“There’s no one here yet and the floor’s completely engulfed, we’re on the floor and we can’t

Like other ethnic minority groups in America, Arab Americans face daily challenges in their overall development and well-being. These challenges take the form of discrimination, stereotyping, and general negative reactions to them as an ethnic group.

In this tedtalk, Melissa Boigon, who studies Islam and its relationship to the Arab-Israeli conflict, talks about how Islamophobia has become more of a fear of Arabs over the last 10 years. She thinks that has to do with the connotation to terrorists groups such as Al-Qaeda, and the way middle east conflict is portrayed in The United States today. She also discusses how American Entertainment portrays Arabs, saying that it's propaganda in the form of entertainment.

During the years of post-9/11, Americans have started to become wary of non-Americans in their home land of the fear of another terrorist attacks. The 9/11 attacks have changed American views on the muslims and on the Middle East. It also had made security regulation more strict and discriminatory. Since post-9/11, Americans the wrong impression of the Middle East and have negative views of it and also have stereotype of it as well.

On September 11, 2001 America was in shock because of the events that occurred that morning to their beloved world trade center twin buildings. The deaths and injuries caused the people to automatically hate those that were responsible, Al Qaida members. This group is notorious for their dislike of American lifestyles. From then on Americans would go on to keep a close eye on these individuals and people that looked like them. That same year in the United States “58 percent favored Arabs to undergo more lengthy security measures. “From Samuel R. Gross, “Racial Profiling Under Attack”, (June 2002): 1413.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2002, the government of America felt threatened. Society as a whole went straight to thinking that all Middle- Eastern people were terrorists and were going to plot more attacks. Many people who look of Middle- Eastern descent were beaten out of the anger from the attacks. It was common belief that people who are Middle-Eastern are terrorists.

Americans fear that the terrorists would some days attack their country, and kill them. This fear is vastly increased after the 2001 attack in New York City. Since then, most Muslims in America have been investigated by spying their phone talks, screening their profiles and so on . Although everybody knows that Muslim extremists are the only cause, they tend to relate it to all other innocent Muslims and discriminate them. It is not only affected Muslim adults but also their kids. They wanted to quit from schools because they were consistently called murderers. Worse than this, they received violent acts such as kicking, bullying just because they are born Muslims. The racism today is obviously shown in President Donald Trump’s traveling ban on seven Muslim countries which is later changed to six by excluding Iraq. It prevents all Muslims from these countries to travel to the US (Henderson & Graham). Even though the President wants to strengthen the security and makes Americans safe, the ban do affect thousands Muslims who do not involve in terrorism, and shows the discrimination against this

Past acts of terrorism done by foreigners have provoked fear throughout the American people. 9/11 is one example that brought upon a negative change. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks Americans were scared of foreigners, especially any person that was Islamic, coming into the country. The 9/11 attack caused Americans to associate any Islamic person with being a terrorist. This provoked a change in airport security. According to the article “To Combat ISIS, Welcome Syrians”, Anne Speckhard explains how the negative connotation with the Islamic religion has made it very hard for the innocent Syrians fleeing their country to seek asylum in the U.S. “We have failed to enact efficient practices and sufficient resources to allay our fears that within

since September 11th? How have they stayed the same? Because of the media’s portrayal of Arabs as “evil” and “a threat”, most Americans perceived them as such. The Muslim and Middle Eastern community did not have such attention before the incident. Most Americans had already seen Middle Easterners has a strange and dubious group for the customs and common, religious practices; but it only got worse following the attack. Since 9/11, people began to perpetuate the stereotype that “all Middle Easterners/Muslim Americans were terrorists” as well as “all Middle Easterners are Muslim” and the people were consistently scrutinized. These harmful assumptions has instilled a sense of apprehension in the Muslim community due to their fear of being publicly discriminated. In contrast, the attack was not widely approved by Middle Easterners and Muslim community; the community responded by saying that it had been orchestrated by extremists whose action did not represent the entirety of their

Racial profiling quick to notice of Iranians, Muslims, Arabs, Pakistanians and Afghanistanians and many more ethnic groups in that category they all was label as terrorists and they all prayed to Allah. These people were put under so much pressure and intensity scrutiny when going to the store, banks, airports and other location. Although whites and other ethnic groups have committed terrorist attacks they’ve yet to be profiled in the way Arabs in America have been.

After several incidents that happened around the world, peoples view on Arabs changed. The media played a big role in “the stereotyping of Arabs”. It is one of the main reasons for people to think the way they are about Arabs. Many

The Europeans, unsure and a little wary of the culture they were exposed to, sought forth to dehumanize and delegitimize the Asian people. Orientalism was born and raised in Europe and then was adopted by Americans who used the established hierarchy to exploit the Asian people. The current treatment of Arabs in this country is rooted in this orientalist belief that they are a threat to this Empire. Society, exposed to these constant dehumanizing messages of the Arab people are quick to swallow the belief that Arabs are a danger and that they must be stopped. This was the common belief before 9/11. The terrorist attack had merely given this orientalist belief an image to rally behind. Of course Arabs are terrorists, because the narrative established from orientalism paints them as such. They were never “True Americans,” they were, and still are, a people to rally against. This creates a society that is ready and almost eager to call for the destruction of Arab people and a country that happily obliges. This country has always been hostile towards Arabs, it is only after 9/11 that they had become obvious in their

On December 31, 1977, The United States president was in Tehran, the capital of Iran, speaking to their leader. During the stay, he called Iran “an Island of Stability”. Less than two years later, on November 4, 1979, the US embassy in Tehran was stormed by Iranian Students and all United Citizens were taken hostage. Four-hundred forty-four days later, on January 20, 1981, the hostages were finally released. Every single one of those days, the world was watching.

After 9/11 and the subsequent increase in national security, many Muslims, or those who fit the stereotype of Muslims, have been profiled and “randomly selected” for screening in airports. Islamophobia, which is a result of Muslim stereotypes, has also caused many Muslims (and Arabs that fit the Muslim stereotype) to be faced with racial slurs, threats, physical assault and even death. This is because most people cannot dissociate the stereotype that Muslims are terrorists from reality. As a result they lash out at anyone they believe fits the profile of being

The word "culture" derives from a French term, which in turn derives from the Latin "colere," which means to tend to the earth and grow, or cultivation and nurture. (Zimmerman 1) This can also lead to one concluding that culture changes as civilization is changed and advancements occur. I am culturally Arab. Specifically from around Jerusalem and many other farmer civilations. The cuisine, historical significance of the area, and it’s religions are some of the most distinct differences the region has culturally.

To begin with, Arabs are shown to have been facing unmatched stigma since 9/11, even as US citizens, making their experiences living in the US more strenuous. I was able to get a detailed outline of this in Jamal, and Naber's book: "Race and Arab Americans before and After 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible