Separation Of Muslim Women In The United States

Since the incident of 9/11 occurred, many people have debated over the Muslim faith and its practices. Muslim extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS have affected the name of Islam causing majority of Muslims to be blamed. Recently, a tragic event that occurred in Paris killing over a hundred people left the people of France shaken with fear and anger. These events have lead to an increasing amount of hate and tension towards Muslims all over the world from protests at mosques, where Muslims go to pray, and anti-Muslim rally’s. Islamophobia is a massive issue that has steered European counties like France to enforce laws that ban religious garments that Muslims wear such as the niqab and burqa. Some people perceive these garments to be

On September 11, 2010, as I was walking through the halls of my elementary school, ready to go home, I saw a boy wearing a gray pikachu shirt, blue baggy jeans, cool neon sneakers, and a gray Jansport bookbag. I smiled as we made eye contact, and he ran over to me and pulled off my headscarf, yelling “TERRORIST!” This wasn’t the first time this had happened. Many nights I would come home crying, and my mom would have the responsibility of teaching her ten-year-old daughter that her religion was nothing to be ashamed of. The constant anger filled faces always made my heart beat rapidly, yet it didn’t deter me from being open about my beliefs. However, what finally made me take my headscarf off was the pre-conceived notions about what constitutes a hijabi.

The article “Attitudes Toward Muslim Women in the West” is about an interview with Lila Abu-Lughod by the Asian Society is explaining how people treat Muslim women and how it affects them. One example of this is how things changed after 9/11. Abu-Lughod says “Many of us have noticed that suddenly, after 9/11 and the American response of war in Afghanistan, the hunger for information about Muslim women seems insatiable. My own experience of this was the form of an avalanche of invitations to appear on news programs and at universities and colleges.” Once there were terrorist attacks by Muslim men, anyone who was Muslim became a threat to society in people’s minds. Even though this happened over 17 years ago, when people walking along the street see a woman wearing a hijab (a traditional Muslim headdress) or a man who looks Middle Eastern they stare or walk faster, even pull their kids away and tell them not to look. What is that kid going to think, do they understand and think that this person looks different so that means they should treat them differently? When you think about it, racism is passed down through generations, even if you do not realize it, kids are being taught to be

Since 9/11/2001 hate crimes related to Islam-phobia has risen to nearly 481 and since has stayed above 100 in subsequent years. In 2015, 2% of hate crimes are anti-Islamic. Many times people are attacked for wearing hijabs, and even non-Islamic, Arabic people that wear hijabs are attacked because of their "terrorist" appearance. This is a ludicrous thing, comparing a group of millions of faithful followers to 22 extremists. Now, every day, Islamic followers live in fear of being attacked for their beliefs; this fear escalates one day a year—9/11.

Finally, 9/11 developed a lot of discrimination towards Muslims. Selby expressed in her research that negative stereotyping of Muslims or “Islamophobia” in Canada from media arguably became increasingly after 9/11. Not just that, fourteen focus groups across the country revealed a sense of horror at the terrorist attacks as well as distress about unfair negative stereotyping of Muslims and difficulties in travel (Sebly, 2015). The research tells us how the media instructed Canadians to portray Muslims as terrorists and be cautious around them. As a matter of fact, Canadians started to hate Muslims and tried to eliminate them from places as much as possible. Accordingly, most of the women who wore ‘hijab’ got negative comments from public and

Since September 11, 2001 the Muslim religion has been assaulted verbally and physically. People of the religion had to fear from physical threats, their religious gathering places vandalized, and hate speech is readily heard. 16 years later, this behavior is still in existence but has gone further by demonizing their beliefs through the media. Hate groups such as ISIS and the Taliban support the demonize being made and causing the non-extremist to feel the wrath of intolerance. Social intolerance of this religion has caused conflict for women wearing Hijab. They are being subject to having to remove such item to participate in events of daily

Based on the way Yasmeen dresses, in traditional, Muslim hijab and black, Islamic dress, the knowledge she is different than the dominant, American cultural and religious norms follows her everywhere (p. 76). In middle school, her fellow students called her “Terrorist” and

In the US Constitution, the first amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” However, this law is being ignored when it comes to Muslim women in the US. Muslim women in the US, just like everyone else, have the right to practice their religion and have every right to be treated respectfully and not be discriminated or harassed because of their religion or their gender. Many muslim women practice the hijab and wear loose fitting clothes because it is a sign of modesty, distinction and to not call attention upon themselves (McCloud 51). However, in the past few decades discrimination has been occurring against them due to their lifestyle and the way they

The themes that I thought connect to the texts and videos we have expanded on in class are Identity and Boundaries (barriers). In this essay I will group the readings and videos and explore the theme in each and relate it back to Identity and Boundaries. Then how we can perhaps use related topics to illustrate my point.

Immigrants from Islam practicing countries are extremely unfairly stereotyped as terrorists, this stereotype is even more severe if they are a practicing Muslim. This stereotype stems from radical Islam groups such as Al Qaeda and Isis performing extreme acts of violence in the name of their religion. A religion that preaches peace and acceptance. There is an emphasis on the word radical in this context, as these groups are formed by extremely radical "followers" of Islam. Often times non-radical practicing Muslims will refrain from wearing their hijab's or other religious attire in fear that they will be terrorized for their practice. The acts of terrorizing Muslim immigrants has become common practice in the last two decades, following events

The hijab, also known as the veil, is widely misunderstood. Westerners believe that this is yet another sign of oppression. Wearing the hijab has many reasons behind it, “The custom of veiling is associated with Islam because of a passage that says, “Say to the believing women they should lower their gazes and guard their modesty. They should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty.” (24:31). The veil represents the religion of Islam. It stands for modesty, and that there is more to a woman than how she styles her hair. A woman should be judged for what she says than how she looks. In the Qu’ran chapter 24 verse 32, it states “And say to the believing women that they restrain their looks and guard their private parts, and that they display not their beauty or their embellishment except that which is apparent thereof, and that they draw their head-coverings over….and that they display not their beauty or

The author, Naheed Mustafa, starts out with two points of view others have of her, a “Muslim terrorist” or an oppressed woman (Mustafa 1). However, with these two points of view, Mustafa is suggesting that people only view her in these two ways because in their eyes a Muslim woman cannot be more. Then she introduces the hijab, a scarf which covers her neck, head, and throat, but explains that young Muslim women like her are “reinterpreting” the purpose of the hijab: give women absolute control over their bodies. According to Mustafa, the hijab does not only give women absolute control but freedom. Yet, others do not understand this concept or why a young woman who was born in a land that is free and full of opportunities like North America

There are approximately one billion people worldwide that follow the Islamic way of life. Islam is the religion of Allah, and Muhammad his last prophet. They refer to themselves as Muslims. There are many rules for the daily life of Islam. These rules are found in the Qur’an, which is their guidebook. Muslims cannot do anything that may be considered harmful to their body, mind, or soul, which is also known as haram. For example, eating pork is not allowed, nor is lying, stealing, or cheating. Muslims are encouraged to do what is beneficial, this is known as halal.

Among other studies done on young Muslim women who hijab, one women said “"I lived in a co-ed dorm and it was really the first time I had to deal with unwanted attention from guys. I guess that was the first time I really understood why it was necessary to wear a scarf, because as soon as I did, all the idiots left me alone” (Ali, 2005). Another woman’s view was “because I began to realize that what people think is nowhere compared to Allah, and so, how could I blatantly disobey an order because of 'standing out?” (Ali, 2005). It would also surprise many that in some of these women’s cases, their choice to hijab was not only not forced, but also not even supported by family members. Some of these women’s parents had hard times coping with their daughters taking up this wardrobe.

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).