Terrorism. Some of you will think of Muslims as soon as you stumble across the word. Why? Because every time you turn on BBC, Fox or Sky news, the headline “Muslim man/women” or “Muslim terrorist” blares through your T.V screens, indoctrinating you into believing every Muslim in the world is connected to terrorism in some way. Well maybe a lot of you don’t believe it, but its highly disheartening for millions of righteous Muslims from all over the globe being victimised of bigotry and hate just for being part of a global community where a minute minority of people are associated with terror and violence. Every human has the right to believe in any religion, right? so what makes Muslims so different? in today’s society, the media can now say …show more content…
Not one verse in the holy Muslim book, the Quran says it’s admissible to kill innocent people and commit acts of terror that destroys people’s lives. “If anyone killed a person not in retaliation of murder, or (and) to spread mischief in the land - It would be as if he killed all humankind, and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all humankind.” This is just one quote from the 6236 verses in the Quran that evidently shows that Islam 100% condemns violence and terror. Islam is a beautiful religion that teaches peace, respect, tranquillity, happiness and many other mesmerising attributes in which I would need a fortnight to elucidate. In no way, shape or form does it state that violence and terror is acceptable. In fact the prophet Mohammed (pbuh) censured violence and lived for peace amongst the world. He once stated that ‘Forgive him who wrongs you; join him who cuts you off; do good to him who does evil to you, and speak the truth although it be against yourself.’ So, if the Muslim messenger of God states that Muslims should do anything they can to prevent any act of hostilities let alone violence then why should Muslims tolerate the blame for something their religion blatantly teaches against. Let me ask you a question, should car manufacturers be blamed for deaths by speeding or hit and runs? Of course not
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 antagonism directed at her. “I don’t know how many times 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 Muslim population gets lumped in with the immoral acts of a few because of the lack of knowledge about their culture.
Through the years the idea that Islam is an aggressive religion has been developed. This is mainly due to the fact that the word "jihad" -- a very important concept in Islamic faith -- is often misunderstood or its initial meaning is intentionally misrepresented. From the very beginning of Islamic invasion in Europe a sense of devotion to the religion was instilled in the Muslim soldiers and believers. Religion was a really important part of their lives. The soldiers were taught to die for Allah in their holy war against unbelievers -- this was the so-called jihad. However, if one examines thoroughly the Quran, the saint book for Muslims, he/she will find that jihad carries a completely different meaning -- this is an internal struggle with oneself for achievements in a certain filed or, simply, for self-improvement. Even though most Islamic believers know what jihad really is, there are zealots that still look for excuse for their appalling and inhumane deeds in the abovementioned word. Nowadays, this is still a major problem, especially concerning the...
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.
Muslims have been facing propaganda by media of the western world since many decades. Western media spreads any negative incident in which Muslims are involved very quickly. Many people have developed such an understanding due to this stigmatization that they normally think of terrorism, violence and other extreme things when they hear about Islam and Muslims. One major incident behind such stigmatization is the 9/11 attacks on America.
Is Islam a violent religion? Well, the Islamic holy book, the Quran, states “…if anyone killed a person, it would be as if he killed the whole of mankind; and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole of mankind…” (Qureshi). The Islamic Messenger Muhammad also states, “You do not do evil to those who do evil to you but you treat them with kindness and forgiveness” (Prophet Muhammad). These are statements by Islam’s 2 most reliable sources and they clearly show that Islam does not preach for violence, but peace. Now the other stereotype is that Muslim’s themselves are violent people. One fact that we cannot ignore is that there are over 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today, if Muslims were violent a big part of the world’s population would be dead today. Also according to FBI, 94% of terrorist attacks carried out in the United States from 1980 to 2005 have been by non-Muslims. This means that an American terrorist suspect is over nine times more likely to be non-Muslim than a Muslim (Alnatour). Another point is that there have also been 140,000 terror attacks committed worldwide since 1970. Even if Muslims carried out all of these attacks, which they have not, those terrorists would represent less than 0.00009 percent of all Muslims. To put things into perspective, this means that you are more likely to be
The prophet did not show mercy or spare the lives of people criticizing Islam. His views remain a big motivator to Muslims that fight other people for belonging to the different religions. Muhammed orders Muslims to fight the non-Muslims everywhere and ensure that they acknowledge that “Allah” is the only God. The position taken by the prophet is openly one that escalates existing tensions and creates war. People from different cultures in the world have different religions that relate to their cultures. Muslims should use ideologies to convert people to Islam and war as directed by the prophet. The use of force calls for retaliatory attacks from non-Muslims who may be unwilling to join the religion. The prophet also instructs the Muslims to kill those who choose to leave the religion in favor of other religions. Killing those who leave creates an example of Muslims waging war to their fellow Muslims. The prophet clearly illustrates Muslim is a religion that does not promote peace by viewing other members as inferior. According to his teachings of the prophet, it is not a sin for a Muslim to kills a non-Muslim. The heavenly rewards Allah gives for killing non-Muslims encourage the Muslims to follow the teachings of killing peaceful and innocent members of other religions. Often people rely on the prophet’s views and teachings to interpret the scriptures they are not able to
Religion can be viewed from many different perspectives. People throughout the world hold different religious values. One person’s religious value will not match the religious values of another person. Globalization as a whole has affected the way we view the different religions and our feelings towards them; it has moved towards a more symbolic representation of ideologies. Many have come to believe that the west is more superior to others. Martha Crenshaw argues that globalization is a key driver of terrorism because there is a comparison between countries having less access to means of production and others having more access. Furthermore, most religions go against each other’s beliefs and as for Islam; they have neglected the ideologies of the west. In order to understand how religious values are interconnected is through language games; we think in certain ways because of issues of power.
Did you know that there are currently 1.5 billion Muslims living throughout the world. One in every five people in this world is a Muslim nation. It is proven that Islam is the fastest growing faith in the world and also happens to be the most widely and openly misunderstood faith as well. Americans have misconceptions about Muslims concerning the rights of Muslim women and whether Muslims believe in the existence of Jesus. "When a gunman attacks a mosque in the name of Judaism, a Catholic IRA guerrilla sets off a bomb in an urban area, or Serbian.
If one were to research the answer to these questions based upon media interpretation, the answers provided by the media would make Islam appear to be a religion of hatred and violence. On the contrary, as stated by Robinson (2007) the Islam religion is divided into many subgroups. Of those subgroups, “a very small, radical, hate-filled, extremist, Fundamentalist, terrorist wing does exist. So too does a much larger peaceful, moderate wing” (Islam: Is It a Religion of Violence or of Peace?, ¶3).
However the Qur’an never once states that killing innocent people over political debates and the rights of women in these third world countries is acceptable. But as you can see regardless of this the Taliban took a murderous approach in order to make a stand against what they believe in, using what they believe were their rights given to them by the readings in the Qur’an. Although this is an extreme case it goes to show the extreme lengths people are willing to go to in order to gain power by shutting others off. Which further shows that Religion can be a helpful cover and be a powerful motivator for the evil- hearted. Most importantly the fact that religions effects on society can be so broad, really says more about human psychology than it does about religion. As quoted by David Hart,” Religious conviction often provides the sole compelling reason for refusing to kill... Or for seeking peace... the truth is that religion and irreligion are cultural variables but killing is a human
A lot of people believe that Muslims, Islam, and/or the Holy Quran encourages killing, fighting, and terrorism. Events such as the 9/11 attack in the United States, the Boston Marathon Bombing, and conflicts in the Middle East causes the media to label Muslims as terrorists. When a specific group of people cause violence to another group it is categorized as ‘hate crime’, but if a Muslim does the same act, the media immediately labels it as ‘terrorism’ (Frater, 2009). As a matter of fact, regarding to the attacks of the mosques in Israel, the media did not use the acts to victimize or stereotype Judaism. Moreover, some extremist groups use Islam as a tactic to gain followers even though a lot of their practices go against the teachings of the Quran. A person would not be considered a Muslim if they spread fear or terrorize others. The Quran clearly states, “You shall not take life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law.” (Quran, 6:151). Islam is against any force or violence towards another person. Often the word ‘Jihad’ is taken out of context by violent militants; it means to strive or struggle for the sake of ones’ self improvement with respect to their spirituality. Religious and political groups use Jihad to justify ...
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.
On the board on Monday morning, there were numbers one through five and they each had a religion written next to them. 1 was Hinduism, 2 was Christianity, 3 was Judaism, 4 was Buddhism, and I was lucky enough to get 5: Islam. Oh, I know so much about Islam culture and their religion, are you kidding? I don’t even know where Islam is. I’m just kidding, it’s not a country. There are many differences between Islam and the United states like our religion, clothes, and food, and becoming a Christian or a Muslim, but Islam is the second largest religion in the world, so it’s important to a lot of people. The followers of Islam are called Muslims. Becoming a Muslim is not an easy process. You must do a long list of tasks. After you become a Muslim you must do everything in your power to try to have a good Muslim lifestyle.
The contributing factors that led to the growth of Islamophobia in America post 9/11 are a mass hysteria caused by media, influential voices speaking against Islam and an increase of biased stereotypes. Some of the news’s greatest ways of contributing to the rise in Islamophobia is by giving unrealistic over-exaggerations and non-legitimate statistics in order to display an overall false narrative of the actual matter at hand. For instance, Tom Shillue (stand-up comedian) stating on Fox’s The Five that if there is a moderate Muslim voice “out there” now is the time to speak up and Sean Hannity calling for a “Jihad rising worldwide”.
Throughout history, violence and religion were always related, however, how this violence is formed and for how it is used differs in every religion and also on one’s view. Even the most serene religions are capable of supporting violence since all religions incorporate a violent nature along with the dedication and belief. In “Understanding Islam”, Kenneth Jost poses a question: Is Islam a religion that promotes violence? His answer is no but he does not answer it directly. He does bring up possible arguments from the opposite side and rebuts it. He “A CBS poll in April 2006 found that 46 percent of those surveyed believe Islam encourages violence more than other religions. A comparable poll four years earlier registered a lower figure: 32 percent. These perceptions are sometimes inflamed by U.S. evangelical leaders... [Franklin] Graham called Islam ‘a very evil and wicked religion’ and [Jerry] Vines, called Muhammed, Islam’s founder and prophet, a “demon-pos...