Prejudice against Muslims and Islamic Fundamentalism Essay

When discussing 9/11, the author writes about Post-9/11 America seemed determined: “Never Again.” Despite important differences, genocide and terrorism share one important feature, which is that both parget civilian populations. This led the author to ask, “To what extend is the mind-set of the perpetrators revealed by the way they frame their victims culturally (Mamdani, 11)?” The debate on this question turns around the relationship between cultural and political identity and in the context of 9/11, between religious fundamentalism and political terrorism. The ideas the author raised in the Good Muslim, Bad Muslim section, stuck out to me the most. Mamdani explained that President Bush moved to distinguish between “good Muslims” and “bad Muslims.” From the “bad Muslims” point of view, they were obviously responsible for terrorism and at the same time, Bush seemed to assure Americans that “good Muslims” were anxious to clear their names and consciences of this horrible crime and would undoubtable support “us” in a war against “them.” This doesn’t hide the central message of the discourse that unless proved to be “good,” every Muslim was presumed to be “bad.” All Muslims were now obligated to prove their credentials by joining in a war against “bad Muslims (Mamdani, 15).” This part of the reading really got me thinking about

Foreign and domestic policies are not linear, rather the policies are connected in a circle, with each policy reinforcing the values of another. Domestic American terrorism in the prison and detention systems and governmental reforms are influenced by the mobilization and ethnocentrism abroad. The militarization internationally is justified by the domestic handling of the same cultural issues within the United State borders. The United States has strangely used a near Catch-22 to handle dilemmas. The United States has allowed perspective to become reality, whether with oneself or regarding issues abroad, specifically in the Middle East. Terrorism is the use or threat of fear for political or economical gain. An internal characteristic of terrorism is how dependent it is of perspective, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. To understand “terrorism,” a focus must be applied to the history, what drove an organization to commit such acts. Respectively, the Middle East has been a hotbed for the key word “terrorism,” especially because of 9/11. Subsequently, Muslims have been stigmatized by the United States as terrorists. The consequences spawned because of 9/11 require a look to the past to understand the present.

The latest hot topic when it comes to the Republican candidates for the presidential election is Muslims. From Donald Trump saying we have a “Muslim problem”, to Ben Carson saying Muslims are unfit for office, the attack on Muslims has been a big subject. In this New York Times editorial “The Republican Attack on Muslims”, the author talks about how recently the Republicans were not the nicest when it comes to the Muslim community. Recently, Donald Trump has hinted towards his dislike for Muslims. In a recent interview, the interviewer stated that “we have a problem in this country, it’s called Muslims”, and that our President (who is an American-born Christian) is also a Muslim. When the interviewer asked Mr. Trump when we would get rid of them, he said “We’re going to be looking into that.” Donald Trump has also stated that he thinks Muslims were behind the World Trade Center attacks, which is not true.

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.”

Viewing Arabs and Muslims as evil and threatening people began long before the terrorist attacks on September 11 (Akram, pg 61.) It can be traced back to myths created by film and media. Individuals of Middle Eastern descent were often the villains in older American films and have been consistently misrepresented for many years. There have also been multiple government laws and policies dating back to the 1970s that have “steadily targeted Arab and Muslim non-citizens for selective interrogation, detention, harassment, presumption of terrorist involvement, and removal from this country” (Akram, 61).

Stereotypes often determine how we see people who are different from us. Stereotypes play such an important role in our perceptions of others, but what exactly are they? A stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing (Williams, 2013). In essence, stereotypes are not limited to different races and ethnicities, but also include: genders, social classes, cultures and even certain hobbies. In light of the increase of negative attention that Muslims have been receiving in the media, the stereotypes discussed in this paper will be centered on Muslims. Specifically, the stereotype that all Muslims are terrorists will be analyzed.

Groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda are constantly communicated in reference to current events with words such as Muslim highlighted; media fails, however, to explain how these groups have come about and instead take the simple route of blaming religion and giving fearful Americans a common religious enemy. After the infamous attack on September 11th, Al Qaeda has become an ideology with the false pretense of justifying their actions through their religion, causing a decentralized movement of sprouting terrorist groups claiming themselves a servant of Allah as well. Al Qaeda, as a fundamentalist organization, has always been highly focused on publicly prominent political, economic, and symbolic targets with the hopes of intimidating or coercing the civilian population. Osama Bin Laden’s assassination, as the leader responsible for the destruction on September 11th, has ultimately led to the emergence of a generation of sympathetic yet unaffiliated individuals inspired by Al Qaeda’s ideology. The ongoing war in Iraq, the U.S.’s presence in Afghanistan, as well as Guantanamo has further influenced these misinformed people, who blatantly follow organizations such as ISIS and Al Qaeda using the justification of Islam for their actions. Unfortunately, this growing population of misguided, ignorant people has exacerbated the unfair institutionalization of all individuals identify as Muslim being terrorists, jihadists, against Western culture, or affiliated with extremist

ISIS, a militant Islamic group, has publicly claimed responsibility for the attack that ended with over a hundred casualties (Castillo). Though Islam’s interpretation is very individualized, it allows for reformed religious movement to evolve. Hence, ISIS is an islamic unified terrorist group whose’s motives are allegedly justifiable through a militant interpretation of the Quran. Furthermore, the violent extremist group declares itself the true Islam. Thus, the impact of current events has resulted in a world wide generalization about the religion entirely when in fact this is not true. Moreover, Muslims around the world have taken to social media about the subject by trying to separate the connection between the religion and the extremist events (Jenkins), which caused the initial inspiration for this creation. In sum, my revelation was drawn from this atrocity which touched communities all over the world and, in addition, the negative ethnocentrism towards Muslims world

I am here to talk to you about the amount of racism, Islamophobia and terrorism there is in the world. How many lives were damaged by the gruesome and merciless slaughtering of 146 innocent children? Who got the blame –Muslims! How many innocent children and women have been slayed at the hands of Israel? No—one says anything. No! One! This whole wide world should be free of these crimes.

In the days after September 11, 2001, American leaders rushed to portray Islam as a peaceful religion that had been "hijacked" by a fanatical band of terrorists. One hopes that these assurances were merely tactical—that nobody was meant to believe them and that they were meant to assure the Muslim world that the inevitable American

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.

The Washington based Center for Security Policy, sponsored an undercover survey and learned that Islamic schools in America are exposed to widespread radicalism and three out of four Islamic centers are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism. To counter the brainwashing machine of the doctrine of “Allegiance and Disavowal”, it is crucial to focus on the curriculum of Islamic community schools in the west and the Friday Mosque sermons. There is also a need for a more effective outreach to the Muslim community, as it could lead to identifying potential local threats, and preventing any future attacks.

The key issue in the Middle East, increasingly, has less to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict and more to do with fundamentalist Islam. What is fundamentalist Islam? On the one hand, it manifests itself as a new religious conviction, reaffirming faith in an awe-inspiring God. On the other hand, it appears as a militant ideology, demanding political action now. One day its spokesmen call for a jihad (sacred war) against the West, evoking the deepest historic resentments. Another day, its leaders appeal for reconciliation with the West, emphasizing shared values. Its economic theorists reject capitalist greed in the name of social justice, yet they rise to the defense of private property. Its moralists pour scorn on Western consumer culture

Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast with tremendous force at daybreak, August 29, 2005, severely punishing regions that included the city of New Orleans and its neighboring state Mississippi. Resulting in a total of just over 1700 people killed, and hundreds of thousands missing. When we think of Hurricane Katrina stories, we think of stories that were published by the media such as, “Packing 145-mile-an-hour winds as it made landfall, the category 3 storm left more than a million people in three states without power and submerged highways even hundreds of miles from its center. The hurricane's storm surge a 29-foot wall of water pushed ashore when the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast was the highest ever measured in the United States.

It’s a fact that the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 brought Islam into the national and international spotlight with a new intensity. But despite all conspiracy theories and blame games, one has to look into who actually seems to have