Thesis : Project Al Qaeda

The religion of Islam has become a controversial issue in today’s 21st century. In spite of excessively negative representations by Western propaganda, increasing numbers of the population are pursuing to learn more about the wonderful religion of Islam. More frequently than not, these people are becoming more pleasantly startled by the product of their exploration. In fact, increasing numbers of people are embracing Islam nowadays then they did prior to the horrific attacks on September 11th, 2001; which evoked much attention to misconceptions about Islam and Muslims. Yet, there does endure an abundant amount of misconception and misinterpretations about Islam, frequently invigorated by political policies which reckon their interest’s to patronage Islam 's enemies. Islam is a religion which elucidates the way of life and is the second largest religion after Christianity, with approximately one-fifth of the world 's population and is currently the fastest growing religion. Muslims are existent all around the world and come from diverse nationalities, cultures and races. However, Islam instills that all people are principally equal no matter the differences (colour, class, culture, etc.) as long as they are peaceful and law-abiding citizens. The behaviour of particular erroneous groups or individuals outside mainstream Islam cannot be accredited to Islamic beliefs and practices as correspondingly hostility in North Ireland or illegal mafia activities being attributed

The freedom fighter Nelson Mandela once said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” After the memorable attacks in New York, London, and Madrid, the West became a unwelcoming and hostile place for Muslims, and the world started to be known as the “Islamic World” and “The West”. The Islamic world as in the picture is a place where men oppress women, a place vicious to technological advancements and a place where Muslim children are raised with the thought that the west is an unfavorable place for them. The “West” however

This paper will discuss religious terrorism in particular. Religious terrorism can be defined as “the terrorism [is] carried out based on motivations and goals that have a predominantly religious character or influences.” (“Religious Terrorism”) An example of this will be the 9/11 attacks. It was “a series of four coordinated terrorist attack launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.”(“September 11 attacks”) This attack had led to a serious causality, “almost 3000 people dies in the attacks.” (“September 11 attacks”) Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, declared a “holy war against the United States” (“September 11 attacks”) In his “letter to America”, he stated the motives as follows: In opposition to western support for attacking Muslims in Somalia; supporting the Indian oppression against Muslims in Kashmir; the Jewish aggression against Muslims in Lebanon; the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia; U.S support of Israel and the sanction against Iraq. (“September 11 attacks”) The disastrous attack leads to a serious attention of re-constructing the old version of counter terrorism strategy, which had failed to protect the citizens against terrorism. However, ‘terrorism is far to complex for one solution to be effective in dealing with all the possible threats.” (Lygutas 146) Therefore, some of the measures have difficulties in balancing the rights of

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

September 11th holds many hard and upset feelings around the world today. The harsh actions of Muslim extremists unfortunately completely changed the way Muslims are treated, especially in the United States. These events, exacerbated islamophobia. Unfortunately, “the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, connect Muslims and Islam to terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States.” (Byng) Although it has been over a decade since the attack, many still feel racist and discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims. Muslims are the targeted minority in the United States, “the 9/11 terrorist attacks shifted the social and political context for Muslims in the United States. Terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States carried out by Muslims places an identity at the center of national and global politics.” (Byng) The blame of the horrible terrorist attacks, rather than be placed on terrorists or religious extremist, has been placed on Islam in America. After September 11th, hate crimes towards Muslims skyrocketed, “the most dramatic change noted by the report was a more than 1,600 percent increase in reported hate crimes against Muslims -- a jump from 28 hate incidents in 2000 to 481 last year.”

Many people can mostly likely recall learning about McCarthyism, the making of false accusations of treason without proof generally focusing on the topic of communism. However, over the years that fear of communism, also known as communism under the bed has mutated to an entirely different but similar beast, Muslim-under-the-bed paranoia. This paranoia expresses the large growing issue of intolerance against those who follow the religion of Islam. Over the years due to a series of unfortunate events the peaceful religion of Islam and its followers have faced discrimination, danger, and disrespect. Fifteen years, six months, and seventeen days ago a tragedy struck new york when four members of an Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda flew a

The al-Qaeda Training Manual is a 7, 000 paged document that was reportedly to have been discovered in the year 2000 from the Nahihal’s residence in Manchester, UK (Post & Center, 2004). The Manual gives an in-depth review of operating principles that are learned in the terrorists’ training camps. At a close look of it, its like it was being addressed to the operatives in the developing nations, as its title suggests the need to create a specific state. That country should be any state where Al Qaeda sympathizers live. The manual was designed as an effort to instruct and empower the Muslim citizens about the tactics, methods, ideologies, and organization of the terrorist groups such as the Al Qaeda network (Post & Center, 2004).

“Muslims, Bin Laden argues, must reverse a series of humiliations that they’ve endured since the Ottoman Empire, the last Muslim great power, was dismantled after World War I. Al-Qaeda’s 1998 declaration of a jihad, or holy war, against ‘Jews and Crusaders’ urges Muslims to attack ‘the Americans and their allies, civilian and military,’ supposedly as a response to U.S. policies that al-Qaeda feels oppress Muslims: the stationing of troops in Saudi Arabia; the backing of U.N. sanctions against Iraq; support for repressive Arab regimes; support for Israel; alleged complicity in Russian attacks on Muslims in Chechnya; and interventions in Bosnia, Somalia, and other Muslim regions that bin Laden sees as attempts to spread America’s empire. These Western policies, according to al-Qaeda, add up to a ‘clear

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

One can scarcely turn on the television, or the radio, or open up a web browser without the mention of Islamic terrorism or unrest around the world. Though the United States and the rest of the world may not be engaged in a protracted religious war, for radical Muslim fundamentalist they are. Bernard Lewis brings to light possible reasons for the issues facing the world dealing with Islamic terrorism. The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror explains these issues in historical context as well as how some of the actions professed in the name of Islam and claim to

In order for the United States of America and its allies to live a life free of terrorist threats, they need to counter violent extremism and terrorism with swift and deliberate prevention efforts world-wide.

In the days after September 11, 2001, American leaders rushed to portray Islam as a peaceful religion that had been "hijacked" by a fanatical band of terrorists. One hopes that these assurances were merely tactical—that nobody was meant to believe them and that they were meant to assure the Muslim world that the inevitable American

To illustrate, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) organizes suicide bomb attacks in many countries and they claim that they justify this attacks with Islam and different interpreting of Quran. These attacks pose a threat for the innocent people all around the world and cause a massive fear from Muslims among non-Muslim people. What’s more, due to ISIS’s belief that it represents the Islam, people generalize all Muslims as terrorists. In this point, in his article ‘Islamophobia plays right into the hands of Isis’ Jones (2015) express that it is certainly enough to say that the vast majority of Muslims do not except their interpretation of Islam and he emphasizes that there is a highly big distance between Muslim world population and the ISIS. Besides, as it is known ISIS also attacks several Muslim countries and causes to death many Muslims. In spite of this fact, it might be suggested that one of the most important reason for the Islamophobia in the world is existence of terrorist groups and their brutal

After the attack of 9/11 many American citizens sought out an answer to why one would hijack a plane and run it into the Twin Towers, killing millions. According to the Huffpost, Islam became the main reason for the attack and furthermore labeled religion as the inspiration for many terroristic attacks (Gibson, 1). According to many Muslims, however, the attacks are anti-Islamic because the Quran states not to harm civilians who are not involved with war and to avoid it at all possible times (PBS, 3). The conflict between Muslims and Americans is growing and many issues in the Middle East has become the focus for religious terrorism.

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).