Islam-Oppression, Muslim-Terrorist, Sharia-Barbaric. From the horrors of the 9/11 attacks to the brutality of ISIS, these connections, these perceptions, and these views have been reinforced and amplified. These beliefs have come to manifest themselves in actions. In July of 2009, Marwa El-Sherbini was stabbed to death in a courtroom in Dresden, Germany by Alex Wiens after testifying against him in regards to verbal abuses over her wearing of the Islamic headscarf, the hijab. In August of 2012, Wade Michael opened fire on a Sikh temple killing six, while believing they were Muslim. In November of 2014, four mosques in Quebec were vandalized in one week. This has been the atmosphere in which Muslims have come to live. Attacked and berated, the Muslim community has had to deal with the rise of a new wave of discrimination; one that signals out Muslims as uncivilized, oppressive, barbaric warmongers. It has had to deal with the rise of Islamophobia. And what is Islamophobia? Is it anything that someone says against Islam? Can anyone criticize the religion and its doctrine? Does the term infringe on the individual’s right to free speech? Does it stifle public debate and openness, both of which are hallmarks of a democracy, by labelling those who oppose Islam as irrational, bigots? And so, definitions become important. Islam, in the simplest sense, is a religion with its own unique traditions and practices. A phobia, as defined by Merriam Webster, is “an exaggerated, usually
Following the terror attacks in The Unites States in 2001, there has been an increase in Islamophobia in the Western World. Following 9/11, respondents indicate that levels of implicit or indirect discrimination in The United States rose by 82,6% and experiences of over discrimination by 76,3% (http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/21/3/317.short). A combination of how Arabs and Muslims are portrayed in the media, with the increase of organized terrorist groups and refugees since the Arabic Spring, makes this a big political challenge today. This bibliography is written to get an overview of why Islamophobia has increased and the challenges that comes with the rise of Islamophobia.
ISLAMOPHOBIA One of the many problems with our health care for Muslim women in the past is islamophobia. It’s the prejudice belief that all Muslims should be feared and looked at as enemies of the state. [Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia: a
Islam, meaning peace in Arabic, is one of the most misunderstood religions in the world. Many people view it as a religion of hatred and crime, while others view it as peace. Islam is the world’s second largest religion and the youngest. There are approximately 1.57 billion Muslims in the world today. The origin of Islam, Prophet Muhammad, and beliefs of Islam affect how Islam is being taught and viewed today.
What is and what isn’t Islamophobia? The term is used to describe prejudice against, hatred towards, or fear of the religion of Islam or Muslims. It came into wide usage in 1997, upon the publication of a report by the Runnymede Trust, a nonprofit English think tank. This report described, “closed views” of Islam,
So they tend to take drastic measure in order to seek change in the world such as killing themselves and others to pursue betterment for humanity. In this paper I will be touching base on race and the Islamic religion and culture and how they are perceived within Capitalist countries and the rest of the world. What is Islamophobia? Islamophobia is a contrived fear or prejudice fomented by the existing Eurocentric and Orientalist global power structure. It is directed at a perceived or real Muslim threat through the maintenance and extension of existing disparities in economic, political, social and cultural relations, while rationalizing the necessity to deploy violence as a tool to achieve "civilizational rehab" of the target communities (Muslims or
‘Anti-Oppressive Practice’- is an umbrella term that encircles radical, structural, critical, feminist, liberal, anti-racist framework practice approaches. But it is not limited within those approaches. Anti-Oppressive social work is a practice represents the theories and approaches of social justice.
Islam phobia is demonstrated in Deepa Iyer's column for USA Today "Post-9/11 discrimination must end" in 2012 and presents many cases of Islam phobia in the
According to the article, "Islamophobia," the author Carl Coon simply defines what Islamophobia in America is. He explains, "Islamophobia is raising its ugly head in the US... it 's beginning to metastasize into a virulent form of xenophobia, an eruption of the atavistic human tendency to pick sides and then if necessary fight to the death for the side one chooses, and to not reason why."
Although Islamophobia stems from religious differences and oppression today's it is present because way too many people have the perception that Muslims and anyone from the Middle East is a terrorist and has an evil agenda. "Although every Muslim is not a terrorist, every terrorist is a Muslim" (Gul,2011). This view of Islamic and Middle Eastern people is present for many reasons. One being how they are being portrayed in the media. Whenever something ISIS related is reported the views of non radical Islamic people are rarely shown and if it is it's a two or three minute segment (Obeidallah, 2014). Of all violent crimes committed in the US each year the crimes of Muslims are bring to public attention more than others yet they only account for 160 of thousands (cite). In most Hollywood movies you will find nothing but Muslims being portrayed as the assailant. Another cause for Islamophobia in our society is how the government portrays people in predominantly Islamic communities. The US is constantly in need of oil and many other natural resources that are in abundance in the Middle East. With someone these countries refusing to share for the proposed prices the US has waged war against them to gain control over these
Many Americans had begun targeting mosques and religious centres along with violence and other forms of hate-crimes against Muslims. Attacks on mosques and religious centres included arson, breaking of glass, cutting phone lines, spray painting swastikas and nazi symbols as well as rocks being thrown through windows during prayer. In the span of November of 2001 to September of 2002, there had been a total of 5 reported attacks on mosques and islamic schools, some were throwing rocks through windows and in the early days after 9/11, a man and two teenage boys were charged with suspicion of a second degree arson charge for setting a mosque a blaze. The violence and hatred continued and many Muslims were directly affected and often, other minorities were mistaken for being Muslim and attacked. The attackers would usually pursue men and women of Arab descent, wearing headscarves as well as turbans. Direct violence and hatred started as early as the day of September, 11, 2001. These violations included firing shots, holding at gunpoint, anti-muslim graffiti, physical assault, death-threats via internet and phones, stabbings, e.t.c. Over 28 known hate-crimes and acts of assault were committed just by the end of 2001 starting from the day of the assailment in New
According to a poll conducted by Cornell University, 46 percent of Americans view Islam as violent. If I were to ask someone what they know about Islam, their answer would more than likely be related to terrorism. Due to the fact that most Americans share this negative perspective of the religion, there is not much being done by non-Muslims to combat Islamophobia. Muslims themselves, however, have taken matters into their own hands. CAIR, the Council on
Islamophobia is the fear of Muslims, or the religion of Islam, according to BBC (2017). Some people blame all Muslims for terrorist attacks, that are caused by terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, Isis, and Boko Haram. These organizations allegedly follow Islam, I say they allegedly follow Islam, because if they had indeed studied Islam, they would understand that Islam is a religion of peace, not terrorism. The word “Islam” means submission to God’s will and obedience to God’s law. It derives from an old Arabic word meaning “peace”. (What is Islamophobia? – CBBC News Round. (2017, June 19).
“Islamophobia is prejudice towards discrimination against Muslims due to their religion, or perceived religion, national, or ethnic identity associated with Islam because Muslims have different beliefs and values”. (Islamophobia wikipedia 1) Like anti-semitism, racism, and homophobia. Islamophobia describes mentality and actions that domain an entire class of people. Jews, African-Americans, and other populations throughout history have faced prejudice and discrimination. Islamophobia is simply another reincarnation of this bigotry. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary,a phobia is an exaggerated, usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation. It may be difficult to determine or communicate the source of this fear, but it exists. From this definition we can see how is so unfair to connect the word phobia to Islam specially because the word Islam in arabic means peace and safety. All that means that a lot of people don’t know nothings about Islam and the unknown can easily provoke fear.
Islam is the religion that is followed through Muslims about the teachings through Muhammad by the prophet Allah. Today Islam is considered as one of the most prominent religions followed throughout the world. Though Islam is thought of has one of the most popular religion across the world, many still lack the understanding of what Islam is. Following 9/11, the perception of Muslims changed thus proposing the idea of Islamophobia. Defined by the Oxford English Dictionary Islamophobia is the unfair prejudice or discrimination towards Muslims due to race, religion, or ethnic identity. The idea changed the way that all Muslims were perceived throughout America and the world. Muslims today face discrimination throughout the society. Following 9/11 the Muslim people are being treated unfairly because of their religion by the exclusion of the Muslim culture in American society, Muslims are being targeted and harmed in public, and Muslims are perceived as a terrorist or threat to national security.
In Oxford English Dictionary, Islamophobia is defined as “intense dislike or fear of Islam, especially as a political force, hostility or prejudice towards Muslims.” This term was first used in 20th century and had its’ own definition at 1970s. Particularly, after the 11 September events -which a radical Islamic group claimed its responsibility- in U.S.A. most of the non-Muslims in the world knew the Muslims with violence. The Berkeley Institute on Racism Studies says that Islam is often seen as a religion of violence which supports terrorism and has a violent political ideology. This perception of Islam is enlarging globally more and more because of some reasons such as terrorist attacks in non-Muslim countries, effect of media on the people, misunderstanding of Islam, and lack of the true representative