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A pregnant Muslim Egyptian woman was stabbed to death in a German courtroom in 2009. The twenty-eight year old German man repeatedly stabbed her sixteen times. She bled to death in front of her child and husband (“Islamophobia” Global n.p.). Islamophobia is a relatively new term that refers to the fear of Islam and Muslims Some sources also include discrimination and hostility towards Muslims in their definition. Therefore, Islamophobia can be defined as the irrational fear of and hostility towards Islam and Muslims (“Islamaphobia” Opposing n.p). In a U.S.A Today Poll done in 2007, thirty-nine percent of Americans admitted to feeling some sort of prejudice against Muslims. About the same percentage favored Muslims to carry some sort of ID in order to prevent terrorist attacks. About one in four people said that they would not want to have Muslims as their neighbors (Kumar n.p). However, majority of Americans have seemed to developed better attitudes towards Islam/Muslims. “According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll in 2010, 37 percent of Americans had favorable opinions of Islam and Muslims” (“Islamophobia” Opposing n.p). About sixty percent of Americans surveyed admitted that they weren’t that knowledgeable about Islam. “It seems that the foundation of Islamophobia, for many, may be a simple lack of information” (“Islamophobia” Global n.p). Islam has nothing to fear.
The media plays one of the major roles in fueling this fear. By portraying horrifying scenes from around the world, the media introduces fear into “large populations, especially in countries where the average household watches television eight hours a day” (Beuhler n.p). The media seems to excel when covering conflict, especially when it comes to the Islamic wor...
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...ed due to their lack of knowledge. What most people know comes from the media which is not entirely accurate. Their beliefs that Islam is monolithic, sexist, and violent are invalid. Although a monolithic, sexist religion should cause fear, it could cause hostility. Only a religion’s violence should, which Islam is not.
Works Cited
"Islamophobia." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
"Islamophobia." Global Issues in Context Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Global Issues In Context. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
Kumar, Deepa. “Islam and Islamophobia.” Isreview. March 2007. ISR. Web. 05 Feb. 2014
“Islamophobia: A Challenge For Us All.” Runny Mede Trust. Runny Mede Trust. n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.
Kabani. “WHAT JIHAD IS.” Islamic Supreme Council. Islamic Supreme Council.n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
In this article, Kasam explains her experience being a Muslim American on a college campus and the challenges she her and fellow Muslims face on campus. She explains how she is a club leader at Quinnipiac University for a Muslim group. She claims that there is not a lot of Muslims who attend that University. She also believes that many Muslims at the school are afraid of coming out and telling other people on campus that they are Muslims; keeping a low profile. She provides statistics on hate crimes against Muslims around the world, and she also expresses her concern to her Muslim friends on campus. This article was published in the College Xpress for mainly college students to view. Kasam is a staff writer for the Quinnipiac Chronicle who mainly writes stories about incidents on and around Quinnipiac University. This article will help me explain the various problems that Muslim students around college campuses face
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
“Islamophobia” was thought to be used commonly during late 1980s in Great Britain as a discriminative word towards Muslim
Consequently, it is no surprise that the most powerful media sources are spewing out pieces of hateful rhetoric that result in the “othering” of Muslims in the U.S. With the increase of Islamophobia and American nationalism. are currently driving hate crimes and institutional discrimination, human fear and emotion are becoming twisted and utilized as weapons in of its
The last decade has brought two blatant changes to American civilizations in particular and Western civilizations in general. The first is a greater concern about Islam and Muslims, and the second is a much highly visibility of Muslims within those civilizations. Numerous people may have imagined that there weren’t many Muslims living in their communities until recently, but now, one can see visibly Muslim persons often in their veils or robes, walking the streets, shopping in the cities, and going to the schools (Saeed, 2007). There is no doubt that the increased visibility of Muslims has been a matter of some interest (allen,2010). The French have banned people wearing markers of Muslim religion, such as the hijab and niqab, in public, and many Americans have protested against mosques and other expressions of the religion. In addition, numerous Westerners have a stereotyped image of Muslim visibility, for instance, assuming that all Muslim females wear the same style and color, of garb (Ameli & Merali, 2004) Many Westerners associate the visibility of Muslims with non-Western and anti-Western culture and beliefs, including the oppression of women, and therefore hold a very negative attitude and view toward it and them (Briggs, Fieschi, & Lownsbrough, 2006).
Burns, Thomas J. "Islam." Religion and Society. OU Campus' Dale Hall, Norman. 14 Apr. 2014. Lecture.
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, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
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.
Robinson B.A. 1 Mar 2000 (last update), Islam, Hp. Online. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Available:
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
Similar to the Salem Witch Trials, these fears had no proper foundation, but after these brutal attacks, many people didn’t know what else to do, but be afraid. Comparable to “The Crucible,” the public showed great fear and they were very suspicious of the people they believed were suspects or possible perpetrators. People that expressed Islamophobia, which was an “exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims” grew in numbers (Gallup). The 9/11 attacks sparked a fear and hysteria against innocent American Muslims, which was very unintelligent, due to the fact that this was not based on the malice or terror of these Muslims, but actually their connection through religion with the
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 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.
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 ...