Islamophobia Racial Prejudice

There were 1.6 billion Muslims in the world as of 2010 – roughly 23% of the global population and Islam continues to be the fastest-growing major religion (Pew Research Center). Islamophobia and hatred towards Muslims has also been on the rise. “Islamophobia is prejudice towards or discrimination against Muslims due to their religion, or perceived religious, national, or ethnic identity associated with Islam” (Bridge.Georgetown). In our history we have witnessed many horrific acts of hatred and genocides such as the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, to society and today 's people that was all in the past. In the books, “Night” by Elie Wiesel and “Forgotten Fire” by Adam Bagdasarian illustrates the conditions of victims having to go through these genocides, this shows the severity of prejudice and how affects people 's lives. The reality of it is that times have not changed that drastically and theses bloodcurdling events have seemed to repeated themselves in a new period of time with a new group oppressed people. Innocent people everyday are being targeted because of their religious backgrounds. These stereotypes of Muslims and Islam have become so widespread and the world 's perspectives have changed drastically. Society is undoubtedly witnessing a rapid uprising of a new era of hatred and genocide, just like in the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide in the form of Islamophobia, media propaganda, and false representations of Muslims being terrorists.

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

Racism is the belief centralized in the idea that a certain race is considered to be superior or inferior to another. It is a belief that labels a person’s worth, social, and moral traits based on his/her inherent nationality or biological features (Anti-Defamation League). This mentality has been around for centuries and still exists today. There are several theories about how such came about and why it continues to thrive. Racism can only be thoroughly studied by tracing its roots and history. Knowing the relevant events prior to and after the peak of a racist manifestation in the society during a certain period of time is one of the keys in understanding the nature of racism. It is important to note that the attempt to understand the nature of racism is not necessarily equivalent to the attempt to justify it. The main purpose of racism studies should be directed towards the attempt to lessen, if not eradicate such mentality. The Holocaust, the infamous racist manifestation which took place in Germany is a great example of what happens when racism is not stopped or prevented. Taking such infamous racist events in history under an extensive look, reveals some of the major arguments/concepts/causes of racism that could lead to understanding racism as a whole and thereby help address this issue in the modern-day society. Extreme ethnocentrism, rivalry for supremacy, and people lacking information are some of the causes of racism deemed to be important in studying

More specifically, changes have insidiously crept into these infrastructures and represent a troubling trend of racism and Islamophobia. This “anti-Muslim racism is…a racial infrastructure in which cultural forms and institutions interact in a complex social system of racialization” (Rana 119). This is evidenced in the government legislation, but more subversively, in the language and symbols employed by the authorities and society. These languages and symbols are disseminated through society, and “often [set] unconscious…forces that determine both our individual and collective behavior, [and] ways of perceiving, thought patterns, and values” (Kiltz 87). Moreover, they exemplify “who is important,” and reinforce the “hidden hierarchy of people” (Thomas 89,88).

Since the dawn of human civilization, there has been an unfortunate but natural tendency to marginalize and oppress those belonging to "the other"--those not in power, not part of the most popular group and those who are different. One such manifestation of this fear of the different is Islamophobia--the "dread or hatred of Islam--and therefore [the] fear or dislike of all or most Muslims." Although the exact word "Islamophobia" was brought to public awareness in 1997 after an academic journal from the British Runnymede Report, it has existed for many years prior to the journal, as a term to describe the experiences of the oppressed and discriminated sections of Muslim communities. The simmering prejudice towards Muslims gained ferocious momentum

However, these sentiments are not limited to these countries. As Europe is connected by mostly open borders in the Schengen Area and shared media, “Islamophobia works without Muslims” (Marks et al.; SETA 7). Countries with relatively low Muslim populations still blame increases in crime as well as other negative social development impacts on Muslims (SETA).

In Europe, Islamophobia emerged together with new anti-Semitism, where the targets are the new immigrants, Muslims, as well as Jews. The reason for that is in France and United Kingdom, Muslims and Jews for the past decade inhabit the poorest neighborhoods. Media, on the other hand, portrays this as an incapability of Muslim immigrants to integrate into European society and susceptibility to the imported Islamist ideologies (Silverstein, 367).

There is almost always a prejudice against anyone that may look Arabic, they are automatically Muslim, and usually considered a threat. This paper was to educate

Not only that, the ramifications of speaking an ethnic language, practicing ethnic traditions, and in short, not assimilating. While some individuals may be dismissive of this incident as one that relates to race and ethnicity, under the guise that Islam is a religion and not a ‘race,’ it still follows that Islamophobia is racist. To recognize that Muslims experience racism, does not claim Muslims or Islam as a race, rather, it understands that ‘Muslim’ is an identity subject to racism. For example, non-Muslim ‘brown’ people from all over South and Central Asia as well as the MENA are constantly targets of Islamophobia since Islam is associated with race. For example, there have been many incidences of assault against Sikh men as perpetrators have mistaken them for Muslims.

The human brain is effortlessly conditioned by the world from what it sees and hears in the media. Society causes the public to obey what is seen in the eyes of the uneducated. This leads to conflicts in many different countries that assign a cruel name to Islam because of a few individuals hatred against society. Many people believe that all Muslims are a terroristic threat, causing Muslims to suffer from racial discrimination. Muslims, non-Muslim supporters, news outlets, and other media outlets must educate others about the peacefulness of true Muslims and decrease racial profiling, suspicion, and discrimination.

According to the definition, Islamophobia is formed by the current Eurocentric and Orientalist Worldwide force structure. “Islamophobia reintroduces and reaffirms a global racial structure through which resource distribution disparities are maintained and extended.” (University of California-Berkeley

Main Starting Statement: We should be more concerned about fixing the Islamophobic prejudice that our country has adopted for the past 15 years than focusing on the terroristic actions that unfold.

Some young Muslims living in the U.S. experience discrimination in schools, public areas, or wherever an Islamophobic is present. Islamophobia is a term that has been described as someone who has hatred or fear of Muslims (University of California, Berkeley). In fact, 70% of American Muslim Youth have reported some form of discrimination due to being Muslim (Ahmed, et al. 161). Society and the media are sometimes the fuel of Islamophobia, which sometimes transmit from adults to younger generations, which spreads even more from that point on. Due to the negative portrayal of Muslims that is mostly spread through the media, many Muslims are discriminated against in schools; as there is often no real knowledge of Islam except the image that Society exhibits. Discrimination has developed

The book delineates this differing qualities well in parts on hostile to Semitism (Levine, Chapter 5), xeno-prejudice (Fekete, Chapter 2), Islamophobia (Chapters 2, 8, 9 and 10), victimization vagrant consideration specialists and refuge seekers (Chapters 11, 12 and 13) in Britain, and against Roma bigotry in Europe (Urh, Chapter 6). These parts offer recorded and contemporary examinations of racial stereotyping, segregation and human rights infringement. At times open arrangement and the arrangement of open administrations echo the types of prejudice in standard society. Muslims in Britain encountered an extensive variety of physical and verbal assaults after 9/11 and the 2005 bombings in London and are currently particularly focused for observation by the state, some of the time through social work programs went for coordinating Muslim people group into 'English qualities'. This methodology underplays a portion of the structural elements, including unemployment, weakness conditions and insufficient lodging that added to the radicalisation of a few Muslims

A current cultural conflict taking place in America today is religious. Many Americans discriminate against the Islamic faith and there have been countless acts of mistreatment of Muslims in the work place, at school, in public, and in the media. Negative feelings and acts toward Muslims have become so prevalent that in 1991 the Runnymede Trust Report coined a term for it. The report defined the “unfounded hostility toward Muslims, and therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims” as “Islamophobia” (Defining “Islamophobia”). There has always been some religious cultural conflict with Muslims in the United States, but since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, conflict has escalated significantly.