Islamophobia: Muslims and Terrorism

After 9/11 has induced negative attitudes towards Muslim peoples who tend to be strongly associated with any act of terrorism. The media has played a colossal role in developing such negative association wherein it constantly portrays Muslim people in combination with violent terrorist acts. It does so in a way that they both go hand-and-hand. In other words, it has made it as though the Islamic religion is synonymous with terrorism. The media has perpetuated Muslim stereotypes over the years that followed the 9/11 incident. Because of this, society has developed, and still has developed, this prejudiced mindset about the Islamic religion and the Muslim communities around the world. People immediately assume that any violent act being depicted through the media is the direct result of Muslims. They automatically generate this idea that the act was performed by a Muslim terrorist even when they were not involved whatsoever. Regardless of whether it was true or not, Islamic religion and its Muslim adherents are at the top of societies’ agenda just waiting for the evidence to be generated so that they can then safely blame them for such world affairs. Again, this has led to the attack on the Islamic religion itself wherein people have come to postulate Islam as an act of oppression, violence and hatred towards non-Muslims. Anti-Muslim sentiments and campaigns have resulted from such misinformation the media has been generating and feeding its viewers.

Islamophobia has become a new topic of interest among social sciences, political leaders and media commentators. People amongst society have developed this phobia towards Islamic religion and people. It has become a novel “form of racism in Europe and American based on discrimination ...

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... attitudes towards Muslims and their religious faith and their viewpoints on terrorism amongst Halifax University students that includes a pool sample from Saint Mary’s University, Mount Saint Vincent University and Dalhousie University. We will examine current attitudes associated with the Islamic religion which will give us an idea as to whether or not there is a connection between those who are familiar with the Islamic religion and those who hold favorable attitudes. Our hypothesis is that those who are familiar with the Islamic religion will likely hold more favorable attitudes or at least will not hold discriminative outlooks towards such religious group. We also hypothesize that first year undergraduate students will carry more prejudice and discriminative attitudes towards Muslims in comparison to fourth year students who will have more favorable attitudes.