With the increase of negative social conceptions associated with Islam and terrorism, Muslims face many adversities such as stereotyping, the criminalization of the Islamic religion, and discrimination against the majority based on the few extremists. Negatively stereotyping a group of people based on the actions of few extremists can greatly affect those of that group. People that practice Islam, especially youth, are often bullied for their religious views, and face many micro aggressions, such as the portrayal of Muslims in the media often cast as “the enemy” in movies/TV shows/etc., news coverage that concerns Islam is usable talking about terrorism, etc. These views are harmful and put a negative light on a peaceful religion by linking …show more content…
Most of the negative stereotypes that are associated with Islam are due to Islamophobia, and societies overestimating the number of Muslims that are radicals. Another factor that contribute is the miscommunication on both side through social media. Islamophobia is define as “a contrived fear or prejudice fomented by the existing Eurocentric and Orientalist global power structure. It is directed at a perceived or real Muslim threat through the preservation and extension of existing disparities in economic, political, social and cultural relations, while rationalizing the necessity to deploy violence as a tool to achieve "civilizational rehab" of the target communities (Muslim or otherwise). ”(University California, Berkley) the main ideas that surround Islamophobia is that Islam is uniform and cannot adapt to new realities, They do not share common morals with other major faiths, as a religion it is inferior to the West, It is old-fashioned, barbaric, and illogical, it is a religion of violence and supports terrorism and that Islam is a violent political ideology. (University California, Berkley) Islamophobia exits mostly in the western part of the world, where the society dose not know what Islam is and what it stands for or misunderstands it due to miscommunication thought media. Islamophobia affects all Muslims around the world, …show more content…
This is because of a pre-existing opinion that all Muslims are different from the rest of Canadian society, alongside with negative connotations of their communities with violence and terrorism. The fear that Muslims are different form the rest of the society strengthened others perceptive that Islam is connected to violence and terrorism. The Criminalization of the Islamic religion is because of the few extremists that associate their horrible action in the name of Islam. For example the Taliban’s fundamentalist proscriptions and limitations in Afghanistan, the Charlie Hebdo attack in France, and the emergence of the self proclaimed “Islamic State group (ISIS) which supposedly shows videos of the beheadings of their prisoners who are often journalists. Although the main factor of Criminalization of the Islamic religion is because people think that all Muslims are violent, barbaric, and that they are all assocted with a terriest group called isis a Recent surveys show that in several countries with significant high Muslim populations have an disapproving view of ISIS, including virtually all respondents in Lebanon and 94% in Jordan. (pew,2015)also most Muslims generally say that suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians in the name of Islam are rarely or never justified. Muslims are often Discrimination against because of the actions of very
Media has this bad image of Islam and how crazy they are. Especially in America , after 9/11. Media is meant to only focus on the negative stuff rather than the positive. The media never shows the actual true meaning of their religion. Most of the stuff on media of Islam are bad actions that few people have chosen to make. In America, a lot of people judge Islam without trying to understand the differences between the extremists to the good Islam people. They jump to conclusion without trying to learn and understand the truth about Islam religion. Media only shows the bad outcomes and do not share that Islam also has good people like every other religion. Not all Islam people are terrorist such as not all black people are criminals. There is
The stereotype of a ‘typical Muslim’ is bordering the assumption that ‘they are all the same’ and ‘that Islam poses a very dangerous threat to Britain and ‘its people’. Events this year such as the shootings at Charlie Hebdo and in Tunisia, alongside the brutal beheadings and other atrocities carried out by IS only support this small minded view. Sensational news sells, unfortunately, and so as long as Muslims, Islam and it’s fanatical strain continue to be sensational, so will the claims made by the media. It’s a bitter cycle and I don’t see it ending any time
Although Islamophobia stems from religious differences and oppression today's it is present because way too many people have the perception that Muslims and anyone from the Middle East is a terrorist and has an evil agenda. "Although every Muslim is not a terrorist, every terrorist is a Muslim" (Gul,2011). This view of Islamic and Middle Eastern people is present for many reasons. One being how they are being portrayed in the media. Whenever something ISIS related is reported the views of non radical Islamic people are rarely shown and if it is it's a two or three minute segment (Obeidallah, 2014). Of all violent crimes committed in the US each year the crimes of Muslims are bring to public attention more than others yet they only account for 160 of thousands (cite). In most Hollywood movies you will find nothing but Muslims being portrayed as the assailant. Another cause for Islamophobia in our society is how the government portrays people in predominantly Islamic communities. The US is constantly in need of oil and many other natural resources that are in abundance in the Middle East. With someone these countries refusing to share for the proposed prices the US has waged war against them to gain control over these
Even before 9/11, the effects of stereotyping against Muslims has been present. For example in a Harvard University article about Muslim Americans struggling with stereotypes it states,”in the immediate wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, early news accounts included reports of people of “Middle Eastern heritage” fleeing the scene; many journalists, “experts,” and even former Representative Dave McCurdy linked the bombing to “fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups.” In media such as newspapers they have printed in a way that could be misleading to the reader, “newspaper headlines regularly print the words “Islam” and “Muslim” next to words like “fanatic,”
Since the dawn of human civilization, there has been an unfortunate but natural tendency to marginalize and oppress those belonging to "the other"--those not in power, not part of the most popular group and those who are different. One such manifestation of this fear of the different is Islamophobia--the "dread or hatred of Islam--and therefore [the] fear or dislike of all or most Muslims." Although the exact word "Islamophobia" was brought to public awareness in 1997 after an academic journal from the British Runnymede Report, it has existed for many years prior to the journal, as a term to describe the experiences of the oppressed and discriminated sections of Muslim communities. The simmering prejudice towards Muslims gained ferocious momentum
Despite the fact that Muslims hate terrorism more than many others, the society falsely points on Islamic believers for satisfaction. It is believed that Muslims are causing violence around the world. The world, in which people figure the differences, the society averted to layout the difference between Radical Islam and Islam. The community knows who to blame when a terrorist explodes a bomb, but does a Muslim know who to blame when he/she get disgraced and harassed? The public and the media can’t see that Muslims are also a human being who have emotions. Criticising one another isn’t the solution to Terrorism. Everyone must come together to wipe out terrorism
Some young Muslims living in the U.S. experience discrimination in schools, public areas, or wherever an Islamophobic is present. Islamophobia is a term that has been described as someone who has hatred or fear of Muslims (University of California, Berkeley). In fact, 70% of American Muslim Youth have reported some form of discrimination due to being Muslim (Ahmed, et al. 161). Society and the media are sometimes the fuel of Islamophobia, which sometimes transmit from adults to younger generations, which spreads even more from that point on. Due to the negative portrayal of Muslims that is mostly spread through the media, many Muslims are discriminated against in schools; as there is often no real knowledge of Islam except the image that Society exhibits. Discrimination has developed
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.
The human brain is effortlessly conditioned by the world from what it sees and hears in the media. Society causes the public to obey what is seen in the eyes of the uneducated. This leads to conflicts in many different countries that assign a cruel name to Islam because of a few individuals hatred against society. Many people believe that all Muslims are a terroristic threat, causing Muslims to suffer from racial discrimination. Muslims, non-Muslim supporters, news outlets, and other media outlets must educate others about the peacefulness of true Muslims and decrease racial profiling, suspicion, and discrimination.
People no matter their intentions always categorize others based on their first impression. With the media today, many believe that it is getting worse. Whether it be in movies, on social media, or even in the news there are many people in the world trying to change these bias views and change the way people look at each other. Everyday people no matter their race, gender, or class are faced with different stereotypes and different bias views that many wishes to overcome.
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
A lot of people today stereotype Islam thinking that Muslims are radical when in reality they are doing this in defense of their religion. The media promotes false information and make people
Islam is portrayed and is commonly accepted as the most violent and largest direct threat to the West. This is a generalization made by most of the West, but it is not particularly the West or the Islamic people’s fault. There is constant turmoil in Islamic countries in the Middle East and these conflicts are what make the news in the West. The only representation in the media that the Islamic nation gets is that of war. Though most Islamic people are not violent, the select few that do participate in terrorist groups give the rest of the Islam nation a bad image.
Islam is the religion that is followed through Muslims about the teachings through Muhammad by the prophet Allah. Today Islam is considered as one of the most prominent religions followed throughout the world. Though Islam is thought of has one of the most popular religion across the world, many still lack the understanding of what Islam is. Following 9/11, the perception of Muslims changed thus proposing the idea of Islamophobia. Defined by the Oxford English Dictionary Islamophobia is the unfair prejudice or discrimination towards Muslims due to race, religion, or ethnic identity. The idea changed the way that all Muslims were perceived throughout America and the world. Muslims today face discrimination throughout the society. Following 9/11 the Muslim people are being treated unfairly because of their religion by the exclusion of the Muslim culture in American society, Muslims are being targeted and harmed in public, and Muslims are perceived as a terrorist or threat to national security.
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).