Aspects of Identity

From reading the Rastafari book and listening to Bob Marley's music, it seems to be the case that being Rastafarian and being Jamaican are two aspects of identity that are often associated with one another, if not conflated. Being Jamaican, at least for Bob Marley, has much to do with following Rastafari, and the two pieces are not easily separated. They both have quite an influence on his music, and in fact being Jamaican was quite important in the creation of Rastafari as a religion. Religion and nationality are closely knit together in this case.

This does not seem to be the case, however, for many Arabs, as was shown in the documentary shown in Wriston on Monday. There was a rather strong emphasis placed on the difference between being Arab and being Muslim. There were several non-Muslim Arabs mentioned, and the National Arab American Museum did not focus at all on the religious connotations many people have associated with being Arab. Their focus was far more secular, concentrating on a positive public image for Arabs. The large mosque on the highway, on the other hand, focused on the religion, paying little to no attention to the race or heritage of its members. The man talking about the mosque mentioned quite explicitly that he wished to draw a definite line between Islam and Arab aspects of identity.

There seems to be no one "right way" to go about defining oneself as part of a group, or of just one group. One can foucs on one main aspect of identity, making that one the most important, like the Arabs and Muslims in Michigan. One can also, a la Bob Marley and others, put an equal focus on two or more aspects of identity and how they relate to each other, such as, in this case, religion and nationality. Both methods allow the person to self-identify with a group of his or her preference, and neither one is a more "correct" approach than the other.