Muslims Research Paper

This is especially true for groups of people in the United States. Immigrants, especially of Arab origin and those with Islam as their religion are seen as terrorists. This is blatant racism and discrimination which is also completely against what this country stands for.

We walk around the United States terrified today of people of Middle Eastern descent because we’ve associated them and their religion with terrorism. We need to be reminded that a person’s race and religion does not make them a terrorist. Their actions make them a terrorist. A white, Catholic American could just as easily cause mass terror as anyone other person in this world, but we neglect to accept that fact because of the fear that has been instilled in us by groups like ISIS who have completely ruined an entire religion and race’s reputation.

Since 9/11, people seem to always associate Muslims with terrorists. More importantly, when people hear Muslim terrorists they never assume that they are from any other areas except from the Middle Eastern. Being young and not knowing the real reasoning behind the attacks of 9/11, I had always looked at Muslims as terrorists. To be specific, I thought they were mainly Middle Eastern Muslims. I was oblivious to the fact that there are other types of Muslims because all I have ever saw in the media were those types. It didn’t hit me that I was starting to become a victim of discrimination until I was on the bus and I saw a white male dressed up in a turban thinking that he was going to harm the passengers on the bus. I knew then that I had to alter my opinions about this because I knew that I wouldn’t like it if someone thought I was

On September 11th, 2001, a terrible event in history took place. With thousands dead and many more injured, the shocked and horrified US citizens looked for someone or something to blame. All Muslims ended up taking the blame for the actions of a small, radical, Islamic group called ISIS. The whole Islamic community shouldn’t receive hate and discrimination, just because the terrorists acted under the same religious beliefs.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World claims that day’s after the attack, the “Authorities raced up and down the East Coast stopping trains, busses, and cars; Questioning men marked as “Arab.” Just days after these plane crashes, Muslims across America were frightened to walk out their homes due to fear that they would be tortured by Americans. Even Muslim citizens whom have lived in the country for years were afraid in a country that was supposed to be “free” (Oxford Encyclopedia). This was labeled the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S soil but do Americans really know the meaning of terrorism? Terrorism, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, can be as miniscule as bullying or of a greater meaning as in acts of intimidating the government in pursuit of a political goal (Oxford English Dictionary). Terror itself is simply fear. There are plenty of news reports of school shootings and other miscellaneous crimes, such as Virginia Tech where 32 people died, 27 students and five faculty members, Sandy Hook Elementary, where 26 people were killed, including the shooter, and also the movie theatre in Aurora Colorado, where 12 people were killed over gun laws. None were Muslim. Racial profiling in this sense can be slightly reduced by including these other instances as terrorism attacks as well. In America, the media strongly gives off a stereotype that most, if not all, terrorist are Muslims.

All Muslims are not terrorist, as all terrorist aren’t Muslim. There are quite a few Muslims in this country. One thing that is great about this country, is that it was founded and built by immigrants. This country was built by people who came here with a dream, to have a better life. This is a country that was established on the moral foundation of being the land of opportunity. The land of milk and honey, where the streets are paved with gold. So many have come to America to find their golden goose. Many have succeeded in their adventures, and many have failed. Yet things have changed with the times, the people aren’t coming to have a better life. They are coming now to ruin our life and freedom as we know it.

The 9/11 attack by a group of Muslim Extremist have placed all muslims in a situation where bombs and terrorism is the first thing thought of when seen. The entire group is not responsible for the horror that happened that day but they are all blamed. Syria, a country dominated by Islam, is in trouble and seeks help from America but are not given because of their anxiety they developed about Muslims. The country is making it difficult for Syrian refugees to enter the country because they are concerned about what these people will do upon arrival. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Most will not think like such but will rather question every “suspicious” move any member of Islam makes. A prime example of such is Ahmed Mohamed. Ahmed is a 14 year old boy from Texas who was arrested for bringing in a clock he made at home which was mistaken for a bomb. This assumption was made because the boy is

Two of the planes made a course toward the World Trade Center, flying through the Twin Towers. One plane flew into the Pentagon, while the fourth plane’s passengers fought off the hijackers and crash landed in an empty field in Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board. “The carefully planned attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, making it the worst attack on the United States in history”(Pressler Par.1). Prior to this day, Muslims were treated very similarly to other minorities in America, but once the towers came crashing down, the Muslim population as a whole was treated in a completely different manner. Large amounts of “media coverage immediately after the attacks presented vast amounts of negative images related to Muslims and Arabs in general, thus leading to greater but temporary prejudices toward this group” (Khan and Ecklund Par.33). Al-Qaeda’s attack on 9/11 is how Islamophobia rose in the

Most, many people when they think of terrorist think about people from the middle east. I have no clue why but when terrorism events happen the increase of stereotypes grow and with that racism increases. After events like this stereotype start to rise and People usually Americans, even make fun of the middle eastern religion. For example, after the twin tower attack on September 11, 2001. Middle Eastern people were automatically to blame just because they looked like the person piloting the plane. Even Muslims were to blame when all Muslims do is promote peace, but there is always those Extreme radicalistic from the Muslim religion that stands out, and everyone assumes all Muslims are extremist. But if humans take things in perspective the first terrorist in America was Christopher Columbus he nearly killed 4 million people in four years. He did it legally in some people's eyes (Cook). Hate crimes will also increase because people want to attack the group that "did" the

In the event of the terrorist attack on the newspaper Charlie Hebdo, instead of protesting or taking legal action some decided to kill innocent people to get revenge. It was religion based and when they started killing all those people, it made what they stood for look ludicrous. We are seeing this happen in our own country as well. I think about all of the shootings that have been arising and about innocent lives being taken, most of which have occurred recently because of a group of Islamists. This doesn’t mean that every person who is involved with the religion of Islam is that way, but it makes a lot of people skeptical and judgmental because that is what the media highlights, focusing on the fact that it is indeed about religion.

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

First off we must ask ourselves, what exactly is a terrorist? According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, a terrorist is “a person, or a group of persons, that use[/s] violent acts to frighten people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal” (Webster). A terrorist can be anyone that fits that criteria. Nowhere in the dictionary, or anywhere for that matter, does it specifically state that terrorist are Muslims or that all Muslims are terrorist. Declaring that all Muslims are terrorist is like saying all Baptists are followers of the Westboro Baptist Church, or that all Catholics have pedophiles as priests. It's illogical to name a group of people a derogatory term just because of the wrongdoing of someone associated with that

Terrorism is used around the world to create fear and influence the public on political views (Siegel, 489). There are four views of terrorism including the psychological view, socialization view, ideological view, and the alienation view. A religious terrorist would most likely fit under the ideological view. In this view the terrorist feels the need to change a wrong opinion and believes that, because they are sacrificing themselves for something they believe so strongly in, it justifies the damage and harm done to innocent people (Siegel, 490). They use terror to create fear in anyone who opposes them and attract followers to their religion. In short, terrorism is widely used for political

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).

"All Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims."(Aiyer 23) This comment, frequently heard after the Mumbai bomb blasts implies that terrorism is a Muslim specialty, if not a monopoly. Muslims are actively committing acts of terrorism in many parts of the world and justifying it by pointing towards the Koran. Even the west is not untouched anymore. Thirty new terrorist organizations have emerged since the September 11 attacks, outpacing the United States’ efforts to crush the threat. Recently, a court in Paris sentenced 25 Muslims militants for planning attacks against the Eiffel Tower and other targets with explosives. All indications suggests that Islamists were the perpetrators.