Mark Steyn 's Views On The Pursuit Of Truth

Islam in two Americas is a delayed thesis argument about the state of Islāmic/American relations in the US, post 9-11. As a delayed thesis, the author, Ross Douthat, opens the debate with a brief explanation of the “two Americas” as he sees it. Within the current political climate that is America today, it would be hard to argue that this divide does not exist.

For this paper, I have chosen to interview an acquaintance of mine who is a devote Muslim and follower of Islam. For the sake of this assignment I will be referring to him under the pseudonym of Jack. I spoke with Jack about some wide-ranging topics discussing things such as, media, bias, stereotypes, and really in general what being a follower of Islam is like in this divided country right now. In our country, today it’s pretty apparent there is a type of fear of Muslims, so much so that 7 heavy populated Muslim countries are not permitted from entering the United States of America. I never had conversations as personal as this with Jack and I feel as if I gained a lot of insight into the types of things minorities, and especially Muslims

As a child, I didn’t think my life’s situations and experiences were too different from others being a Muslim in Canada. I only came to the realization of this as I grew older. Living as a Muslim we celebrated different holidays, wore different types of clothing, and valued things differently. I grew up in Cambridge, Ontario, and only moved to Mississauga in the ninth-grade grade where I realized how much differently I was treated. It wasn’t always ignorance; they were just unknowledgeable and unaware and I couldn’t blame them as I was apart of a religious minority. I looked at the understanding of my life’s events being apart of an Islamic subculture from a conflict theorist’s perspective where social life was looked at as “privileged groups

In particularly Section 116, preventing the Commonwealth government from passing laws that ‘prohibit free exercise of religion.’ Despite religious motivations behind recent terror attacks, Commonwealth Parliament has actively implemented mechanisms to decrease the likelihood of unjustified religious discrimination. Notably, cabinet recently proposed the introduction of a Minister for Muslims. Devising such a position, accommodates principles of equality before the law embodied in the rule of law by ‘encouraging institutional participation, and representation of Muslim needs in policy development’ (Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 2014). Establishing counter-terrorism initiatives in consultation with Muslim communities reflects democratic principles by incorporating the needs of individuals and groups into political

It answers, as far as it can, questions as “Is Islam against the West?” and “Who defines moderate Islam post 9/11?”. In one of the case studies presented in the book, the author discusses the impact of 9/11 has had on British Muslim Identity, giving an overview of the presence of British Muslims, then looks at 9/11 and the impact it has had on the British Muslim community.

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

There is an ‘us and them’ mentality in terms of Australian relations with Muslims living in Australia. There seems to be several reasons for this. The Australian society doesn’t seem to cater nor care for the traditions and religion of Muslim people living in Australia, there is a high volume of discrimination and racism targeting Muslims. Western Sydney and Charles Sturt university recently conducting a survey regarding the issue of the marginalisation of Muslim

blight on society rather than a useful addition. Abdul presents controversial ideas and themes such as the discrimination that Muslims face in everyday life, the ‘expectation’ all Muslims are extremist, and that they are seen by some as ‘less than

Finally, 9/11 developed a lot of discrimination towards Muslims. Selby expressed in her research that negative stereotyping of Muslims or “Islamophobia” in Canada from media arguably became increasingly after 9/11. Not just that, fourteen focus groups across the country revealed a sense of horror at the terrorist attacks as well as distress about unfair negative stereotyping of Muslims and difficulties in travel (Sebly, 2015). The research tells us how the media instructed Canadians to portray Muslims as terrorists and be cautious around them. As a matter of fact, Canadians started to hate Muslims and tried to eliminate them from places as much as possible. Accordingly, most of the women who wore ‘hijab’ got negative comments from public and

Neil MacDonald’s article on the issue with Canadian politics is filled with the richest form of sarcasm that pinpoints exactly how juvenile this topic truly is. In my article that I choose, MacDonald takes a look at the issue of the nigab and other Muslim related topics and how the current Canadian politics is strategically creating an invisible barrier between Muslims and Canadians. I will first start off with a brief summary of the article followed by how Edward Said and Jasmine Zine discuss what is currently happening with the niqab.

According to the author and professor of religion at San Diego State University, Khaleel Mohammed, and many Muslims around the United States, Islam is progressively increasing worldwide and is soon to be the world’s largest religion. After 9/11, Americans seem to look at Muslim people a whole lot differently, and think of the Muslim religion as something completely different than what it really is. According to the author Edward Said, Muslims were mostly viewed as “oil suppliers” and nothing more, dating back about twenty years before the tragedies of September 11. In the 1997 article published by Edward Said titled, Covering Islam, he states how the Muslims were the last acceptable form of foreign culture in the west. On top of these discriminatory

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.”

Ever since September 11, 2001 Americans along with the majority of the world’s population have been skeptical of Muslims. It’s a sad reality but it’s hard for people to think of a Muslim without linking them directly to terrorism. But these assumptions aren’t totally out of the blue—the Muslim’s religion, Islam, teaches a low tolerance for other religions and the Islamic government has no separation of church and state, so it’s only normal to assume that their government shall have a low tolerance as well—some however, immediately translate this into terrorism. Through the Islamic government and religion, relations with foreign countries, and separation amongst themselves it can be concluded that Islamic Fundamentalism is clearly a threat

Instead, from its onset, Islam spread as a conquering power and remained that way for some time. Explaining it this way, the reader gets a sense of the psychology behind Islam and why, besides being a religious task, spreading Islam is such a goal. By showing the issues Islam faces today in the context of past Islamic traditions, Lewis paints a much clearer picture of the skewed view today’s radicals have and the way they use history to manipulate. He examines influential Muslim voices like Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden, who have used history to give Islam victim status or to claim the continuance of a predecessor’s mission to not only justify terrorist activities, but also to recruit followers. He tells the history of Bin Laden’s statement referring to the “humiliation and disgrace” Islam supposedly has suffered. What Bin Laden was referring to was the defeat of the Ottoman sultanate in 1918 and the imperial presence of Westerners on sacred Muslim lands. Lewis explains the offense many Muslims take to the desecration of their holy lands by foreigners. He describes how the discovery and exploitation of oil in the Holy Land of the Hijaz has exacerbated the growing resentment many Muslims

Some argue, as Jonathan Rauch does in his article, “Islam Has Been Hijacked…,” that since religion was brought to the forefront, in the