Muslims Enter American Mainstream Essay

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

In the TED talk “What does it mean to be Muslim” a speech by Dalia Mogahed. The 9/11 attack had proven that “Not only had my country been attacked, but in a flash, somebody else's actions had turned me from a citizen to a suspect” (Mogahed). This proves that if any one person of your race does something wrong it will affect everyone of that race not only you. People can be affected by your actions even if they have nothing to do with you. You cannot blame one incident from one person on the whole race. There is no possible way that a whole race could get together and plan something as brutal as a terrorist attack. There are many bad people in the world but you can't blame the action of one person on the whole race. People can be affected

September 11, 2001 is a date in history that changed the lives of people from all over the world and especially the lives of Americans. On this day nineteen militant men associated with al-Qaeda, an Islamic extremist group, hijacked four airplanes and carried out multiple suicide attacks on different locations in the United States. Two of the planes directly struck the World Trade Center located in New York City, one of the other two planes hit the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the final plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania before it could reach its final destination. On this day, more than 3,000 people were killed including over 400 first responding police officers and firefighters. In recent years as people look back on that day it is remembered as a time when the country was joined together by grief and showed an overwhelming amount of comfort and support to the victims and their families; it was also a time of extreme national pride. People also remember that following the attacks the economy suffered tremendously, in addition, air traffic which makes up a portion of the economy was greatly disrupted, both of which created uncertainty about the security of the financial markets critical to the success of the United States. What most people do not remember is the immediate backlash and hostility the Muslim and Arab communities received following the attacks by both civilians and the media. This is a topic that has been largely ignored by the public and media’s

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

Muslim Americans are people whose religious belief is Islam, but they were born in America. Before September 11, 2001, Muslim Americans were rarely a discussion or a problem. However after September 11, 2001, Muslim Americans were the main topic. Even though Islam is a religious belief, people are fearful of anything associated with it. Some people discriminate against people who resemble those who are practice the religion. Even though it is not relevant to race, the difference between racism; and religious discrimination is often unclear to people. People believe that terrorists are Muslim activists, but that’s wrong because not all terrorists are Muslims.

Muslims now, suffer from discrimination in America ever since the 9-11 Era. Some people believe that muslims were the reason why 9-11 and other terrorists attacks happened. The hate for American-Muslims has increased by 78%. Even our president, Donald Trump, wanted a ban on immigration by Muslims. The anti-Muslim hate and violence have reportedly increased rapidly after Donald Trump’s comments on the Muslims. Social media and the news for months

“Since 9/11, Muslims in America are living in fear” (“In a virtual internment camp: Muslim Americans since 9/11”). When our World Trade Center came crashing down, American had one more enemy, Muslims. 9/11 was a tragic act of terrorism and those victims will not be forgotten, but because of the Muslims that did this terrible act most Muslims in America were grouped into one category, evil.

They faced and continue to face the resentment of Americans all because they share the same ethnic background and religious affiliation as the people who were behind the destruction of the Twin Towers (Bakalian and Bozorgmehr, 156). Not all people had a bad reaction toward Muslims. Amanda Luz-Henning Santiago is a 9/11 survivor who says that she does not fear or blame Muslims (Henning-Santiago). She knows that they are only trying to leave their country to escape terror, not trying to inflict it (Henning-Santiago).

The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 was a tragic event for all Americans, including Arab Americans. Due to the fact that the nineteen terrorist who hijacked the four planes were Middle Eastern Muslims, Arab Muslim Americans were suddenly viewed with suspicion and became the victims of discrimination and hate crimes. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were a dual tragedy for Muslim Arab Americans. Arab Americans died in the attack, were part of rescue efforts, and worked bravely at Ground Zero among other Americans. Sadly, they got very little recognition, very little time to mourn because they quickly became the target of hate crimes and discrimination. Despite, being part of the American culture for generations, after the 9/11 attack Muslims

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.”

Many terrorist attacks have plagued the United States, the most known being 9/11, the nineteen al Queda members,the majority whose home was Saudi Arabia, hijacked four US planes where a series of four coordinated attacks were conducted. Two are flown into the Twin Towers in New York, one crashes into the Pentagon, and the other, which was meant for the White House, crashed into Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to take back control of the plane to prevent the attack on the US Capitol. Saudi Arabia was given sovereign immunity, protecting their government and their government officials from civil cases. This terrorist attack caused insured property losses of over twenty five billion dollars. Terrorist attacks are always automatically blamed on the Muslims. Muslim Americans are constantly seen as victims of discrimination, but viewed by a very slim majority as members of a religion that encourages death and violence. Republicans are more likely to be suspicious of Islam than Democrats are. Donald Trump is one of those Republicans who feels that all Muslims should not be able to enter the United States. Any terrorist attack that is heard of, people regularly look at anyone from the Middle East. According to the FBI, ninety-four percent of terrorist attacks carried out in the United States are non-Muslims. Today, ISIS and Al-Qaeda are the most notorious terrorist

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.

After the attack of 9/11 many American citizens sought out an answer to why one would hijack a plane and run it into the Twin Towers, killing millions. According to the Huffpost, Islam became the main reason for the attack and furthermore labeled religion as the inspiration for many terroristic attacks (Gibson, 1). According to many Muslims, however, the attacks are anti-Islamic because the Quran states not to harm civilians who are not involved with war and to avoid it at all possible times (PBS, 3). The conflict between Muslims and Americans is growing and many issues in the Middle East has become the focus for religious terrorism.

After 9/11 has induced negative attitudes towards Muslim peoples who tend to be strongly associated with any act of terrorism. The media has played a colossal role in developing such negative association wherein it constantly portrays Muslim people in combination with violent terrorist acts. It does so in a way that they both go hand-and-hand. In other words, it has made it as though the Islamic religion is synonymous with terrorism. The media has perpetuated Muslim stereotypes over the years that followed the 9/11 incident. Because of this, society has developed, and still has developed, this prejudiced mindset about the Islamic religion and the Muslim communities around the world. People immediately assume that any violent act being

Numerous numbers of people have been hurt for simply being Muslims. Every religion has good and bad people but Muslims are targeted especially after September 11, 2001. The whole community is being discriminated because of the actions of few. The Muslim women has been teased by their dressing style called “Hijab” the worst moment that women had to face was when somebody out of nowhere came and pulled their hijab. The men were positioned as a security threat to be managed by the government. The Muslims are recognized by bad image of September 9, 2001, they are taunted by their Islamic dressing and disrespected for Islam. Thousands of Muslims that were teased and insulted, were not even involved in any type of crime. There is no religion in the world teaches to commit crime, disrespect anyone’s religion or culture, no war or the racism. All these things are created by human. God has only taught us to love, respect, and follow the truthful guides. In my opinion no one should be judged by race, color, or religion. No one has the right to humiliate one another. I believe that there are only two types of people exist in this world and that is good and bad people, which has nothing to do with their religion, color or identity. Every religion has good and bad people, just because one man who belonged to Islam and killed many lives, does not mean that all of the Islamic people are bad and has horrible thought of hurting others. I am not a Muslim, but I have met many people that are