Terrorism Stereotypes

Arabs, Arab Americans, and Muslims are often stereotyped in movies as sheiks, barbarians, or terrorist. As many Muslim Americans are visibly culturally distinct, it would be of value to explore whether attitudes of non-Muslims toward Muslim Americans resemble attitudes expressed by European non-Muslims toward members of these minority groups.

Following the terror attacks in The Unites States in 2001, there has been an increase in Islamophobia in the Western World. Following 9/11, respondents indicate that levels of implicit or indirect discrimination in The United States rose by 82,6% and experiences of over discrimination by 76,3% (http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/21/3/317.short). A combination of how Arabs and Muslims are portrayed in the media, with the increase of organized terrorist groups and refugees since the Arabic Spring, makes this a big political challenge today. This bibliography is written to get an overview of why Islamophobia has increased and the challenges that comes with the rise of Islamophobia.

One of the most widely discussed issues in the U.S. Muslim community is the negative image of Islam in the American media, an issue that was cause for concern even before 9/11. While appeals to the media for accuracy and fairness continue, newspaper headlines regularly print the words “Islam” and “Muslim” next to words like “fanatic,” “fundamentalist,” “militant,” “terrorist” and “violence.” Uses of the term “jihad” in television programs

In contemporary American society Arab Americans are perceived as Muslim immigrants whose intentions are tied to terrorist groups, when in fact 35% of Muslim Americans are native born here in America, (Moule, 2012, p. 315). In addition, 60% convert to Islam later in life and only 40% are born Muslim, (Moule, 2012, p. 315). The misconstrued view of Arab and Muslim Americans began in part with the tragedy on September 11, 2001 when the Twin Towers collapsed. Following this event the media exploited the Islamic culture and anyone tied to it. Tragedy continued with the Iraq War in 2003, a civil war that continues to plague the country and its borders.

This book chapter also introduces surveys, examples and statistics that will help support my argument and further my research. This book chapter differs from the article, “Framing Arab-American and Muslims in the U.S. Media” because it explores the way that the U.S. media attempted to aid in the destruction of the Arab and Muslims terrorist stereotype, but ultimately failed. It provides an interesting contrast from the article, presenting a more positive way that the media tried to portray Arab and Muslims after 9/11. This book chapter, although different than the article, does reinforce the same idea that Arab and Muslims were ostracized following the events of 9/11 and felt they needed to prove themselves to the rest of American citizens as “good Americans”. The information in this book chapter is reliable because it has numerous cited examples and statistics that reinforce the validity of the main idea. This book chapter helps perpetuate my research as it gives me another perspective on the influence of the U.S. Media, and encourages me to continue down this path of research, and I will now be looking for how the U.S. media have tried to correct the terrorism stereotype they perpetuated against Arabs and

Prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001 most Americans knew very little to nothing about Muslims nor had an opinions towards them. The lack of knowledge quickly changed due to a combination of factors. Terrorist attacks against America have unfortunately persisted for years, the attacks of 9/11 were fundamentally different. Such attacks evoke a response and the response has evolved and transformed Americans attitude. Non-economic factors, such as prejudicial stereotypes, place a significant role in shaping intergroup relations and in influencing public attitudes. Negative treatment of Muslim Americans in the United States after 9/11 was not caused by the 9/11 attacks alone, but by pre existing social constructions that configured them as

Most, many people when they think of terrorist think about people from the middle east. I have no clue why but when terrorism events happen the increase of stereotypes grow and with that racism increases. After events like this stereotype start to rise and People usually Americans, even make fun of the middle eastern religion. For example, after the twin tower attack on September 11, 2001. Middle Eastern people were automatically to blame just because they looked like the person piloting the plane. Even Muslims were to blame when all Muslims do is promote peace, but there is always those Extreme radicalistic from the Muslim religion that stands out, and everyone assumes all Muslims are extremist. But if humans take things in perspective the first terrorist in America was Christopher Columbus he nearly killed 4 million people in four years. He did it legally in some people's eyes (Cook). Hate crimes will also increase because people want to attack the group that "did" the

Although many Australian’s exhibit low levels of Islamophobia, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that there is growing discrimination towards Muslims in Australia, as the rate of terror attacks increases. As a result of lack of knowledge and close-mindedness, Muslims are wrongfully feared and blamed for the acts of Islamic Extremists. As explained, many religions do not support discrimination of any form; however, many people can disregard their religious teachings as they respond to the events that are occurring in the world. This is acceptable in a sense for the world to stand as one against terrorists; although, it is irrational to blame all Muslims for the actions of a selection of people. In today’s world the population may find it difficult to make distinction between regular Muslims and extremists, as well as all others in the world. Muslims do not necessarily have to have a particular racial background, as a Caucasian Australian with an Australia background can select to be a Muslim religion and can revert to a member of ISIS if intended. In retrospect, this aspect of the discrimination can be seen as there

The media led an increase towards Islamophobia. The most prevalent stereotypes the media portrays is Muslims as “Radicals”. The media defines radical Islam as "an Islamic revivalist movement, often characterized by moral conservatism, literalism, and the attempt to implement Islamic values in all spheres of life" ("Radical Islam" ). Muslims are also portrayed as violent people who want war against the West. Another, stereotype is that Muslim women are oppressed. American women are always portrayed as strong feminist, however Muslim women are always portrayed as voiceless, submissive and helpless

I am Mexican, I must be a slum dweller. I am Muslim, I must be part of ISIS. I am blonde, I must be unintelligent. I am a model, I must be anorexic.

I agree with the fact that terrorists are looking to make extreme statements, but where necessarily are all terrorists looking for any type of fame? You may have a point, that some of them are looking for the "lime light," but many of them are happy to sit back and autonomy while the world around them is in a stage of chaos. I agree with the fact that most are going towards the end result of murder, fear, and crippling infrastructure in whatever society they are doing harm to. But don't you think that most terrorist's end games are trying to make everyone believe exactly as they do? I understand where you are coming from when you say "considered a threat until proven innocent;" I served in a war zone and it took every ounce of me not to distrust

Nowadays, racial, societal, and cultural stereotypes are, unfortunately, becoming more and more common. Whether it be about something as insignificant as every high schoolers’ supposed immaturity, to something as substantial as a gender stereotype that denies people their rights, these misconceptions are hurting people every single day. One popular group to stereotype recently has been the Middle East. Almost everything people say about them is factually incorrect. The political world does not help much either. Many biased or misinformed politicians say things that aren’t true, which then imprints society, which causes these misconceptions to bloom. Some of the most common misconceptions are what defines an Arab, all Middle Easterns hate Americans and are out to bomb them, and more. Middle Eastern stereotypes are misguided due to assumptions made with a lack of information, biases in the news, and implications made by our government, and other citizens only speak what they hear.

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

This exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from social, political, and civic life in America (Latham 2016). The fact that the media, especially journalist, create and promote such stereotype in their broadcasts and writing, I think plays a major role in fostering negative views of Islam- Which is why it is imperative that Muslims should reveal to the world that Islam is not what they think it is but that it is a

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).