Islamophobia Essay

Post September 11, 2001 the life of a Muslim woman living in America changed forever. Islamophobia is the prejudice against Islam or Muslims. Islamophobia is not a new concept it has roots hundreds of years ago, however after 9/11 it became much more prevalent in America. Following 9/11 Western media used Islam and Muslim woman who covered to inflict fear in American citizens. Western media framed Islam as a dangerous and hateful religion that needed to be stopped. At the same time the media became obsessed with Muslim woman who veiled and wanted to save these woman from their oppression. However, these articles written about the oppressed Muslim woman did not feature Muslim woman and their experiences veiling. They were not given a voice on the subject of their lives. The people writing these articles were very ethnocentric. They did not consider the religion or culture of these Muslim woman choosing to veil and the empowerment it may give some of these woman. I would like to spend time looking at Westerns media portrayal of

However, they contradict themselves constantly by stripping Muslim people the opportunity to voice in mainstream media what is really means to be a Muslim or a woman who veils. Muslim woman who veil know when they leave their homes they are more at risk to be judged, treated unfairly, or be verbally or physically assaulted because they veil and show their faith more visibly. American’s claim this is the land of the free while also kicking Muslim’s off planes for being Muslim, and only showing Muslim woman as being oppressed. While America did change after 9/11, American’s fail to realize that the life of a Muslim American, specially a Muslim American woman who choose to veil life was also altered completely after 9/11. Islamophobia and ethnocentrism is very prevalent in American media, which in turns creates a nation with citizens who are equally islamophobic and