I am collecting data about the #muslimban hashtag to explore how Americans feel about Donald Trump’s recent executive order.
The reason I chose muslimban is because it resembles an increasingly current issue due to our constantly changing relationship with the Middle East. This issue has become even more relevant in the recent week due to the executive order implemented by Trump and I am curious to see what happens as a result. I personally have also always had a fascination with the conflict between the United States and the Middle East and would like to look more closely into how others feel about this conflict. I also believe this issue will have a major affect on not only how us Americans view our country but also on how other nations across the world see the United States and am interested to see if I can find these opinions through different tweets.
Before looking at the tweets in relation to my hashtag I expected to see more negative tweets than positive ones when it came to Trump’s executive order. I also expected most tweets to mention Trump. After looking at my data I was correct. For example a tweet that had several retweets stated “@jdakwar UN experts say Trump’s ban is discriminatory and violates U.S. human rights obligations #muslimban.” I believe that this tweet had many retweets because people want others to know that even the UN believes this order is violating human rights. Another common trend I found is that #muslimban is paired with the hashtag #nobannowall. For example @isarsour tweeted “Yemeni bodega owners strike today to protest #muslimban. Feeling proud. #nobannowall #Brooklyn.” This captures how many Americans feel as protests are sweeping across the nation to speak out against not only the muslim ban but also Trumps hopes of building a wall that would separate America from Mexico.
There were numerous hits of #muslimban in the news this past week. I found four articles that each explored different parts of this controversial issue. For example the first one I found discussed the Yemeni Bodega protest that took place in New York yesterday. According to the article about 1,000 owners took part in this protest in hopes that New Yorkers will realize how vital their stores are to society. The second article I found discussed what #muslimban means for women advocate rights in the countries that are being targeted. This ban will prevent women and men from these Muslim countries from attending the Commission on theStatus of Women to the United Nations this March. This will be a major drawback for women that are apart of these Muslim communities. There were similar results when searching just Muslim Ban in the news. In the past 24 hours Los Angeles district judge Andre Birottes is temporarily ruling states that immigrants who had already been cleared for legal residency in the US should be allowed into the country. This directly violates Trump’s policy. The last article I found discusses all the international laws Trump’s Muslim ban is breaking. Overall the news seems to be more critical of Trump’s executive order.
In narrowing my search from January of 2006 to March of 2006 I didn’t find much in relation to America banning Muslims from entering the country. I wasn’t surprised by this because no other president has taken such drastic measures to single out a group of people in America. However a prevalent issue that involved Muslims during this time consisted of caricatures of the prophet muhammad being published in Europe. This caused a uproar in the Muslim world and people in regions of Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran called for boycotts against European goods. In response to these images the State Department spokesman at the time said ” Anti- Muslim images are as unacceptable as anti- Semitic Images.” However the United states defended the right of the Danish and French to publish the cartoons. The article states that this was a delicate balancing act as the administration wanted to defend freedom of speech but also emphasize respect for islam in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This issue highlights our constant changing relationship with the Middle East and shows that it has always been a tumultuous one.
As I scroll through the 300 hundred tweets that I have collected I believe that I am collecting both live data and connecting to the actual liveliness of an issue. I am collecting live data as many tweets are reflecting people’s current stance on the issue and I am also collecting the actual liveliness of the issue as Trump’s decision to ban Muslims has been a domino affect causing things to change at any moment. For example from reading what people have tweeted in the past 24 hours I have learned that their has been a protest in New York and that a LA judge went against Trump’s wishes. In addition to learning that these events are taking place I am also learning what people across America think about when it comes to these actions. Therefore, these tweets define what Marres and Welteverde has said to be liveliness.
Mathias, Christopher . “Yemeni Bodega Owners Strike, Pray And Protest Trump’s Muslim Ban In New York.” The Huffington Post , February 2, 2017. Accessed February 3, 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/yemeni-bodega-strike-new-york-protest_us_58937b42e4b06f344e407dda.
Bove , Emily . “What President Trump’s #MuslimBan Means for Women’s Rights Advocates.” The Huffington Post , February 2, 2017. Accessed February 3, 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-president-trumps-muslimban-means-for-womens_us_58939c98e4b0985224db5369.
Bulman , May. “US Federal judge issues temporary halt of Donald Trump’s ‘Muslim ban'” Independent , February 3, 2017. Accessed February 3, 2017. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-federal-judge-muslim-ban-temporary-halt-la-donald-trump-travel-andre-birotte-jr-california-los-a7560836.html.
Dakwar, Jamil . “All international laws Trump’s Muslim ban is breaking.” Aljazeera, February 2, 2017 . Accessed February 3, 2017. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/02/international-laws-trump-muslim-ban-breaking-170202135132664.html.
Brinkley , Joel , and Ian Fisher. “U.S. Says It Also Finds Cartoons of Muhammad Offensive.” Nytimes , February 4, 2006. Accessed February 3, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/politics/us-says-it-also-finds-cartoons-of-muhammad-offensive.html.
Marres, Noortje, and Esther Weltevrede. 2013. “Scraping the Social?” Journal of Cultural Economy 6 (3): 313–35.
Overall, I thought this was a very well-written and thoughtful post. One thing that struck me as particularly insightful was how you took actual Tweets and incorporated them into the body of your post. It helped provide context into what you were saying and supported your comments well. I think that the #muslimban hashtag is a very interesting one to research in the current political climate, and that it will be good to keep an eye on because it could change greatly over the next few weeks. I think it would be interesting to consider comparing the negative comments about #muslimban to any positive tweets about it. You may be able to look into the location of the Tweets and see where they are coming from to get an idea which areas of the country do and don’t support the ban, and map it out a bit. As a whole, your post made me think about mine differently in that moving forward I’ll look to include specific Tweets into my post, especially ones that further my points as yours did.
This is an extremely interesting and relevant topic. What stands out to me the very most is the contrast between 2006 and 2017,when it seemed there was little immigration conflict between muslim countries and the US. I would consider looking into trade agreements between the US and Specific Muslim countries in the 2006-2008 range to get a better comparison between the Issues of today and in the past–there are some similarities. The tweets collected are fantastic and I think they really shape how this is playing out for those from the various countries affected by the ban.