In May of 2015, Josh Duggar, the eldest child of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar from TLC’s popular reality show "19 Kids And Counting," was discovered to have molested several young girls between 2002 and 2003 when he was around 14-15 years old. The scandal that followed was to be expected: The stars of a hit reality TV series coming under the microscope for allegedly hiding their son’s actions and not reporting it to law enforcement, the fact that such a renowned family known for its deeply religious Christian values could be involved in something so depraved. The Duggar family name was irrevocably scorched.

Devout Independent Baptists, the Duggars were known for their 19 children and for their extremely sheltered lifestyle, which included filtered Internet and television, modest attire, homeschooling, and an all-around conservative upbringing. They attained their celebrity status from this program and ever since have been in the limelight of the media. Despite their conservative and reclusive lifestyle, I never passed judgment on the family, and I felt akin to their practices and beliefs as they were similar my own traditionally religious Muslim upbringing in my community. However, despite the similarities in belief and practice, there seems to exist a strong disparity between the view and treatment of traditional Christians like the Duggars and other minorities, specifically conservative Muslims.

Prior to the charges and the scandal, the public attitude towards the Duggars had never reached the point of downright hateful and intolerant. Most people view them with a mixture of awe and interest, because they came to represent a simpler time structured around strong family values and modesty. Additionally, they presented reality show content that was in stark contrast to the glamorized adventures of the young, beautiful, promiscuous wealthy side of society. Most of the people who didn’t enjoy the program merely displayed a dismissive indifference to their traditional beliefs and mentality. The general consensus is that most people did not seem to have a problem with their religious and traditional practices; they were widely intrigued by this refreshing taste of a conservative family, seeing as it was so foreign from their own lifestyles,

Now imagine, if you will, a world in which the Duggars were a Muslim family (either an immigrant Muslim family or one that had been living in America for multiple generations). If this family was faced with the same level of scandal that the Duggars were, I strongly believe that both the public’s reaction and the media’s portrayal of the family, the event, and especially their religion would have been completely altered. In the case of the Duggars, the media and viewers attributed the molestation to problems in parenting, lack of discipline, but mostly to Josh’s psychiatric state. No one had blamed their traditional upbringing or religious beliefs as the cause for this deplorable behavior. There were countless theories and ideas from experts and the media as to how and why this happened and why the Duggars handled this situation the way they did, but not one of them involved their Christian faith. However, if the family had been Muslim, I have no doubt in my mind that the molestation would be attributed to the basic ideology of Islam and that their conservative ideology would be to blame.

I have always found the public fascination with families such the Duggars to be completely hypocritical because I grew up in a community of people with strong conservative religious beliefs, that were usually met with public disdain and antipathy. Everyone yearns to draw contrasts between the core religious groups of this country, but the truth of the matter remains that conservative Muslims, Jews, and Christians all for the most part have the same core practices: Assigned gender roles, dressing modestly (especially for women), opposition to contraception and abortion, opposition to homosexuality, strong family values, a strong patriarchy, etc. Although some conservative families have altered their practices with a more modern, open-minded mentality, these principles are in accordance with traditional and conservative religious beliefs and practices. And yet the global community seems to have more tolerance for the conservative Christians and Jews who adhere to these beliefs than they do for Muslims who employ the exact same practices.

If the Duggars were Muslim and were involved in this molestation scandal, the media would most likely portray their practices as cult-like and extremist and bring Islamic morals and values into the equation. They would question whether Islam allowed or promoted molestation and they would cite examples such as child marriages in the Middle East and even go so far as to discuss the fact that Hazrat Aisha, one of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him)’s wives, was a child when she was married to him. They would discuss how religious fundamentalist groups such as ISIS, Al-Qaida, and countless others practice both forced and child marriage and how abhorrent and repulsive the ideologies of conservative Muslims are, likely raising the question whether their beliefs and practices have any place in the modern world.

In the Duggar case, what the media chose to focus on was why they covered up the abuse, and how such a strong and religious family could be mixed up in something so shameful. The media never questioned their faith or if Christianity somehow allowed this type of behavior. They never discussed how “problematic” their sheltered and protected way of living was or if their beliefs were “cult-like”. The ideology of Christianity was not discussed and analyzed with a microscopic lens the way that the ideology of Islam has been so many times in the wake of any terrorist attack or honor killing. There are countless other examples of this double standard. For instance, the tenets of Christianity were not questioned when it came to practices and preaching of cult leaders such as Jim Jones, who convinced his followers to commit mass suicide, and David Koresh, who believed that he was a messiah and was accused of multiple counts of statutory rape, eventually leading to the infamous siege at Waco in which many lives were lost; indeed the mass media showed them as narcissistic and extremely charismatic leaders who managed to brainwash their followers. The Spanish Inquisition in 1478 in Spain, in which a large number of Jews and Muslims were tortured and forced to either convert to Christianity or else forced to flee or risk death (which ended with quite a death toll) is mainly seen as a period of racism and intolerance, rather than an issue with fundamentalist Christianity and extremism. Isolated communities like the Amish and Hasidic Jews, while viewed as different and strange, are not antagonized dehumanized the way the practices of conservative Muslims are, nor are their lifestyle choices picked apart and analyzed in the same way.

So why the double standard? If you ask me, it goes back to the age-old need that we as human beings have to categorize one another, especially when it comes to the hierarchy of social justice. Hypocrisy concerning prejudice against Muslims and other minorities has been prevalent for many years now. Needless to say, much of this has to do with stereotyping and media bias, where if the perpetrator of a crime is committed by a Hispanic or African American, the media shows it as gang or drug related; if it is a committed by a Muslim, it is terrorism and fundamentalist Islam; and if it is committed by a Caucasian, it is the act of a lone wolf or a person with severe mental illness. When it comes to minorities it becomes easier to categorize people to fit a certain image than it is to challenge that notion. Is it fair? No. Is it right? Absolutely not.

But it is the unfortunate reality of society and the first step to fixing a problem is admitting that there is one. This mentality will likely take years to change, and we should do all we can to help it in the meantime. If you are going to criticize and condemn the practices of conservative Muslims, be sure to look at the lifestyles of people who are supposedly your own. If you think that Muslims who wear the hijab (or dress in an otherwise conservative manner), have large families, don’t believe in dating, practice arranged marriage, have assigned gender roles, etc. are backwards and archaic, then what about the people in conservative communities such as the Amish, Orthodox Jews, and even conservative Christians? They all employ the exact same practices and ideology. Take a good hard look because I am certain that in terms of beliefs and practices, you will find that people like the Duggars are not so different from the conservative practitioners of other faiths.