Is Islamophobia a Form of Racism:
Islamophobia is a newly coined term that is used to describe the growing fear of Muslims or specific groups that are considered to be associated with Islam. As a new term, the validity of Islamophobia is still a subject of huge debate even as its causes and characteristics are also controversial. This term was coined to refer to the events in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in light of people’s attitudes towards Muslims and those associated with Islam. Actually, after the dust settled following the attacks, a new gesture of nationalism was witnessed across the United States and racism soon followed, which are usually faces to the same coin (Rose, 2013). In light of these developments on the question on whether Islamophobia is a form of racism has generated arguments and counter-arguments in support and opposition to the claim. People who consider Islamophobia as a form of racism have supported their argument through various reasons including the division and exclusion associated with the fear of Muslims. On the contrary, opponents have argued that Islamophobia is not a form of racism because of lack of a clear link between the term and racism as well as the fact that Islam is not a race but religion. An analysis of these arguments and counter-arguments reveals that Islamophobia is a form of racism, particularly cultural racism.
Arguments in Support of the Claim:
While Islamophobia is not based on overtly biological prejudices, it’s a form of racism because it divides the world on the basis of superior and inferior cultures (Lean, 2012). The division of the globe based on superior and inferior cultures due to Islamophobia is evident in the fact that Western countries, especially the Bri...
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...a term that refers to the fear of Muslims, especially after the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States. While it has been widely used, there are numerous debates on whether the phenomenon is a form of racism. Some of the arguments raised to support the claim include the fact that it causes division, involves the use of violence, entails projecting the negative attributes of a few to the entire religion, treatment of Muslims as suspect citizens, and government inaction to prevent and lessen it spread. On the contrary, arguments against this claim include the lack of any link between the concept and racism, Islam is not a race, statistics on stop and searches, and difficulties in determining what makes a racist attack. An analysis of these arguments and counter-arguments reveals that Islamophobia is a form of racism because it primarily involves cultural racism.
The author expressed, “Kathy had not wanted their family to become collateral damage in a war that had no discernible fronts, no real shape, and no rules” (252). Both Kathy, a converted Muslim, and Zeitoun, a born Muslim, knew what the future looked like in terms of discrimination and inequality. The idea of islamophobia is so open to different interpretations, and the fight against it has not yet accomplished all of the goals. The war against Islamophobia, as well as other discriminatory debates, has shown to be a dirty one. Many opinions are gathered and slurs are formed, which make immigrating as a Muslim very difficult. America is known as the land of the free, but for many families of the Muslim faith, it does not always feel that
Before the September 11, 2001 bombings, not much social psychological research had focused on Muslim-Americans. As a result of the attack, Muslims quickly became a salient group in American society. At the unfortunate expense of prejudice towards Muslims, 9/11 also led to an increase in research regarding Muslim-Americans (Amer and Bagasra, 2013). Therefore, in analyzing the intergroup relationship between Muslim-Americans and White-Americans we will use 9/11 as the origin of group conflict. Before discussing the driving theories behind the intergroup relationship, it is important to note a certain level of ambiguity in the definition of these groups. We are aware that some Muslim-Americans may in fact also be White (mainly due to religious conversion). Therefore as an operational group, when referring to White-Americans we mean to indicate non-Muslim White Americans.
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.
planet at least once. Fear in the Webster dictionary is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Fear has began to corrupt everyones judgement and people have began to stereotype everyone based upon past history and past mistakes.September 9, 2001 is a day that every american has come to remember.Ever since 9/11 our country has been fearful of muslims and the stereotype that they are dangerous to us. 9/11 marks the day where muslims began to be stereotyped as terrorist. Webster Dictionary states that a muslim is a follower of the religion of Islam and a terrorist is
Muslim children face high level of discrimination at their schools as they are welcomed with negative comments about their religion by the children of other religions. Though abnormal but normally Muslim students are labeled as Terrorists and they are often verbally coerced and mocked to migrate back to their native countries. The overall conclusion can be drawn as the study that United States suffered a lot during the attacks of 9/11 but the ones who are still facing the aftermath of that incident are the Muslims around the globe and especially those present in United States. Various reasons other than 9/11 attacks behind Muslim stigmatization around globe include stereotyping against Muslims in terms of non-flexibility, uncommon culture, simple life style and aggressive behavior.
In America, there is a hatred lurking around in almost every corner of the nation; a discrimination and social bias that preys on the lives of innocent Muslims. Some people fear for their lives when they see a Muslim board a plane that they’re going to go on. Politicians are using that fear to fuel their popularity in elections. This prejudice even started to become a form of patriotism in the eyes of a concerning number of Americans. A lot of Muslims fear for their own lives in America because they are being looked down upon and even targeted by some people. This fear and hatred against these innocent Muslims are defined as Islamophobia. I believe that this amount of Islamophobia that is happening in America
answer I would say yes, but it is not so much racism as a combination
Before one can talk about the causes of Islamophobia one must understand its meaning. “Phobia” is defined in Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of
Orientalism as termed by Edward Said is meant to create awareness of a constellation of assumptions that are flawed and underlying Western attitudes towards the Muslim societies. Evidence from his 1978 book “Orientalism”, states that the culture has been of influence and marred with controversy in post colonial studies and other fields of study. Moreover, the scholarship is surrounded by somehow persistent and otherwise subtle prejudice of Eurocentric nature, which is against Islam religion and culture (Windschuttle, 1999). In his book, Said illustrates through arguments, that the long tradition in existence containing romanticized images of Islamic stronghold regions i.e. Middle East, and the Western culture have for a long time served as implicit justifications for the European and American Imperial ambitions. In light of this, Said denounced the practice of influential Arabs who contributed to the internalization of Arabic culture ideas by US and British orientalists. Thus, his hypothesis that Western scholarship on Muslim was historically flawed and essentially continues to misrepresent the reality of Muslim people. In lieu to this, Said quotes that, “So far as the United States seems to be concerned, it is only a slight overstatement to say that Muslims and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential terrorists. Therefore, very few details such as human density, the passion of Arab-Muslim life has entered the awareness of even the people whose profession revolve around reporting of the Arab world. Due to this, we have instead a series of crude, essentialized caricatures of the Islamic world presented in such a way as to make that world vulnerable to military aggression” (Said, 1980).
Islamophobia has been a growing issue among many Americans ever since September 11, 2001. Abdul Samad, the presenter of this speech, understands this concern and hopes to try to cease the hatred that Americans feel towards Muslims. He states at the beginning of his speech that he doesn’t hope to change the opinions of his audience, but rather to get his audience to view Islam from a different perspective. Accompanying him in his speech is a screen where he uses a slideshow presentation to assist him when speaking. One of the first slides he presents is a half of a word that is believed to say science.
Western and Muslim societies appear to be very different on the surface level, but as it is closely examined, they can be similar. For example, in terms of the veil, both societies are constantly discussing and debating the veil, but in different ways and aspects. For Western societies, the veil is seen as a way to limit the status of Muslim women, that the veil is a form of oppression to women in Muslim societies. On the other hand, in Muslim societies, many Muslim women openly choose to wear the veil because they find it as an act of liberation. Although the two societies have opposing views on the veil, they both seem to obsess over the particular item.
Post September 11, 2001 the life of a Muslim women 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 women 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 women who veiled and wanted to save these women from their oppression. However, these articles written about the oppressed Muslim women did not feature Muslim women and their experiences veiling. They were not given a voice
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 ...
This, however, is nothing new to the world. Jews, African-Americans, different races and religions throughout history have confronted bias and separation as a result of their culture or identity. Islamophobia is essentially another resurrection of this tragic pattern. According to a YouGov poll, surveys found that 55% of Americans had an “unfavorable” opinion of Islam. Figure 1 shows, the majority of this percentage consists of Independent whites over the age of 65.