9/11 Discrimination In Canada

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Muslims everywhere began to be wrongfully persecuted and attacked. They have also since been denied equality in the workplace as “Americans with Muslim names have a harder time finding a job” and “American Muslims have experienced increased job discrimination since 2001” (Epstein 53). Without the ability to find a job, not only are Muslims effected in their daily lives, they are also unable to find a source of income, hindering them from supporting their families. Muslim religion can also cause further disturbances because there are several “law-abiding Muslims who are unfairly targeted and punished simply because they are Muslim” (qtd. in Epstein 52). This exemplifies the idea

The “mold of a Muslim post 9/11 was anyone fitting the description of a Muslim, which was wearing a hijab for women and wearing a turban for men. If you went to a mosque, which was the Muslim house of worship, you were considered a Muslim. Anyone who fit that “mold” had a red flag put on them. For example, Rasha and her family were arrested and detained by the FBI in the middle of the night, “because they were being investigated for possible terrorism connections” (21). Due to the heightened level of security after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 committed by Muslim extremist; this family was targeted because of their religious beliefs. Ironically, the Muslim extremism that the terrorists of 9/11 depicted was a direct contrast of the true core Muslim values of honesty and compassion that Muslims are taught in their families. For instance, when she was young, Rasha’s parents taught her “the simple values of honesty, compassion and protecting her honor” (17). Readers can see that Rasha’s family valued their Muslim heritage and brought her up to value them as

On September 11, 2010, as I was walking through the halls of my elementary school, ready to go home, I saw a boy wearing a gray pikachu shirt, blue baggy jeans, cool neon sneakers, and a gray Jansport bookbag. I smiled as we made eye contact, and he ran over to me and pulled off my headscarf, yelling “TERRORIST!” This wasn’t the first time this had happened. Many nights I would come home crying, and my mom would have the responsibility of teaching her ten-year-old daughter that her religion was nothing to be ashamed of. The constant anger filled faces always made my heart beat rapidly, yet it didn’t deter me from being open about my beliefs. However, what finally made me take my headscarf off was the pre-conceived notions about what constitutes a hijabi.

This is a 39% increase in the Australian Muslim growth rate since 2001, alarmingly, surpassing Australia’s current total population projections, however, although Islam is the fastest growing religion internationally, it is not domestically and Muslims are still an under represented minority in Australia. The above mentioned figures are an example as to how statistics can be manipulated into the wrong context to fit a media publications own construction of Muslim discourse. The contemporary (post 2000) links between Muslims and terrorism made by the media were the unprecedented widespread attacks in the United States that occurred on 11 September 2001. These events set the scene for the Australian medias role in implicitly and explicitly identifying Muslims as the other, equating Muslims [and Islam] with the threat of terrorism (Anne Ally,2007). An example of the equating of Islam with terrorism is Sharia Law. The media often associates this holy law of Islam documenting the expectations of Allah, and the positive principles followed by billions of Muslims of different backgrounds and cultures globally through scenes of brutality and oppression of the people in the conflicted middle eastern region linking it to the corrupted Jihadist fighters

The article “Attitudes Toward Muslim Women in the West” is about an interview with Lila Abu-Lughod by the Asian Society is explaining how people treat Muslim women and how it affects them. One example of this is how things changed after 9/11. Abu-Lughod says “Many of us have noticed that suddenly, after 9/11 and the American response of war in Afghanistan, the hunger for information about Muslim women seems insatiable. My own experience of this was the form of an avalanche of invitations to appear on news programs and at universities and colleges.” Once there were terrorist attacks by Muslim men, anyone who was Muslim became a threat to society in people’s minds. Even though this happened over 17 years ago, when people walking along the street see a woman wearing a hijab (a traditional Muslim headdress) or a man who looks Middle Eastern they stare or walk faster, even pull their kids away and tell them not to look. What is that kid going to think, do they understand and think that this person looks different so that means they should treat them differently? When you think about it, racism is passed down through generations, even if you do not realize it, kids are being taught to be

Immediately affter 9/11, Muslim Americans were victims to more frequent hate crimes and bias incidents. According to the FBI (2002), hate crimes against Muslims rose 1,600 percent between the years of 2000 and 2001; going from 12 hate incidents in 2000 to 93 in 2001. A study conducted immediately after 9/11 showed that 40 percent of Americans felt that the attacks represented the “true teachings of Islam” and that between 2002 and 2003 the number of Americans that thought Islam promotes violence against non-Muslims rose by 14 percent (Panagopoulos, 2006). When Muslims themselves were surveyed, their feelings mirrored the findings in post 9/11 studies: 91 percent of Muslims surveyed believed that discrimination against Muslims in the United

Since September 11, 2001 the Muslim religion has been assaulted verbally and physically. People of the religion had to fear from physical threats, their religious gathering places vandalized, and hate speech is readily heard. 16 years later, this behavior is still in existence but has gone further by demonizing their beliefs through the media. Hate groups such as ISIS and the Taliban support the demonize being made and causing the non-extremist to feel the wrath of intolerance. Social intolerance of this religion has caused conflict for women wearing Hijab. They are being subject to having to remove such item to participate in events of daily

Within a society that is places a great deal of importance on the pursuit for truth, there must be discourse on the controversial Maclean’s articles regarding the prominence of Islam in the West – rather than leaving it as a one-sided argument. It is very easy for those opposing Islam, or for argument sake, anything that contrasts the Western majority’s views or background, to disguise their hate speech under the guise of free speech, and one can see that is the case for Mark Steyn’s arguments. Not only is Mr. Steyn using selective quotations and certain ‘facts’ as a means of defending his position on the suggested Islamic takeover of the West, but he is also contributing to rhetoric that can be taken by readers that already have a biased and negative outlook on Islam as a vehicle to further their distaste in the religious practice. Painting a religion of over a billion followers with the same brush is not only extremely detrimental to society, but to only showcase Mark Steyn’s opinions as well as the many articles that posit an unfavourable view of Islam which were highlighted in Maclean’s is harmful for a society such as Canada and in no way contributes to achieving truth. In order to grow and develop as a democratic society, the values of the majority should not overpower those of the minority and the government should have intervened on the basis that the rhetoric could be interpreted in a manner that can lead to the hate of a group by those who already hold a negative

Security mechanisms used to protect the entirety of the Canadian state at the behest of certain ethnic and religious categories become legitimized through violence acts towards political institutions or figures (Bell 155). These ethnic and religious categories that experience biopolitical racial profiling by the security state are typically Middle Eastern or Islamic in appearance or action. These groups of people are increasingly being viewed as connected to terrorist activities in Middle Eastern countries. Critics arguing the Canada’s security regime breaches the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because of the possible use of surveillance and security provisions against Canadian citizens who are members of these ethnic and religious groups (Shaffer 200). Racial profiling in the surveillance provisions of these security acts against politically unpopular groups should not be underestimated” (Shaffer

Mogahed, a Muslim woman living in America at the time of the terrorist attack on 9/11, speaks about her experience with white America after the attack. She talked about what made her attracted to the Islam religion and how her friends reacted when she started wearing the Hijab. Her young friends asked her why she would willingly subject herself to the oppression that Americans see in Islam, she told them that wearing the Hijab is actually a feminist act. After 9/11 she faced strange looks, profanity shouted at her on the street, and the fear of what might happen if she didn't listen to the news. Muslims were told to stay indoors and not

The face of Islam in western society has changed in light of the recent Paris attacks on November 13, 2015. Muslims in Canada are effectively trying to distance themselves from the extremist group associated with the Paris attacks. Due to the prejudice response to the attacks, Muslim Canadians are speaking up against the extremist group ISIS as written in the article by Sheema Khan in the national newsprint ‘The Globe and Mail’. The title of this article is “In the fight against terrorism, Muslims must own their message”, The Globe and Mail, 18 November 2015 (http://bit.ly/1lNjmYr).

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

Evelyn Alsultany takes a different approach to the oppression of Muslim women that the U.S. portrayed in the media to fuel the War on Terror and analyses that the U.S. portrayed Islam as backwards and an uncivilized culture. Alsultany analyzes published stories and news shows on CNN, NBC, CBS, and Fox after the 9/11 attacks and concludes that these news stations used women’s oppression and linked it with terrorist attacks because they conveyed that Muslim men hated the West’s cultural ideals of women being free and wanted to impose Islam on the West. The media portrays women’s veiled oppression, female genital mutilation, honour killings, and women being beaten as they did not dress properly as the nature of Islam’s backwardness and

These days everybody gets criticized by someone. It is either by a friend, a relative, or a stranger. People commonly get judged by the clothes you wear, the car you drive, accessories you have, and even the place you live in. Currently, in the United States, Muslims are being criticized for the things they wear—especially women. Most Muslim women, who live in the United States, wear scarves, also known as hijabs. Hijabs are supposed to cover the head and neck and only show the woman’s face. People conclude that the Muslim women are terrorists and try to avoid them. Today, people associate Muslims with terrorism because the terror attacks in the U.S. are mostly committed by Islam extremists; therefore, people believe all Muslim women are terrorists,

September 11th holds many hard and upset feelings around the world today. The harsh actions of Muslim extremists unfortunately completely changed the way Muslims are treated, especially in the United States. These events, exacerbated islamophobia. Unfortunately, “the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, connect Muslims and Islam to terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States.” (Byng) Although it has been over a decade since the attack, many still feel racist and discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims. Muslims are the targeted minority in the United States, “the 9/11 terrorist attacks shifted the social and political context for Muslims in the United States. Terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States carried out by Muslims places an identity at the center of national and global politics.” (Byng) The blame of the horrible terrorist attacks, rather than be placed on terrorists or religious extremist, has been placed on Islam in America. After September 11th, hate crimes towards Muslims skyrocketed, “the most dramatic change noted by the report was a more than 1,600 percent increase in reported hate crimes against Muslims -- a jump from 28 hate incidents in 2000 to 481 last year.”