Stereotypes In America Essay

765 Words2 Pages

A stereotype is a widely held and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. “People do stereotype. That seems to be a part of human nature; judging all people in a certain category based on the appearance or acts of a single or small minority group of people from the same group.” Affecting the Muslim community are the stereotypes that “Muslims are terrorists” or “Islam is a terrorist religion” and many others. Appealing to readers, newspaper headlines often print the words “Islam” and “Muslim” next to words like “fanatic,” “fundamentalist,” “militant,” “terrorist” and “violence.” Islam is now presented as a security risk in the first line. Overall, the main challenges Muslims in America face are stereotypical discrimination and generally based on a characteristic of one or few well-known Muslim groups who manage to grasp attention. Rather than sulking and disassociating from non-Muslims, Muslims in America need to …show more content…

To make people aware of the practices of Islam, Muslims need to show them what Islam teaches through their actions. For instance, to publicly display Islamic principles, Muslims can join local protests, volunteer at aid centers and food pantries, and attend multi-religious events. Muslims and non-Muslims should not be dividing because of our difference, but uniting because of the principles we share. For example, in Luke 6:31 it says “Do to others as you would have them do to you” and in the hadith it says “Do unto all men as you would wish to have done unto you; and reject for others what you would reject for yourselves.” (Abu Dawood) Many non-Muslims back away from Muslims because the media portrays Muslims as terrorists, but when we do our part as Muslims and show them who we really are through our actions, it will not be as hard for them then to determine the evil of some Muslims from the good of the rest

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