Mass Hysteria In America

Islamophobia, the term that was not very well-known before September 11, 2001, is now known to almost any individual of any age. After September 11th, islamophobia became a part of many Muslims’ daily lives (O’Connor “How 9/11 Changed These Muslim Americans’ Lives Forever.”) Not only did Muslims have trouble going through customs and security at the airports, but they also encountered islamophobia in their daily routine. Since September 11th, terrorist jokes became popular among many non-Muslim Americans who oftentimes did not understand the seriousness and the offensiveness of those jokes. Some found the “Muslim terrorist” stereotype to be somewhat justified and did not consider it to be as insulting as, for example, the representation of Black and Asian Americans in 1920s and 30s cartoons. However, the two are equally abusive and it is horrible to realize that in some ways, the American

September 11, 2001 (herein referred to as 9/11) was a day in American history, which will be remembered as the most horrific attack on American soil. This attack, carried out by nineteen Islamic extremists, was associated with al-Qaeda, and involved the hijacking of four airplanes. Two of those airplanes were hijacked and flown directly into the World Trade Center in New York City, New York. The third plane’s target was the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the fourth plane was brought down in Pennsylvania where it is believed the passengers aboard fought the hijackers. This horrific day in history cost over 3,000 people their lives, and was labeled the worst attack on American soil since the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.

On September 11, 2001, the worst attack on the United States took place from the extremist group called al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda had 19 members hijack four U.S. airplanes and used them to strike various targets on the East Coast. This attack of terrorism killed nearly 3,000 people. Osama Bin Laden took responsibility for being the mastermind behind this attack. Americans were scared and

September 11, 2001 is a day that will forever be remembered by all Americans; it was the day in which 2,823 people were killed due to the terrorist attacks performed by the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. Up to this day there are many people who do not know all the facts about this day and do not even know the number of plane crashes that occurred due to Al-Qaeda’s terrorist plans. Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization that was started by Osama Bin Laden. This terrorist group is a racist organization whose philosophy is described as centralization of decision and decentralization of execution. This group has admitted they are responsible for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. They stated that the United States was actively oppressing and

On September 11, 2001, an event known as 9/11 occurred. An Islamic extremist group, Al-Qaeda, hijacked four planes to carry out suicide missions against several targets in the United States. They attacked the World. Trade Center in New York City with two planes, The Pentagon near Washington DC, and the other crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks are significant to US history because it alerted the country to the vulnerability of our way of life, and to the anger, bitterness and. resentment toward the U.S. by other countries in the world, especially in parts of the Islamic world.

How the 9-11 attacks changed america 9-11 has changed America's view on terrorism. Not only our view of the islamic culture but immigration and how strict we are with security, not just with airports but with events with high amounts of people in one specific area. It happened with Alceda that most people didn’t even know about them. Osama Bin Laden wanted to have an impact on America and they didn't have the weapons for attacking the army. They wanted the whole world to be afraid of them because since america is a strong country it would make every country fear the Alceda and tried to make the U.S weak. Approximately 2,977 innocent adults and children and also 343 new york firefighters and 23 police officers were killed with the collapse with the building and the planes hitting the buildings.

An important event that is known to be so far the most tragic attack in American history, it left Americans with a constant fear of another terrorist attack, this tragic event is known as 9/11. This tragedy occurred when an Islamic group known as al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center in New York City. Al-Qaeda’s leader was Osama bin Laden, a Saudi fugitive seeking retaliation for America’s involvement in the Persian Gulf War, its support of Israel, and the military’s constant presence in the Middle East. Their plan to invade America began on the morning of September 11, 2001 when 19 militants hijacked 4 American Airline planes and were targeting attacks in the United States.

Immediately affter 9/11, Muslim Americans were victims to more frequent hate crimes and bias incidents. According to the FBI (2002), hate crimes against Muslims rose 1,600 percent between the years of 2000 and 2001; going from 12 hate incidents in 2000 to 93 in 2001. A study conducted immediately after 9/11 showed that 40 percent of Americans felt that the attacks represented the “true teachings of Islam” and that between 2002 and 2003 the number of Americans that thought Islam promotes violence against non-Muslims rose by 14 percent (Panagopoulos, 2006). When Muslims themselves were surveyed, their feelings mirrored the findings in post 9/11 studies: 91 percent of Muslims surveyed believed that discrimination against Muslims in the United

Since 9/11/2001 hate crimes related to Islam-phobia has risen to nearly 481 and since has stayed above 100 in subsequent years. In 2015, 2% of hate crimes are anti-Islamic. Many times people are attacked for wearing hijabs, and even non-Islamic, Arabic people that wear hijabs are attacked because of their "terrorist" appearance. This is a ludicrous thing, comparing a group of millions of faithful followers to 22 extremists. Now, every day, Islamic followers live in fear of being attacked for their beliefs; this fear escalates one day a year—9/11.

Second I will look at Ilir Disha, James C. Cavendish, and Ryan D. King paper “Historical Events and Spaces of Hate: Hate Crimes against Arabs and Muslims in Post-9/11 America” .This research investigates variation in hate crimes offending against Arabs and Muslims across U.S. counties in the months before and after September 11, 2001. They tried answering these four questions. First, what were the determinants of anti-Arab and Muslim hate crimes prior to 9/11? Second, in what social contexts were Arabs and Muslims at greatest risk of victimization? Third, to what extent did hate crimes against these groups increase after the terrorist attacks? And last, did the predictors of hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims change appreciably after 9/11?

Violence has sadly become a large part of our society, as have hate crimes. Since the Paris attacks, there has been a huge incline of hate crimes against Muslims Americans and mosques. “The spike includes assaults on hijab-wearing students; arsons and vandalism at mosques at mosques; and shootings and death threats at Islamic-owned businesses […]” (Lichtblau). These attacks are bitter and cruel, but it is not the end of what has recently been happening to Muslims . This past December, there were multiple accounts of hate crimes against Muslims. On December 5th/6th, “A Muslim woman wearing a hijab said a man cut her off and threw stones at her car while she was driving away from a mosque…” (MacNeal). On December 10th, “A Muslim family in Plano, Texas, said that they had the windows on their home smashed two days in a row -- just six weeks after they moved to the area…” (MacNeal). Not only is this a horrible crime, but someone, maybe a child, could have been by that window. This act could have been fatal, and it shows how evil some people are. On December 13, two southern California mosques were vandalized. In the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Baitus-Salaam Mosque located in Hawthorne, California, a plastic replica of a hand grenade was found. This is a very serious way of threatening people, and about the same level of threat as a phone call saying someone was going to come in with a gun and kill people. To add to this, the fence surrounding the mosque of the Islamic Center of Hawthorne had the word “Jesus” spray-painted on it (MacNeal). Not only was this vandalization, but it took away someone’s right to religious freedom and knowing there was somewhere to pray without being judged, stereotyped, told it was wrong, or told they should be a different religion. Lastly, in “2013 Hate Crime Statistics” the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that

What are some mass hysteria in the world today? There are a lot of mass hysteria in this world today; such as, the Mad Cow Disease. Everybody was blaming others for having it and just trying to get them in trouble. This is similar to The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, because neighbors are going against each other, and accusing each other of doing witchcraft. Whether or not it may be true, they do not care because they want them gone and then they can buy their land easier. In the play The Crucible, John Proctor cheated on his wife and had an affair, he lies to the court to cover himself, and the court even believes him and does not dig down to the truth, so for this John Proctor is responsible for his own death.

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.”

Before the September 11, 2001, hatred towards Muslims in the United States started in 1923, when Muslims started migrating to the United States, an unlike increased presence. The hatred towards Muslims, also known as “Islam phobia”, was first featured in The Journal of Theological Studies. Many Muslims were targeted, the religion of Islam, Muslims, or any ethnic group perceived to be Muslim were characterized as having “bad faith and cruelty”, according to prejudice Americans.

The connection between Islam and terrorism was not intensified until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that pushed the Islamic faith into the national and international spotlight (Smith, 2013). As Smith (2013) articulated, “Many Americans who had never given Islam a second thought before 9/11 now had to figure out how to make sense of these events and relate to the faith tradition that ostensibly inspired them” (p. 1). One way in which people made sense of these events was through the media channels that influenced their overall opinions by shaping a framework of censored ideas (Yusof, Hassan, Hassan & Osman, 2013). In a survey conducted by Pew Forum (2012), 32% of people reported that their opinions of Muslims were greatly influenced by the media’s portrayal of Islam that depicted violent pictorials and fundamentalist Muslims. Such constant negative depiction is likely to lead to the inevitable—prejudice and hate crime. For instance, in 2002 alone there were approximately 481 hate crimes that were carried out against Muslims (Smith, 2013). Ever since the 9/11 attacks Muslim people have been the target of “suspicion, harassment and discrimination” (Talal, n.d., p. 9).