Muslim American Stereotypes

After a horrible terroristic attack that shocked the whole world on September 11th in the center of New York City, Muslims in the Western world have been constantly fighting against prejudice. After September 11, media interest in Islam increased, where Islam was usually portrayed in a negative way. Before 9/11, many Muslims lived the normal, everyday life. However, the attack has changed lives of many people that belonged to the Muslim community, where they were the victims of guilt. Unfortunately, many Americans were introduced to Islam, after the 9/11 attack, thus even till today, Islam is associated with terrorism. For the past ten years, Muslims felt excluded from the American society by being rifled, attacked, discriminated, checked

Post 9/11 negative stereotypes and attitudes toward Muslims intensified in many Western societies. “The FBI recorded a sixteen-fold increase in hate crimes (e.g., acts of arson, aggravated assault, property crimes) against Muslim Americans from 2001 to 2002” (Rodriguez Mosquera & Khan & Selya, 2013). All of this goes to show that Non-Muslim Americans were taking out their emotions on innocent Muslims. Not only was all this going on, but the U.S. Congress’ response to the attacks was the USA Patriot Act. The USA Patriot Act gave, “the government investigative powers to fight against terrorism and subsequently targeted those in the Arab, Muslim, and South Asian communities with not just prejudices against these communities, but blatant racism toward innocent people, just because they appear to look like they “identify” with those who have made terrorist threats” (Akiyama, 2008). The discrimination post 9/11 was awful. The hijab which was seen as a prideful garment for Muslims became a target for discrimination. In the article, “9/11 Ten Years Later: Muslim Women, Organizations Work to Fight Discrimination, Patel talks about a woman, Wasan Mohamad. Mohamad talks about how she and her friends/family were discriminated against ten years after 9/11. Her daughter in class got told that her people were responsible for 9/11. Her friend changed his name from

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

After several incidents that happened around the world, peoples view on Arabs changed. The media played a big role in “the stereotyping of Arabs”. It is one of the main reasons for people to think the way they are about Arabs. Many

Within days of the attacks every news channel was showing pictures of the hijackers. From these pictures Americans turned their fear and hatred on to anyone who looked like the attackers. During the process of adjusting to the aftermath of September 11, Muslim Americans faced an upsurge in negative stereotypes expressed by the larger society (American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 2003; Cassel, 2006) and Muslim immigrants, more than any other Immigrant group, were met with negative attitudes (Council of American Islamic Relations, 2003; Saroglou & Galand, 2004). But there is still discrimination present throughout the U.S , we all see it on the news or in person at school. There language is different so people discriminate against them. It does not matter if you are actually Arab or if you just look Arab or had a foreign name that sounded Arab they would look at you bad. This was a problem at airports, jobs, and schools because people were suspicious. Life was hard for Arab-Americans because people could not trust them. Many Arab- Americans and those who looked like Arabs were directly and adversely

Since Islam is a religion that promotes peace and kindness, one could ask where the stereotype that all Muslims are terrorists originated. Following the tragedies of September 11, 2001, Arabs and Muslims have been presented as potential terrorists. This idea stemmed from the theory that, “media bias increases when a specific ethnic, religious, or racial group is seen as a threat to national security.” (Stiffler, 2013). Since the attacks on September 11, 2001 Muslims and Arabs have been “hyper-visible” in the media as potential terrorists. Due to the negative media attention and failure of most media platforms to

Muslims faced tremendous amounts of prejudice after the September 11th attacks. The September 11th attacks were four coordinated attacks perpetrated by the terrorist group known as Al Qaeda. These attacks killed 2,996 people and injured more than 6,000 innocent people. These terrorist attacks also contributed to the fear that we now know as Islamophobia.

Negative portrayals of Muslims in the mainstream media have led to widespread islamophobia in society. The way the media have illustrated Islam and Muslims in the media has influenced citizens to be misinformed about the true nature of both Muslims and Islam. As a result of the negative representations of Muslims in the media, societies views of Muslims have been adversely rendered and caused an unnecessary fear of Muslims in society. Exacerbation of islamophobia in the media has also led to a number of hate crimes towards Muslims (McQueeney, 2014). Instead of focusing on real news, medias often narrate stories

According to a website “gallup.com” Islamophobia is described to be an exaggerated fear, hatred and hostility towards Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from social, political and civic life. According to “Progressive.org”, a new study shows that bias against Muslim Americans is having an impact on their job prospects, especially in red states. In those red states, only 2 percent of applications by the Muslim candidate received interviewed invitations compared to 17 percent for the Christian candidate, the study finds. A friend of mine who is a Muslim told me that after 9/11, her father lost his job, and was arrested for questioning because he was Muslim and an Arab. This directly goes against the standards America was built upon. A result from progressive.org also found out that “Since 9/11, Muslim-Americans have claimed 33 lives in the United States, out of more than the 180,000 murders committed in the U.S during this

Within the twenty-first century, terrorism has sparked a global hysteria. In recent years the group ISIS or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seems to be the cover of every newspaper and TV broadcasts headlines and breaking news. Since June of 2014 the group has inspired at least 90 different terrorists attacks in 21 countries around the world, killing around 1,400 people and critically injuring 2,000 others (ISIS attacks). This trend has pushed men and women from western cultures to research stereotypes many Westerners hold against Middle Easterners. Some examples of these stereotypes include: “All Middle Easterners are Muslim.” “All Muslims are terrorists.” “Islam is a violent religion.” “Muslims are all foreigners who can not adapt to Western culture.” (Typical Misperceptions and Stereotypes) This type of thinking is not only corrupt, but also damaging to those who are being stereotyped. Terrorism is a bigger threat to our society today than it ever has been before; however, the hysteria and fear pointed at certain ethnicities and religious

Media plays an important role when giving information to the public, whether it is through social media, news, films, or television shows. It portrays the social and cultural norms through numerous angles: from the way society should speak or act, to the way society should dress. This research paper has been divided into sections to construct connections between the representation of Islam and Muslims in three different countries, The United States, The United Kingdom, and Australia, through the media lens. After the event of the 9/11 attacks on the twin Towers, the news media’s representation of Islam and Muslims has been on a global rise, and despite the fact that many may argue that it has not, it has made exacerbated Islamophobia.

These are some examples where some leaders have made discriminatory statements against Muslims and it doesn’t aim at Muslims only of certain region but, it points to Muslims all over the world. Leaders are chosen by the people to represent the people, but not to create hatred and fear amongst the people for political or any other reasons. Such statements made by great leaders have a great impact on the beliefs of people, as we believe in our leaders and therefore even theirs words are taken into consideration sometimes without a rational thinking. This doesn’t affect just the mindset of people but it terribly shapes the attitudes, behaviours, philosophy and even their idea of a religion. This affects the lives of Muslims all over the world; they are not just labelled as terrorist but even treated as one. Innocent Muslims are viewed with suspicion because of misinformation and prevalent stereotyping.

As a result of the attacks during September 11, 2001, that media began to highlight misconceptions about Muslims and terrorism, giving rise to Anti-Muslim and Anti-Islam sentiments, or Islamophobia. In “Global Terror and the Rise of Xenophobia/Islamophobia,” Muhammad Saffer Awan (2010) revealed that many reporters, writers, and educators have used the events of 9/11 as an excuse to intensify the hostility towards Muslims and reconstruct the concept of Islam as a backward religion. He gives the example of a short story, “The Last Days of Muhammed Atta” by Martin Armis, where Armis portrays misconceptions of the Quran, highlighting its followers as irrational and that Islam relies on terror to convert people. Additionally, the depiction of Islam through the media has also reconstructed the concept and terrorism, where many educators have failed to teach the socio-historical definition of terrorism, and either intentionally or unconsciously associates terrorism with Muslims or Arabs. Many researchers tend to focus on the media’s influence on the rise of Islamophobia, but tend to overlook schools and its education on this subject. The education of Islam and Islamophobia are also perpetrators of intensifying Islamophobia, mainly due to the lack of resources and understanding of Islam and Islamophobia, and the schools inability to create a supportive and safe environment for student targeted by Islamophobia.

Historians, specifically American historians of the 21st century have demonstrated an interest in the Middle East in Islam, due to Americans frequent contact with the Middle East in the early 1960s. Islam and the Middle East have played a remarkable role in Americans discussion and reaction to the events that took place on September 11th, 2001. During this time Americans were beginning to regard the Middle East, Muslims, and Islam as one entity. Americans and the world regarded the Middle East as Islam and Islam as the Middle East. Thus, this correlation between the two made Muslims say Muslim Americans and Muslims in America as less western and more of another, but they were also seen as untrustworthy individuals. Additionally, prior to the September 11th, attacks and an after effect of September 11, was that Muslim men were violent and Muslim women as oppressed individuals. Thus, the perception of Islamophobia and the threat it brings to western society has impacted the discussion of Islamophobia in America.

Ever since the start of September 11, 2001, Muslims around the world and in the United States have been targeted, taken to war, murdered,