In his viral act on “Saturday Night Live,” comedian Aziz Ansari spoke to an ugly truth about how Americans think of Muslims. Ansari pointed out that when people watch movies or a TV show like “Homeland,” they often see a character who is Arabic and prays with “terrifying” music underneath.

“People are like, ‘Aah! What are they saying?’” Ansari said. “Just ‘God is good!’ Normal religion stuff! It’s okay! You want to end Islamophobia? Honestly, just change that music. Like, if the music was different — if it was just, like, [singing theme to ‘The Benny Hill Show’], people would be like, ‘Man, Islam is one whimsical religion, isn’t it?’”

Perhaps one of the most egregious abuses of Hollywood portrayal of Islam is its use of the azan, the call to prayer, as a soundtrack for violent acts. The call to prayer is a beautiful sound when it is performed well. Unfortunately, this part of Muslim beauty is used as the ambient sound for violence on TV, in movies and even on the radio.

Muslims find it painful to hear the sound they love tied to the violence they abhor. Non-Muslims find it basically impossible to approach what Muslims find beautiful if they hear it connected to what we all find ugly.

The azan is meant to remind the listener of God’s majesty. Revealed to prophet Muhammad, it puts the believer in a state of awe and humility...READ MORE

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Now Isaac had just returned from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the Negev. Early in the evening Isaac went out to the field to meditate, and looking up, he saw the camels approaching.

Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she got down from her camel and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

“It is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself. Then the servant told Isaac all that he had done.

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And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah as his wife. And Isaac loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death.