A Recurrent Nightmare For Muslims

In the airports, Muslim people became “the usual suspects”, were thoroughly searched and often interrogated. In her article, O’Connor claims that the lives of American Muslims changed forever, and the statement is hard to disagree with (“How 9/11 Changed These Muslim Americans’ Lives Forever.”) Those who had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks, their children and grandchildren were sentenced to face racism, hate and violence.

The latest hot topic when it comes to the Republican candidates for the presidential election is Muslims. From Donald Trump saying we have a “Muslim problem”, to Ben Carson saying Muslims are unfit for office, the attack on Muslims has been a big subject. In this New York Times editorial “The Republican Attack on Muslims”, the author talks about how recently the Republicans were not the nicest when it comes to the Muslim community. Recently, Donald Trump has hinted towards his dislike for Muslims. In a recent interview, the interviewer stated that “we have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims”, and that our President (who is an American-born Christian) is also a Muslim. When the interviewer asked Mr. Trump when we would get rid of them, he said “We’re going to be looking into that.” Donald Trump has also stated that he thinks Muslims were behind the World Trade Center attacks, which is not true.

American Muslims are having their civil rights violated more and more and are constantly being discriminated against. Haddad says that “Post 9/11 American Muslims were linked to enemy others and were expected to prove their loyalty to the nation-state in ways other Americans were not expected to do. The trope of Muslims as enemies within lingers.” The national media still portrays American Muslims as enemies to the United States. These unquestioned beliefs about Muslims leads to Islamophobia and Said says “To most Americans, Islam is nothing but trouble. The use of the label Islam, to either explain or indiscriminately condemn Islam, becomes a form of attack.” Said goes on to say that “Islam is used to define a small portion of extremism instead of the billion Muslims

There have been many theories of President Obama and his administration that had backed up the global Islamist militant group known the Muslim Brotherhood, but there is no actual proof or evidence to suggest any support, yet people continue to find some way to degrade Muslims . In 2015, Donald Trump announced his running for the White House, and ever since has been in the middle of controversy over his racist comments. At first, Trump made headlines by calling mexican immigrants murders and rapists, then he attacked the muslim communities. “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country 's representatives can figure out what is going on,” (Diamond). Trump is encouraging the people of the United States to have more of a negative outlook on Islam. “I think Islam hates us, the billionaire told CNN 's Anderson Cooper when asked whether the religion was at war with the West,” (Bruton). That comment made by Trump, was related to the shooting in San Bernardino, where a Muslim couple went on a killing spree. Even though the killers were from a Muslim background, anyone could have started a mass murder, but the media kept the focus on their religion. The shooting event of Planned Parenthood in Colorado, Springs, where Robert Lewis Dear Jr. murdered people over religious views. Since Robert Lewis Dear Jr. wasn’t muslim, the media didn’t go into a state of panic.

Nowadays the campus violence problem becomes a hot topic which arouses more and more people to be concerned about campus gun shooting. People in the world have heard and seen this kind of tragedy over and over in the news. The Safety of United States schools was seriously questioned by the world when in the news all we heard about was there was another shooting in an American high school or university. According to “School Shooting Statistics” which I searched from “Top10 Crimes” website, there are more than 40 shootings on American campus from 1996 – 2009. The gun shooting on American campus is a serious problem that is worth thinking about, because all the parents hope their children can

One is a tall African American wearing a baseball cap. The next a middle-aged white farmer. The one after, an Asian teenager. Finally the last is a middle-eastern fellow wearing a turban. You most likely selected the Muslim, middle-eastern man. Now you may be feeling a bit of guilt since you chose the last man simply due to his religion and ethnicity. But it is not your fault. This simple scenario proves exactly how influential the media can really be. When you a picture a terrorist, unfortunately it is inevitable you picture the last guy in the police lineup. As the host, Brian Kilmeade of Fox News once said, “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.” The Fox network even came to Kilmeade’s defense after this comment. Clearly Brian was oblivious to this statistic: non-Muslims have carried out more than 90% of all terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Nevertheless, the millions of viewers watching that telecast did not have anyone to combat his hurtful accusations with any evidence or facts, with which you are provided here. Instead, the majority of the audience probably sat on the couch nodding their heads having come to this false

On June 12, 2016, American born citizen Omar Mateen walked into Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida and opened fire with 2 weapons killing forty-nine people and injuring fifty- three others. At around 2:00 am Omar placed a call to 911 and said pledged his loyalty to al-Baghdadi and to ISIS.Then shortly after placing another call, Mateen said, “It’s me, it’s me, I’m the shooter.” Presently, Mateen’s motives are unknown. However, past mass shooters have been motivated by mental instability, terroristic activities, and extreme radicalization.

Our country, the United States of America, has been shaken up by the current event that occurred Wednesday December 2, 2015. In our very own state, a shooting occurred in San Bernardino County. The massacre occurred in a holiday party where fourteen people were killed and twenty-one people were left wounded. The suspects behind this terror were a married muslim couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik who opened fired on their co-workers. However, they were soon killed in a gun battle with the police. In the article, “Obama Seeks to Calm Americans on Terror Threat, but Speech Underscores Challenges” by Michael A. Mamoli, it states that President Obama addressed the nation from the oval office stating that the shooting “… was an act of

On November 5, 2009 there was a mass shooting that was committed by Nidal Hasan a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist. As a result of the shooting Hasan killed 13 people and wounded more than people. Hasan is an American Born Army solider that killed and wounded his fellow Army mates. The killing by Hasan was terrorist attack against the system he felt persecuting and killing his fellow Muslim brothers and now this seem system wanted him to deployed to Afghanistan. “Hasan's project dealt with "whether the war on terror is a war against Islam" (Plaza, 2015).

At least 59 people died in a shooting at a Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. The shooter was perched on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, with multiple weapons. The first round of gunfire sent everyone fleeing, scrambling over airport security fences and out of the concert. 23 firearms were found it the shooter’s suite. The shooter was 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, who after the shooting shot and killed himself. The man had no criminal history, except for a minor citation. The police do not believe this has any relation to any terrorist group. Officers and first responders arrived at the scene as fast as possible.

This was exemplified by the treatment of comments made by Ben Affleck when he appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO show, and those of Reza Aslan on CNN. While both argued against anti-Muslim prejudice, their opinions were viewed very differently by the American media. While Ben Affleck’s visceral anger, calling Maher’s ideology “gross and racist,” was praised and valued, Aslan, a Muslim American academic and professor of religion, was forced into an apologetic stance to elicit a recognition that Muslims are diverse in their outlooks and beliefs before being dismissed anyway. His opinion was later recast as angry and hostile, invalidating his argument completely by basing it in emotion rather than rationality, tactics that we see employed over and over again. Compare Affleck’s obvious annoyance and Aslan’s polite frustration, and it is easily ascertainable that Affleck’s white privilege allows him to express similar sentiments as Aslan in far cruder terms, and not be dismissed entirely for it.

Here and abroad, politicians adopt increasingly polarised responses to terror: either, the Barrack Obama pretence of blocking out all references to Islam, or the populist, and xenophobic view stigmatizing all Muslims and refugees in the process. Obama displayed a bewildering refusal to acknowledge Islam, most recently displayed when he ascribed the blame for the Orlando shooting on general attitudes to the LGBTI community. Any mention of Islam, or the fundamentalist sects within it, supposedly “feeds the narrative”, or “plays into the hands” of terrorists.

His notions of a violent, intolerant, and polarized Islam is based off the acts of extremists and his own preconceptions. Regrettably, Hannity’s views are consistent with the political agenda of the US political right, and just one example of the ways in which Islam is misunderstood in the US. To truly understand Islam one must understand that the Quran is not the cause of terrorism – that it includes values like charity and tolerance, Islam is not intolerant of other religions – in fact it feels connected to them, there has not been a single act of terror committed by a Muslim refugee in the US, and Shiism is not naturally

Groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda are constantly communicated in reference to current events with words such as Muslim highlighted; media fails, however, to explain how these groups have come about and instead take the simple route of blaming religion and giving fearful Americans a common religious enemy. After the infamous attack on September 11th, Al Qaeda has become an ideology with the false pretense of justifying their actions through their religion, causing a decentralized movement of sprouting terrorist groups claiming themselves a servant of Allah as well. Al Qaeda, as a fundamentalist organization, has always been highly focused on publicly prominent political, economic, and symbolic targets with the hopes of intimidating or coercing the civilian population. Osama Bin Laden’s assassination, as the leader responsible for the destruction on September 11th, has ultimately led to the emergence of a generation of sympathetic yet unaffiliated individuals inspired by Al Qaeda’s ideology. The ongoing war in Iraq, the U.S.’s presence in Afghanistan, as well as Guantanamo has further influenced these misinformed people, who blatantly follow organizations such as ISIS and Al Qaeda using the justification of Islam for their actions. Unfortunately, this growing population of misguided, ignorant people has exacerbated the unfair institutionalization of all individuals identify as Muslim being terrorists, jihadists, against Western culture, or affiliated with extremist

Senator John Mccain won his primary election on Tuesday. Now that McCain won he can go and find his lost character which he lost in the 2008 campaign for president. It takes us back to a moment where they are in a press conference, in the conference there is a woman who rose to express her doubts about Barack Obama. She states that he is an Arabian, but Mccain quickly responded back and said “he’s a decent family man, and a citizen” It is not just that this lady believes Obama is not a citizen, but also 27 percent of the party believe the same thing. In addition, 46 percent of Republicans believe that Obama is a Muslim. Not only do they highly doubt Obama and his citizenship status, but also half of them believed it was his fault the the big bailout banks and insurance companies under TARP were enacted, not by President Bush.The democrats are seem to be the underdogs