JRP Abukar Essay - 1609 Words

ISLAMOPHOBIA IN WESTERN SOCIETY

There is a general agreement that racism and racial discrimination are intolerable practices of human right abuses everywhere. All around the world, most prominently in Europe and North America, there have been numerous cases of Islamophobic occurrences. After 9/11, the world changed completely every country was on high alert. Countries like the United States and England began expanding their airport security. Muslims and Arab-Americans were feeling most of the heat from this entire backlash. America and Europe were beginning to develop Islamophobia. This is the irrational fear of Islam. It can also be categorized as Xenophobic, meaning the intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries. Americans were denying Muslims and Arab-Americans jobs and Europeans were forbidding Muslims and Arab-Americans from building mosques. The most backlash was from the building of the “Ground-Zero” mosque. The mosque was not even at Ground Zero, it was few blocks away from the spot where the Twin Towers collapsed. Still many Americans showed up to the site before building and protested saying it was disrespectful thing to do, some even consider it as blasphemy.
Islamophobia has affected Muslims since the 1980s, but increased upon the occurrence of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Islamophobia is defined as hostility against Islam or Muslims by excluding them from economic, social, and public life of a nation. The news media is full of information about Muslim terrorists and Muslim extremists and portray a picture of anger and hatred towards America. Also, the suicide attacks by so called “Muslims” in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim nations after the 9/11 incident in this country have painted Islam in a negative way. Most Americans feel that Muslims hate the U.S. and are intent on harming Americans, though they know very little about the religion of Islam. The fact that the media, especially journalists, create and promote such stereotypes in their broadcasts and articles, have played a major role in fostering negative views of Islam. This is the reason that Muslims should reveal to the world that Islam is not what they think it is, but that it is a way of embracing peace and tolerance. By burning flags and making threats of violence, more people are being pushed away from Islam, rather than getting closer to an understanding.
“According to the Council on American Islamic Relations (2009), civil rights violations targeting Muslims in the workplace, at religious institutions, and in schools have escalated. For instance, in 2007 there were 118 reported cases of discrimination in schools, and in 2008 there were 153 reported cases” (Zaal 556). Muslims, (particularly in the west), are being stereotyped, profiled, and subjected to different forms of discriminatory treatment. The U.S. and Europe are having a problem with scale of population shifts with it being an immigrant society. America has been target of many attempted terrorist attacks and possibly the largest terrorist attack in history, 9/11. The West also has had its share of extremists, such as “Dylan Klebold, Eric Rudolph, Theodore Kazcinski, their religion is not questioned,” (“Mass Media” n.pag), but when a name like Mohamed comes up, religion becomes a problem. There actually has been “a lot of right wing, extremist Christian terrorism in the U.S. in the recent years,” (Islamophobia 67). There have been attacks in the U.S. by American extremists from the 90’s to as recently as February of 2010 when “Andrew Joseph Stack flew a plane into IRS” (Islamophobia 67). Stacks’ story was not made to seem like a terrorist attack, but more of an aggravated customer. Because of the impact the media has on the minds of Americans. If a news station was to air a story about suicide bombing in Afghanistan, it would cause more trouble than something of the same caliber occurring on our own soil. The media constructs and

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