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Racial profiling in society today
Media Portrayals of Islam Religion
Media Portrayals of Islam Religion
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To this day, the terrorism attacks that took place on September 11, 2001 still weighs heavy in many people's hearts. Once the date of the thirteenth anniversary arrives, some may still not be able to grasp on the events that occurred 13 years ago. As a country, we have learned how to increase our safety and be cautious of all possible dangers. Unfortunately, some negative effects have not been addressed and fixed. We know what Americans went through, but not enough on the prejudice innocent Muslims have to go through on a daily basis. In order to end this there needs to be an understanding between both sides. Ever since 9/11, most Muslims, Arabs, or generally anyone from the Middle East, have been given the stamp of disapproval in America.
We get our knowledge of the happenings around the world from the media. The media can have both a positive and negative influence on how people see the world. The media has given a helping hand to how America generalizes the Muslims, Islams, and so on. Karen Keyworth, co-founder and director of education at the Islamic Schools League of America, expressed her frustration on American society, “U.S society is not doing a good job separating out terrorism from Islam.” (Whitman) When people watch the news, all they are presented is the chaos that occurs in the Middle East. This continues to be the only thing they see about these countries, which leads to false judgements How can we judge a certain population when we just take what is given and not go more in depth.
Awareness has to be raised to end the stereotyping of Muslims. If more public figures spoke up to show how wrong these stereotypes are than the public would not perceive muslims as a potential terrorist. Keyworth also stated people in ...
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...w that we see the other side of the fence we see an American. An American that happens to be Muslim. Lastly, we need to stop using 9/11 as a scapegoat on how we treat Muslims. That is just unfair to them and all the people who lost their lives that day. It is time to make peace and focus on real issues.
Works Cited
Friedman, Thomas L. Thomas L. Friedman Reporting: Searching for the Roots of 9/11. 2003. Photograph. bing.comWeb. 16 Jan 2014. .
Patel, Vimal. “Muslim family trying to break stigma after attacks.” Eagle, The (Bryan, TX) 11 Sept. 2011: Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 1 Jan. 2014.
Whitman, Elizabeth. “Ten Years Later, Still Equating Terrorism with Islam.” Global Information Network. 11 Sept. 2011: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 01 Jan 2014.
9/11 was one of the most devastating events in American History. Four hijacked passenger airplanes killed almost three thousand people. 9/11 changed millions of lives forever. American Citizens didn’t feel safe. This attack was a wake-up call to American security. 9/11 forced the country to acknowledge its shortcomings and fix them, before any more harm could come upon the United States of America. 9/11, as all acts of terror do, promoted the growth of technology, in this case, security in the United States. 9/11 also brought about feelings of hatred to the country. The United States soon became known as one of the most intolerable nations on this planet. Lastly, 9/11 butchered the economy and forced it down a long road to recovery.
Every time a terrorist attack happens the media jumps all over it, and puts their own twist on what had happened. “Thus, the media has a strong potential to influence how the public thinks about social problems like terrorism, especially because most people only experience terrorism through mass-media accounts...This research also finds that media portrayals of terrorism increase anxiety among the viewing public.” (Chermak, 2006) The media is one of the leading causes of stereotypes, and what influences our beliefs today. When you think of a terrorist, you may think of either a middle aged muslim male or a middle aged white male with some sort of mental or social disorder. This isn 't always the case. A terrorist can be of any race, age, and social class. Due to the media 's influence, we all believe in the same stereotypes and imagine the same description of what a terrorist may look like. This is one of the main reasons behind racial profiling.
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.
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.
The attacks that occurred on 9/11 took place on September 11th, 2001. In this devastating event, four different attacks had taken place. Each of the attacks were carried out by terrorists. The group responsible for the attack was Al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist organization that is known to be global in present day. The group itself has a network consisting of a Sunni Muslim movement that aims to make global Jihad happen. Furthermore, a stateless, multinational army that is ready to move at any given time. This terrorist group focuses on attacking non-Sunni Muslims, those who are not Muslim, and individuals who the group deems to be kafir. Ever since the late 1980s, Al-Qaeda has been wreaking havoc all around the world. The leader of the group once being Osama bin Laden. Three planes were bound for New York City while another plane headed towards Washington, D.C. which was supposed to take out the U.S. Capitol. Two of the airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center. One plane hitting the North Tower and the other hitting the South Tower. The third plane had crashed into the Pentagon taking out the western side of the building. The last and final plane was focused solely on taking out the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. but failed due to passengers of the plane coming hijacking it from the hijackers. The passengers attempted to take out the hijackers but sadly failed, crashing it into a field in Pennsylvania. Throughout the content of this paper, we will be focusing on the role of media when it comes to 9/11; more specifically: how the media's coverage of 9/11 manipulated our feelings towards 9/11, how it affected Islamophobia in America, and the lasting effects of 9/11.
Has the New York Times negatively stereotyped Arab Muslims for the past forty years? The goal of this research project is to reveal the negative stereotypes directed towards Arab Muslims in the New York Times. The critical focus of the research is the consistency of the negative stereotypes. The underlying focus is what theoretical and historical effects result from the negative stereotypes.
Targets of suspicion: the impact of post-9/11 policies on Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in the US. (2004, May 1). Retrieved from http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/special-reports/targets-suspicion-impact-post-911-policies-muslims-arabs-and-south-asians-us
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.
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.
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
The biggest terrorist attack in American history occurred on September 11, 2001. The Islamic al-Qaeda group hijacked four airliners in the United States. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third struck the Pentagon, and the fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed including over 400 police officers and firefighters. America's view on the world and Muslims all over, forever changed. Muslims are judged and criticized still today after these events. Muslim Americans after 9/11 should have a right to live freely in America, can help us stop Islamic terrorism, and can increase unity with American citizens and the communities.
Rose, Steve. "Since 9/11, Racism and Islamophobia Remain Intertwined | Steve Rose." The Huffington Post UK. N.p., 09 Nov. 2013. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.
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.
We live in an age and time where media influence is at its highest. The media has an impact on us as an audience through every possible medium including both television and print media. As scientists find and cure diseases, as America finds a new country to invade, as the European markets fluctuate, there has been one constant subject prevalent in the Western media- Islam. 1.6 billion people in the world are of the Muslim religion (Desilver 2013), making it the world’s second largest religion, second to Christianity. Even prior to the events of 9/11, the religion of Islam has been under scrutiny by the media. Edward Said, infamous for his works on Orientalism has greatly contributed to our understanding of the Western misunderstanding of the Eastern based religion. Said has defined Orientalism as the Western’s style of domination, reconstruction, and authority over the Orient (Said 1978: 3). Orientalism has observable effects in the most forms of media. As a result, and irrational fear of Islam and those that practice the religion began-Islamophobia. As defined by the International Civil Liberties Alliance, Islamophobia is “a term which is widely used by NGOs and frequently appears in the media, tends to denote fear, hatred or prejudice against Islam and Muslim” (ICLA 2013). This project will attempt to understand what the audience perception is about Islamophobia in the media. It will aim to uncover the ways in which television channels amplify common misperceptions about Islam. As a Muslim myself, this is an area that has always been of interest to me, and like many audiences I have been able to witness the dimensions of Islamophobia s depicted by the western media. After the events of September 2001, the fears of Islam and ...
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”.