Misconceptions about Islam – A personal perspective
Islam may be the most misunderstood religion in the United States. The impression that majority of non-Muslim Americans have is usually obtained through the media which typically represent Islamic countries or groups in the middle of a Holy War. These wars are usually waged by Islamic Fundamentalist who use terrorism and other violent acts to get their messages across giving Islam a negative reputation. Because of the lack of understanding of this highly visible religion, many conflicts arise between non-Muslim Americans and the people who live in Muslim worlds. Consequently, this causes problems among our different cultures by creating various political and religious battles that
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During this passage, Armstrong notes, “that Muhammad’s prophetic predecessors do not spurn him as a pretender, but welcome him into the family. The prophets do not revile or try to convert each other; instead they listen to each other’s insights.” This passage symbolizes the unity and community of prophets, which is central to Muslim idea of God. Indeed, true faith required one to wholly surrender to God and not to an established tradition. Arguably, creating an exclusive relationship with one tradition could become a shirk (a cardinal sin - putting other beings/deities on the same level as God). Other examples of religious tolerance include Muhammad’s speech to the Quraysh after capturing Kabah, during which he quoted the words of God “ behold, we have created you all out of a male or a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of him. Behold God is all-knowing, all aware”. Armstrong points out that the purpose of the tribe is no longer to dominant, exploit or destroy other peoples but to get to know them. Islam recognizes human equality, the acknowledgement of other dins, the need to protect other religions and finally, how all people are equal in the sight of God.
Islam in two Americas is a delayed thesis argument about the state of Islāmic/American relations in the US, post 9-11. As a delayed thesis, the author, Ross Douthat, opens the debate with a brief explanation of the “two Americas” as he sees it. Within the current political climate that is America today, it would be hard to argue that this divide does not exist.
Religion was involved with many things in a person’s life. It affects things like social status, relationships, the economy, culture, and politics. The complex ideas of religion and politics have shaped societies. The Puritans have set their goal to make their society and way of living connected to God in every way, shape, and form. In the seventeenth century this standard to keep God by your side has deeply affected politics and lawmaking, and has even caused some people to be continuously persecuted. From the strength of their religious beliefs stemmed these radical ideas, which deeply affected lives in the 17th century. Though these ideas were a way of life at one point in time, if these ideas were applied to our government today the
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
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
Americans strongly affirm the principles of religious freedom, religious tolerance, and separation of church and state. Nearly 9-in-10 (88 percent) Americans agree that America was founded on the idea of religious freedom for everyone, including religious groups that are unpopular. Ninety-five percent of Americans agree that all religious books should be treated with respect even if we don’t share the religious beliefs of those who use them. Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) of Americans agree that we must maintain a strict separation of church and state. Americans’ views of Muslims and Islam are mixed, however. As with other previously marginalized religious groups in U.S. history, Americans are grappling with the questions Islam poses to
The word “Islam” is taken from the Arabic word “Salema”, which translates to obedience, peace, purity, and submission. There are many people who don’t know that these traits are the foundation of Muslim religion. Ignorance on a subject often leads to false judgment, and the deep-rooted conflict between the United States and the Islamic State is largely due to such ignorance. An entity cannot involve itself in another’s affairs and make calculated decisions if it does not educate itself on the entirety of the situation. This neglect to learn has led to greater issues because of events that have transpired as a result of harsh judgment. There is a huge misconception of the difference between the natural devotion to Islam and the radicals who
With the over one hundred different religions in the world, all proclaiming different things, it can getting a little frustrating to decide on one to call home. However, every Religion claims to be the one true religion. Is it the fact that one has a large following, or even a large building erected in the manifestation of the words they proclaim? Or is it a minute group of disciples focused on solving the ever frightening problems that the world faces every day? Mirriam Webster Dictionary defines a Religion as “the belief in a god or in a group of gods.”1 and this is simply incorrect. A religion is a community of people who believe in on set of beliefs, have established rituals, have faith in some sort of set principle/higher power, and have symbols and signs that they hold to be of a higher nature than other objects.
Following September 11, 2001, there seemed to be a sense of fear towards Arabs and Muslims in America. Since then, the tension between the United States and the Middle East has escalated. Based on the attention terrorist attacks receive, stereotypes tend to arise toward Muslims. Terrorists can be any ethnicity or religion, but typically jihadist terrorists’ gain the most attention in the media and the press. In America, Arabs, Muslims, and Jihadists tend to all get grouped together, even though they are not synonymous terms (Amble, 2012, pp. 340, 342). Not every Arab is a Muslim and not every Muslim is a terrorist. In fact, only a small portion of Muslims partake in terrorist activities and the Islam religion actually prohibits deliberate murder of unarmed individuals in battle and suicide (Pratt, 2013). If many stereotypes of Muslims seem to be incorrect, then it is crucial that Christians become educated on what Muslims actually believe. Critiques of the Islam faith that the Christian makes cannot be rooted in the actions of a few radicals. Just as certain people do evil things in the name of Christianity, without truly knowing Christ, I believe terrorists do the same. By targeting the aspects of violence in Islam I believe the Christian can close doors to witnessing. Instead, I think there are two core criticisms between the Islam religion and Christianity that can be analyzed to persuade a Muslim, law and logic. These two categories would allow us to meet with Muslims at
Islam is a monotheistic religion, centered around the teachings of the Qu’ran and serving Allah (meaning God in Arabic). However, this Abrahamic religion has been harshly discriminated against in the United States for years. Most prominently throughout the last twelve years, post September 11th, 2001. Unfortunately, issues such as socialization through the media, power distribution, religious ignorance, stereotyping and visible differences have contributed to the ill attitudes towards Muslims. This paper will examine how Americans have been socialized in islamophobia within the United States.
All through history, religion and what God someone follows has drastically affected their lifestyle by affecting their political statuses. The way someone lived was determined by what religion they followed politically,economically and socially. Most colonies official religion was Anglican/Church of England or Christianity but some did not have an official religion which created problems. The slaves that were forcefully immigrated to the colonies were not able to practice their own religion because some owner were extremely religious and other were not able to connect to their God or Gods. American history demonstrate that religion and the God someone followed had drastic effects with politics by not being able to be part of it, economy by not being able to own any land and make money for himself , and society by not being about to join any communities or organization extremely affected slaves to reach true happiness in the place they call home.
Aside from what the news portrays, many Americans have limited knowledge of Islam and Muslim people. Because prejudice against Muslims has been deeply integrated into American society for such a long time, it has even become clear in classroom settings. For example, in my AP Human Geography class, we were debating on ways we could prevent terrorism, specifically referring to ISIS as the basis. The discussion could’ve been harmless, however, my teacher made a point to place the only two Muslim kids in the class, including myself, on the negative side, while Christian students spoke for the affirmative. Naturally, they were allowed to speak first; the first solution they thought of was the improvement of education in the Middle East so that students would learn that terrorism is wrong, and it astounded me—everyone knows that terrorism is wrong.
Ever since September 11, 2001 Americans along with the majority of the world’s population have been skeptical of Muslims. It’s a sad reality but it’s hard for people to think of a Muslim without linking them directly to terrorism. But these assumptions aren’t totally out of the blue—the Muslim’s religion, Islam, teaches a low tolerance for other religions and the Islamic government has no separation of church and state, so it’s only normal to assume that their government shall have a low tolerance as well—some however, immediately translate this into terrorism. Through the Islamic government and religion, relations with foreign countries, and separation amongst themselves it can be concluded that Islamic Fundamentalism is clearly a threat
What many people might think when they hear about Islam would be the terrorist attacks, the strong believe of their religion, and also the social unjust for women's rights in these Islamic countries, but is this true or just a misception that the news tries to make to stir up just to get the population to watch their news. The main reason for my decision of picking this topic is simple throughout history, many wars and battles have been fought over many misconceptions of religions and ethics practices. My main objective of this paper is to help prove that not everything we see or hear from the news might be truly correct since new and social media in today's society tends to be biased. Since the main objective for these news stations are just
Humans have found themselves led down somewhat of a wondrous, adventurous, and audacious path of evolution. There had to be a point in our ancestors’ history when we developed consciousness to the potential where we could actually realize we were distinctive living beings within particular environments, dealing with oftentimes unique circumstances. In the voyage of discovery and broadening our knowledge base, our inquisitiveness likely pointed to influencing factors within our environments that could only be reasoned by causal or moral explanations. Perhaps, then, a pivotal point of development in our species' history was the appreciation of our capacity of moral reasoning. But even as the lone moral agents (as most of us believe we are) of
For many people, religion and spirituality plays a huge part of their life. In other people, religion and spirituality is not a part of their life at all. In gothic literature, religion and spirituality are usually either very present in a work, or not present at all. In some cases, the lack of religion and spirituality affect the outcome of the story. In other cases, the character’s immense beliefs in religion and spirituality can also drastically affect the outcome of the story. In the movie, The Conjuring, the lack of religion in the family drastically affects the mother and her soul. In the story, “Good Country People,” the belief of religion in the mother and the disbelief of religion in Hulga affects the outcome of the story. In the story “Hell House,” the questions about spirituality affects the outcome of the story. In the story, “The Amityville Horror,” the opinions of a church affect the outcome of the story.