30 Days Muslim in America

In the lecture “What It’s like to Be Muslim in America” by Dalia Mogahed, Dalia emphasizes how “Muslims are like canaries in the coal mine, we might be the first to feel it, but the toxic air of fear is harming us all” (Mogahed). This xenophobic behavior is what strives citizens to fear one another and find an excuse to polarize a certain ethnicity for their alleged affiliations with terrorist groups. This overwhelming fear causes the initial hatred towards some people but it ultimately ricochets onto the rest of society. Next, the abundant amount of fear proves to be detrimental to society due to the fact that it provokes disastrous behavior between citizens. According to Dalia, “ISIS has as much to do with Islam as the Ku Klux Klan has to

what was your overall impression of the video? Was it a balanced/accurate portrayal of the issue/people? How? /Why not? Did your position and/or understanding of the issues change? How? /Why not?

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.

The issue of women in Islam is highly controversial. As a Muslim American living in the United States many times I get judged about my religion. People think that because I am a Muslim woman in America I am being restricted from many things and can’t be like every other woman in America. Islam has many similarities with other religion and it does have its differences. Being raised as a Muslim woman in America has made me the strong and independent woman I am today. I am going to be talking about my own religion that I’m well knowledgeable of. What the media shows and how people talk badly about the religion is truly ruining the religion and its true beauty. Woman in Islam are not being oppressed for anything there’s true beauty behind this

this video has impacted me and what I will take away from this video. Also, what will be

The first and most important thing is that all people are created equal and deserve to be treated with respect. This is something I have always known, but I loved seeing it affirmed in the video. I was also very intrigued by the differences in the scores the children earned when they were the favored group versus when they were discriminated against. I love psychology, and it was fascinating that by simply being told that they were better or that they were worse than the other kids affected their test scores. I also learned that it is easy to say all the right things, but actions speak louder than words. You may say that you believe all people are equal, but it is very important that your actions prove that as well. I am sure that everyone does things, even subconsciously, that are not congruent with what we say we believe. A scene I think I will remember a month from now is the experiment with the adults. It was very interesting to see how the different people responded to the experiment and the thoughts that they expressed

How did the information in this video make you feel? Were you surprised by any of your feelings?

“Since 9/11, Muslims in America are living in fear” (“In a virtual internment camp: Muslim Americans since 9/11”). When our World Trade Center came crashing down, American had one more enemy, Muslims. 9/11 was a tragic act of terrorism and those victims will not be forgotten, but because of the Muslims that did this terrible act most Muslims in America were grouped into one category, evil.

What it’s Like to be a Muslim in America by Dalia Mogahed and A Tale of Two Americas and the Mini-mart Where They Collided by Anand Giridharadas, both talk about what life is like being the “other” in America. Being a minority and trying to live a normal life interacting with the majority is shone to be difficult. There are two worlds living in one country, but neither of them truly understand each other.

The abrupt public focus on Muslims has changed the significance of being a Muslim American for many people. There were some who wanted to hide their Muslim identity or distance themselves as a result of all the negative attention they were receiving. Muslim Americans were affected by a societal backlash in 9/11, mainly by the war on terror. The suspicion of Muslim terrorist intensified after 9/11 that shifted racial identity amongst citizens, rather than it being a person who follows the religion (religious category) it became a racial identity. However, on the other hand in her research, Ewing has found that, "In some cases, the backlash has also led to an affirmation or strengthening of Muslim identification” (p. 19). Not all post 9/11 community attitudes toward Muslims are negative, in some cases as such it strengthen one’s identity. The importance is how these experiences feed into the process of how one felt before and after the tragic event and how the way Muslim communities and identities have

The video we had watched was really interesting. I really resonated with the idea that no matter how hard Mexican Americans tried, they were never good enough. There are many minority groups that feel this way within the United States, including women. Civil Rights are still something people are fighting for today. This story was unique in the specific group it helped, but it was not unique in what the group was working toward. Discrimination is something that many people face and have faced, but today there are more programs and services in place to ensure that rules and laws are fair. It is important to acknowledge that change has happened because more people of color were allowed to have input in government and areas of society.

Instead of punishing only the terrorist Muslims, the American government punishes all of them. "Today the government uses both political repression and cultural fearmonging against Arabs and Muslims in the United States" ("Arab). A year after 9/11, Special Registration began and it required not only the interviewing and fingerprinting of more than 170,000 Muslim-country originated men, but also the deportation of 14,000 people ("Arab"). Muslim-Americans are the most oppressed minority in the United States. Muslim women can't wear traditional garments without recieveing a venomus glare. In a country that is engulfed in christiananity, the Muslim faith isn't widely accepted by the tyrannical nation. However, the government has made attempts

It was shown on CNN, Fox News and on 30 college campuses nationwide, 28 million copies have been given away for free in swing states before the start of the 2008 presidential election. The documentary starts out talking about 9/11 and shows footage from the attack, then shows Islamic men in black robes chanting, “death to America” in a mosque in Lebanon. It shows footage from the attacks on a Spanish train station in 2004 and other terrorist attacks from around the world including the London bombings. The documentary says terrorism is a worldwide issue and shows a suicide bomber introduction ceremony, claims that ten to fifteen percent of Muslims are radical, says more are anti-American and anti-Zionist. It compares radical Islam to Nazi Germany and says that Islam demonizes the Jewish people and the West. The documentary makes a claim at the beginning that not all Muslims are terrorist and that a very small group actually are extremist but the documentary goes on to generalize Islam as being radical. It says that the United

The agonizing terrorist attacks of September 9th, 2001 left the country in emotional distress. The United States of America decided to prepare for tragic attacks like this and reevaluated its immigration and foreign policies, the citizens of the US also became united and stronger from these attacks. This ideology that the US has become more united after an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people has become mainstream and may be true in some cases, but many people overlook the impact it had on the millions of Muslim Americans. The Muslim generation before us had its own problems dealing with racial discrimination and hate crimes, many people believed it stop their but this contempt was passed on to my generation. The discrimination I have received has caused me to change my aspirations in order to ensure that no one else receives the treatment I had gotten.

the government and media. I believe that people running this country are Anti Islamic due to there view on things. Also this is a Zionist country, which is another reason that makes the media discriminate against the Muslim’s, due to the conflict with Palestine and other Muslim countries. The media has always portrayed Islam in a negative way. The reason the media is biased when it comes to Islam because they hate the Islamic structure and the beliefs. The majority of media conglomerate ownership is of people who