Arab and Muslim Americans

Like other ethnic minority groups in America, Arab Americans face daily challenges in their overall development and well-being. These challenges take the form of discrimination, stereotyping, and general negative reactions to them as an ethnic group.

Americans strongly affirm the principles of religious freedom, religious tolerance, and separation of church and state. Nearly 9-in-10 (88 percent) Americans agree that America was founded on the idea of religious freedom for everyone, including religious groups that are unpopular. Ninety-five percent of Americans agree that all religious books should be treated with respect even if we don’t share the religious beliefs of those who use them. Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) of Americans agree that we must maintain a strict separation of church and state. Americans’ views of Muslims and Islam are mixed, however. As with other previously marginalized religious groups in U.S. history, Americans are grappling with the questions Islam poses to

It is written that there shall be no law prohibiting the formation of any religion on American soil. This is the base of America’s claim to being a “boiling pot.” Each culture around the world has its own set of beliefs and morals. When the United States was established, immigrants came from all over the world to be able to pursue the religion of their choice without fear of being prosecuted. With these people came languages, customs, styles and so much more. This blending of different cultures is what gives America the diversity within schools and gives children the ability to see how the world outside this country functions on a day to day basis. Likewise, with each religion came new

Everyone of us has our own unique culture and religion identification in the world. Also, known by the culture beliefs, behavior patterns, and which group or religion, we represent, but we have to represent each other because of their religion after all we are all human beings first. Also, their are many different variations of cultures living together in the same neighborhood, these days, and representing each other for cultures identity and what we believe in. We need to avoid any misunderstanding there is in the world about any cultures or religion.

Working with the Muslim American population a social worker should apply the skill of cultural competence. A social worker demonstrating the skill of cultural competence is important when working with Muslim Americans because it allows the social worker to grow in his or her awareness. Growing in the awareness of the Muslim American population is of key importance as it allows the social worker to exceedingly help the client and getting to know the client in depth. With that being said, Muslim Americans have cultural values that may affect the treatment options and the way the social worker communicates with the client; illustrating the importance of the social worker growing in his or her awareness in the clients culture.

Americans view September 11th as the impetus for a paradigm shift in the racial dynamic between Muslim Americans and traditional Christian Americana. Following the rise of ISIL, Ben Affleck refuted a “codified doctrine of Islam,” that mandates fundamentalist aggression. This goes hand-in-hand with what has been coined as “civilizational arrogance,” the assumption of total understanding of a religion. Noted Islamophobes, such as Bill Maher, insist that the supposed doctrine of Islam impedes his right to free speech. This plays into the idea of what has become known as “liberal victimhood,” the casting of oneself as oppressed.

The video “Being Muslim- American” by Dalia Khan is about what it means for her being a Muslim- American and all the obstacles and discrimination she had to face. Also, her experience on her first time wearing a hijab and instead of people showing hate they should show compassion and support to their fellow Muslim friends. I was really moved by the way she described everything about being Muslim- American.

The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 was a tragic event for all Americans, including Arab Americans. Due to the fact that the nineteen terrorist who hijacked the four planes were Middle Eastern Muslims, Arab Muslim Americans were suddenly viewed with suspicion and became the victims of discrimination and hate crimes. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were a dual tragedy for Muslim Arab Americans. Arab Americans died in the attack, were part of rescue efforts, and worked bravely at Ground Zero among other Americans. Sadly, they got very little recognition, very little time to mourn because they quickly became the target of hate crimes and discrimination. Despite, being part of the American culture for generations, after the 9/11 attack Muslims

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.

cultures and their behavior styles; in order for the culture to accept any type of assistance medical, financial, and education and assist in breaking barriers for counseling with this culture. Arab is one of the well-known culture around the world with a strong connection with Islam. They believe in one God (Allah) and Muhammad is his prophet. In addition, they also believe in Jewish and Christian tradition. Furthermore Arabs are not all Muslim, not are all Muslims Arab. Fewer 20% of Muslims worldwide are Arabs (Hasnain, Shaikh, & Shanawani 2008). There are 22 countries that Arabs are currently living in United States that share common terms of religion, language, and culture; however they vary politically, socially, and economically,

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides citizens the liberty to practice religion free from government intervention, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 have taken that freedom from those who practice religion. This act prevents businesses from practicing their religion publicly. Discriminating the practice of someone’s religion is an intolerance to their beliefs. Religion is popularly viewed as an unequal identifier when compared to their race, gender, and/or sexual orientation. This is the result of a narrow-minded society that beliefs religion is a means to discriminate

this type of religion being a part of U.S. culture. In the article “Hate Crimes Against Muslims” we can clearly look at the examples of how people, who have the right to express their religion freely in our country, are treated by other citizens with the exact same rights. For example: “A woman wearing a headscarf was insulted, told to “go back to her country” and physically assaulted. The perpetrator broke one of her fingers and ripped off her headscarf.”

One of the least known minority groups in the United States is the Middle Eastern minority. Although the place of Middle Easterners became the forefront of public discussions recently, especially with relation to Islam and terrorism after 9/11, Middle Easterners in the United States have a long history. They have become part of the American society, and many second- and third generation Americans with Middle Eastern background have become publicly recognizable figures, working in the business, political, entertainment, and media sectors as well as the U.S. military. Among these figures are General John Abizaid, Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, actress Shannon Elizabeth, Miss USA Pageant Rima Fakih, and political and social activist Ralph Nader.

Arabs, as part of the Eastern world, have been and are continually othered by the West. In fact, the continuous process of vilification and negative portrayals has created some kind of general opinion and understanding of Arabs and Islam both in the United States and in the rest of the world. According to some sweeping generalizations, an Arab should be someone coming from the Middle East. An Arab should necessarily be a Muslim. An Arab should be either a rich sheikh with a beard and a long robe or a Bedouin roaming the deserts with his camels and flocks of sheep. An Arab should be a terrorist driven by the heavenly promise of angelic women in the afterlife and who coldheartedly kills innocent people, mainly Americans and Europeans,

To even begin to delve into our topic, we must first define the following terms: Arab, Muslim and Middle East. Millions of the people that fall into these categories live in the United States, yet we hardly take the time to learn to differentiate between them thanks to the negative connotations that are associated with each of these terms (Chin, 2009).