Since the September 11 attacks, numerous Americans have labeled Muslims in the United States as a risk to our country due to the fact that they share their religion with the extremists responsible for worldwide terrorism. Muslim that live in America continue to face isolation and danger because of their faith. Many people are responsible for this labeling, including journalists, politicians, and religious fanatics. Those mainly responsible for giving Muslims in America a modern day scarlet letter are the extremists themselves.
Following the 9/11 attacks, classmates, employers, and to a certain level the US government have shown bias against the Muslim religion. Muslims working in the US have been under fire. Hundreds of Muslims have been discharges and harassed by their employers based on their faith since the attacks took place. Trans State Airlines laid off First Officer Mohammed Hussein because of his Arabic appearance and Islamic beliefs. Hussein had an exceptional work history and was unable to reason with the charges which caused him to be laid off. Muslims going to school throughout the United States have also encountered discrimination. School children of Middle Eastern origin have been beaten and abused by their own classmates. An Iraqi boy that happened to be named Osama was repeatedly harassed because of his name. The Unites States government has also been antagonistic towards the Islam religion since the attacks took place. Some Muslims applying for citizenship had their background checks illegally deferred. Federal raids aimed at “terrorists” in the US targeted people recognized as Muslim leaders. None of these Muslims had any connection terrorism. One of them, Dr. Al Alwani, was an outspoken critic of extremism and ...
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...mbers have used the same words before they committed their suicidal actions. The connections between terrorism and Islam are pointed out clearly when the extremists say that they are waging a “holy war” against their enemies. Extremists have used Islam as a justification to attack churches, Hindu and Buddhist temples. Due to the fact that the terrorist who carried out such criminal and inhumane acts associate himself or herself with Muslim religion, the public comes to view Islam as a severe risk. In reality, only 15% of the 1 billion Muslims are extremists and out of that 15%, only a few engage in terrorist activities. However, most news stories do not focus on the places where things are going right, but on the places where things are going wrong. Due to all this, it is clear that the extremists play a large role in pinning the scarlet letter on Muslims in the US.
The term, “Muslim Extremist” was interpreted wrongfully by Americans. A large amount of people believe every Muslim is an extremist, and that at any moment any Muslim could attack. That is not true, just because your Muslim does not mean you are a terrorist. History does repeat itself, but not in every situation, when it comes down to accusing people it has. People find it easy to blame the problems that arise, on other people.
On September 11, 2001, since the terrorist attacks, many American Muslims have been stereotyped negatively in the United States. Salma, a Muslim woman, says that the way Muslims have been recognized in the media has played a big role in the antagonisms directed to her. “I don’t know how many time I heard my classmates accuse me of being al-Qaeda or a terrorist” (Mayton 2013). Salma, along with other Muslims, even after a decade, are still struggling with trying to find their “American” and “Islamic” identities, while facing verbal attacks for their ethnicity. Too often, the general Muslin population gets lumped in with the immoral acts of a few because of the lack of knowledge about their culture.
The way Muslims have been treated after the 9/11 incident is very different than before. Before 9/11 there was certainly some discrimination towards Muslim Americans, but after the attacks happened, between the years 2000 and 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported a 1,700 percent increase of hate crimes against Muslim Americans (Khan & Ecklund, 2012). “While trying to adapt to the outcome of 9/11, Muslim Americans dealt with an increase in negative stereotypes spoken by the common culture, and Muslim immigrants faced more negative attitudes than any other immigrant group” (Khan & Ecklund, 2012). Since the 9/11 attacks, people who dress with a substantial resemblance to Muslims worry about the upcoming hatred and unfriendliness from people of other ethnicities (Khan & Ecklund, 2012). While listening to the media, one can hear reports of negative stereotypes towards people who resemble the Muslim religion, which may be assumed that these people are violent. Negative attitudes that Muslim Americans experience may have detrimental effects on their success in America and their success of achieving the American Dream.
Because of widespread accusations of terrorism and the general fear that Muslims are terrorists and the entire religion is at fault, Muslims are being treated like they’re less than human. Similarly, Jews were treated like they were less than human because many German citizens blamed their struggles on Jewish people. The only difference is that America hasn’t mass murdered millions of Muslim citizens, at least not yet. I am by no means saying that America will have a neo-Holocaust with Muslim people, but there are far too many similarities in the treatment of these people simply because of their religions. During his run for president, Donald Trump proposed a total ban on Muslims entering the United States. He also suggested that Muslims turn in other Muslims for acting suspiciously, and that all Muslims enter a national registry and wear some sort of identification. This is terrifyingly similar to what Adolf Hitler ordered of the Jewish people living in Germany, including the infamous yellow star that Jews had to
... There are those individuals that have a strong hatred for Islam, than we have people that feel sorry for Muslims in America and make them feel like they actually belong to society. However, it would be fantastic if people can start to actually separate terrorists from the Muslim community. Their religion was hijacked by the attack. Like I previously mentioned, we many not seem to stop and realize that our own religion might be part of terrorism. Religion should not matter when we look at a person because there are two kinds of people in the world, the good and bad. If we all had to look at the flaws in everyone’s beliefs and religious we would probably come to the conclusion that we aren’t all terrorists but some people with the same beliefs as us, might be. We tend to find the bad in something and associate it with everything else that is somehow connected to it.
Islam is portrayed and is commonly accepted as the most violent and largest direct threat to the West. This is a generalization made by most of the West, but it is not particularly the West or the Islamic people’s fault. There is constant turmoil in Islamic countries in the Middle East and these conflicts are what make the news in the West. The only representation in the media that the Islamic nation gets is that of war. Though most Islamic people are not violent, the select few that do participate in terrorist groups give the rest of the Islam nation a bad image.
Islam in America has historically been misunderstood, and this is due to the misconception of culture and religion as well as lack of education and incorrect portrayal in the media, which gives a skewed idea of Islam. Especially in the United States, Islam has been seen as the “terrorist religion” or a religion for the extremists and a religion in which freedom is not an option. Among the countless misconceptions, the basis of stereotypes by Americans is due to the mix up between religion and culture. Furthermore, the media only fuels fire to these misunderstandings and lack of factual information about Islam causing Americans to lash out on American Muslims without reason.
Islam is the religion that provides a complete code of life including social as well as personal spheres. Islam has been targeted by many stereotypes including extremism since last few decades. The reason behind these stereotypes are on some facts and to some extent widely propagated through media. Many people involved in criminal activities, get highlighted easily by media and catch the attention of general public if they are Muslims. A major role behind these stereotypes is played by the outcomes of the 9/11 attacks. Muslims have been targeted with stigmatization and other forms of racial discrimination. They have to face tight security at international airports. Employers have also been showing concerns or hesitation while hiring Muslims especially the immigrants. Many reasons beside 9/11 attacks behind Muslim stigmatization in United States have been in existence since many decades.
Christianity has been in America since the Colonial Era (1600’s - 1700’s), and for over three centuries has dominated and deeply engrained itself into American Society . Islam, however, has only been introduced recently, and this has caused Islamic Believers (or Muslims) residing in America to be misinterpreted. After the September 11 bombings in 2001, there was a huge hatred for Muslims as they were interpreted as a religion that promotes destruction in the name of ‘Jihad’, or as it is often mistranslated as ‘Holy war’ . Although, the meaning of ‘Jihad’ is much wider than just ‘Holy war’, it is an internal struggle, within each Muslim, “…to be a good Muslim as well as advance the cause of Islam.” The Western understanding of ‘jihad’ however has been twisted to become related to terrorism. Whereas, Christians claim to promote the qualities of hard-work, honesty and moderation, and are therefore highly thought of in American Society, not only because of their supposed all encompassing teachings, but also because of their dominance as a religion in the Western World.
The media has been known to portray or show many “Muslims” as terrorists, and several times they fail to show the peaceful Muslims. Furthermore, the media affects the perception of many Americans, and when they portray Muslims as scary and dangerous people, this causes many stereotypes to form. This in turn, makes it common for people to accept and believe in the various stereotypes of Muslims. Also, countless Muslims are ethnically profiled based on their religious appearance. To be more specific, numerous Muslims are stereotyped due to their long beards and cultural robes. Stereotypes, such as these, are affected by the descriptions of other notorious terrorists, such as Osama Bin Laden, who was well known for his long beard. Additionally, a number of people have become irrational and unreasonable when it comes to preventing Muslims to affect America, such as many protests “to ban Sharia law in any American court” (Azlan). Sharia is basically the law of an Islamic government, and the protest is illogical, since Sharia law has never been practiced in any American court and there is no indication, that there will be (Azlan). Many of these labels are unfair, and the media unjustly portrays and connects innocent American Muslims to terrorists which is
Terrorism has been around for centuries and religion-based violence has been around just as long. (Hoffman, 2). The violence was never referred to as terrorism though. Only up to the nineteenth century has religion been able to justify terrorism (Hoffman, 2). Since then, religious terrorism became motivated and inspired by the ideological view (Hoffman, 3). Therefore, it has turned against the main focus of religion and more towards the views of the extremist and what is happening politically (Winchester, 4).
Americans have grown to be cautious with their surroundings when a Muslim is present in the same scene as them. Muslims can’t peacefully get around to grocery markets or airports without being criticized by their appearance or “bad” reputation. We come from a country with certain areas of society believing all Muslims are terrorists from what they have seen or observed from in past events. For instance, think back to the shootings in Paris this past winter or even further back to the collapse of the twin towers and Pentagon buildings fifteen years ago. These two catastrophic events marked a black hole in U.S. history books. According to NBC news, last year, a third incident irritated many Americans to strengthen security in public schools after a
On November 07, 2006, was the day i left home to join the fight against the Taliban. During my time spent in the united States Military serving my country, I was always told that we were fighting to free the Iraqi and Afghan people from the terrorist groups that had taken over their country, yet Laura Bush ( first lady to President George W. Bush) stated back in November 17th, 2001, in her weekly address that “ The brutal oppression of women is a central goal of the terrorists.” What first lady Bush states in her address conflicted with my deployment briefings, that were to eliminate terrorists treats to free the Iraqi and Afghan people not the oppressed women that first lady Bush claims that we needed to go help. Muslim women across the globe
...lim violence mentioned in class lectures include a taxi cab driver in NYC who identified himself as a Muslim and was shot dead by the passenger, four pieces of construction equipment was destroyed at a future mosque site in Tennessee also in Tennessee, a pipe bomb went off in a mosque in Jacksonville killing somewhere around 60 people. This is only a few example of the many hate crimes committed against Muslims in the United States. Muslims not only face hate crimes in the U.S., but all over the world today which is particularly disturbing in the U.S. which has a Constitution that states all citizens are free to practice their own religion, but clearly as of late, this is not true for Muslim Americans.
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.