excited, because we are starting at the basics. I don't know anything about any other country besides America, which is really bad."
Howard is also looking forward to the discussion of the portrayal of Islam in the press. "I want to know, how does the media approach Islam? Are there a lot of misconceptions? What are we being taught that really isn't true?" she said.
And Zin said he hopes to share his knowledge. He has a public presentation scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 2, from 7 to 8 p.m. at Longview.
-Zac DesAutels
