American Muslim Student Life
No one is born a racist; they are born in to a racist society. While ‘nature vs nurture’ has been a widely controversial topic, it is undeniable that environmental factors are the real origins of our behavior. The type of environment that we surround ourselves with is what affects people the most. Whether it be public, private, or home schooling, we are required to receive some form of education. In the US about 28% of students ages 12-18 are reported being bullying at school. On average, 7.2% of students admit skipping school due to personal safety concerns (Bureau of Justice Statistics). The Muslim community contributes to the majority portion of the reported victims of bullying. This begs the question: How are American Muslim students being treated
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No student should have to suffer unfair consequences due to a teacher’s political view or the harassment of other students based on their background. This research paper will discuss the mistreatment of American Muslims before high school up until college, that includes elements such as subconscious harassment at a young age, instructors’ political views, direct attacks, and fear for their safety. It will also explain the differences between non-Muslim bullying versus Muslim bullying.
Why at such a young age do non-Muslim children seek to bully or harass American Muslim students? Subconscious racism can start at an early point in one’s life. Younger children’s harmful actions towards another student could at first be viewed as playing around without the intention of seeing race or religion as a source of
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
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.
Students complained that their hijab(head covering worn by Muslim women) were snatched frequently. There were several reports of harassments, assaults and hate comments made to the students in their schools. Even the elementary school children, were accused for the terrorist attacks (Ibish 2003). In some cases, student refused going to school and rather asked to be home schooled. Many showed signs of fear, stress, tension, bed-witting and anger as reported by parents (Ibish 2003). Presently, the anti-islamic hate crimes have decreased in comparison to the following year of 9/11. But still 160 incidents of hateful activities against the Arabs and Muslims were reported, which still is 4.7 times more than 28 hate crime incidents recorded prior to 2001 (FBI 2010).
Islamophobia within the United States is an ongoing social issue that negatively impacts the Muslim-American community. Muslim-Americans are forty-eight percent more likely to have experienced discrimination and harassment in the past year compared to Protestants, Catholics, and Jews (“Islamophobia,” n.d.), thus confirming the fact that many non-Muslims within America view followers of Islam as worthy of being labeled as scapegoats and foreigners more than the followers of any other religion deemed harmless to American society. With regards to this social problem rooted in discriminatory profiling, this paper examines how the social conflict, structural functionalist, and symbolic interactionist theories can be used to examine the issue of Islamophobia in America.
Historically, the United States of America has a long history of shaping its ideology from a series of significant events that hold unspeakable brutality. This leads Americans to draw conclusions, which often leads to denouncing a particular body of people. For example, the enslavement of African Americans, the decimation of Native Americans, and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Currently, while enduring several years in the U.S., Muslim Americans face similar difficulties as a human being would. However, these hardships differ because they include U.S. discrimination triggered by 9/11, current terrorist events, and negative reinforcement from the media and the general public. Muslim Americans experience the harmful effects of terrorism because acts of terrorism influence the way the U.S. views and thinks about Muslims.
In this article, David Bornstein talks about F.B.I report about the hate crimes against Muslims reached their highest level since 2001. In New York, hate crimes are one of the most violent crimes against Muslims since last decade. The 2016 election highlighted religious problems in United States as well as all over the world. Donald Trump’s solution to terrorism to ban Muslims from entering the country create nationwide protest. In United States, people from different ethnic backgrounds belief or faith at some point suffered or become victim of hate crime. The victims includes Jews, Christians, and Mormons, alongside Muslims. In the past, Bornstein reported on the Chicago-based interfaith youth core programme, which trains people to build relationships and respect
According to New York Times journalists Caitlin Dickerson and Stephanie Saul, over the past two weeks, college campuses have experienced resurgence in discriminatory behavior that has been unmatched since the September 11 attacks over fifteen years ago. Emily Bazelon adds in her New York Times article, “Bullying in the Age of Trump,” that these acts of terrorism against minorities are not limited to college campuses, but that they are even displayed in even in middle and high schools.
Muslim immigrants have arrived to the United States of America from every nuke and corner of the sphere. The population is diverse in their own ways but each one of them bears similar reasons: Some desire to escape an old way of life, others to find a new one. Some wanted to escape violence, others the fetters of penury, or simple lack of opportunity. They have arrived with fervent hope, and often nothing more. The initial response received by them was largely varied. These new Americans found a vast new land hungry for their labor. But some, unfamiliar with these newcomers’ customs and religions, treated the new Americans as outsiders and believed they could never be real Americans. And with the events like the Gulf War and the World Trade Center bombing outpoured anti-Islamic sentiments in the 1990s. These sentiments intensified with the heinous and abominable attacks of September 11th. Muslims were being labeled as “extremists”, “jihadists”, “fanatics”, “fundamentalists” etc. They were being feared, discriminated and even harassed.
The study researched how 47 non-Muslim Americans considered and responded to a specific act of injustice against Muslim Americans. The larger goal of the study was to see if Muslim Americans are included or excluded from other American’s moral and judicial values during a “context of national conflict” (Borshuk & Coryn, 590). The study undertook this research because of the then recent 9/11 attacks and because of President Bush’s declaration of a “job well done”. The research was done at a time when it was difficult for non-Muslim Americans to separate how they viewed their fellow Muslim Americans from the Muslims and Arabs they were fighting abroad. The study was conducted by having participants read a prompt about a conflict incident involving Muslim Americans and then answering open-ended questions, this method was used because the researchers wanted to understand the reasoning associated with
Some People tend to laugh and feed on putting someone down based on their race and some may not even know they are being racist at all. The fact is that your behavior towards someone can be racist even when you may be “Joking” or “Messing around.” The matter of fact is the racial comments were still made and still have a hurtful message. In the essays we read we were given a real life example of how even unintentional racial comments can still be harmful to someone and shouldn’t be used as a cultural norm. One imperative stride to lessening the racist culture in America is to incorporate educational programs for our youth to show them that we are all created equal and racism has no place in our society. These measures can help raise equality and counter the impacts of any prejudice or dogmatism that happens in the children’s homes by helping them see and comprehend what generalizations and racism are and that they ought to be stayed away from. The adults and leaders in the lives of the youngsters are the illustrations that the kids look up to and will determine how they will act when they are older. By instructing the kids at a young age about the threats of generalization and racism, we can limit the transference of bigotry to the future
Racial profiling as method of counterterrorism is a major problem in the United States. Due to the damaging effects of 9/11 on the moral of the country and the present threats from ISIS, the Muslim-American society as a whole is being depicted in a way that classifies them as extremist terrorists. This fear of the Muslim society has become so dominant that the term “Islamophobia” has been adopted to communicate “fear, hatred and hostility towards Islam and Muslims.” As seen in a 2011 report on the West’s respect for Muslims, 52% percent of the American citizens who answered this poll voted that Western societies do not respect Muslim societies. (See figure 1.) The analysts of Gallup attribute this disrespect and fear of Muslim societies to differences in religion and political interests. (See figure 2.) America needs to reevaluate its counterterrorism strategy in order to account for and respect the human rights of its targets. If not, an entire society of people, Muslim-Americans, will be targeted as terrorists. The targeting of an entire group of people based on
According to CAIR.com, the council of American-Islamic Relations, “Almost 4 in 10 Americans have an unfavorable view of Islam.” Malala Yousafzai said that: “there should be no discrimination against languages people speak, skin color, or religion”. Discrimination comes in many forms such as age, gender, ethnicity, religion, and more. It had always been part of human nature; nevertheless, after the tragedy incident of 9/11 Muslims are widely seen as victims of discrimination especially those in foreign countries. Discrimination came in the form of both oppression and violence. Moreover, these bullies lead to a number of serious effects on a person's life such as depression and anxiety. Even though, some think that all Muslims cause violence,
The agonizing terrorist attacks of September 9th, 2001 left the country in emotional distress. The United States of America decided to prepare for tragic attacks like this and reevaluated its immigration and foreign policies, the citizens of the US also became united and stronger from these attacks. This ideology that the US has become more united after an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people has become mainstream and may be true in some cases, but many people overlook the impact it had on the millions of Muslim Americans. The Muslim generation before us had its own problems dealing with racial discrimination and hate crimes, many people believed it stop their but this contempt was passed on to my generation. The discrimination I have received has caused me to change my aspirations in order to ensure that no one else receives the treatment I had gotten.
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.
What is racism? The definition is prejudice or discrimination to another race. Unfortunately, racism is evident almost anywhere especially in a high school. Name-calling, bullying, verbal abuse – are all forms of racism and can be seen in high schools, where all different backgrounds –teachers, pupils or staff – face with negative backlash of racism. Students of different race groups find it extremely tough to bond with their classmates from other “races circles”. How damaging is racism to schools? To society?, is it all black and white or are we blind to it? In this essay I will discuss racist incidents in schools specifically in America and Britain, who are infamous for racial incidents, and how it will affect the students and any others involved in those situations in the future