Why Do Muslims Support Misconceptions?

The vast majority of Muslims do not support terrorist organizations, many hold extreme beliefs that an average, non-Muslim would consider radical. While it is toxic to make wild assumptions, such as “all Muslims support terrorist organizations” it is equally

Nowadays, citizens often hear about the troubles Islamist radicals bring to countries, especially in the U.S. and Europe. It is known that people have several opinions on this particular religion, but the real question to be asked is whether Islam is really a religion of violence or peace. There are many Islamist groups- Isis and al-Quaida for example- that are responsible for acts of terrorism. For instance, the bombing of the twin towers in 2001 in New York, the London terrorist bombings that killed 52 innocent lives, the many bombings and attacks in Paris, etc. Personally, I think Islam is neither a religion of peace nor violence. Islam is not revolving around the idea of violence, but they don’t necessarily act in a tranquil manner. Moreover, Islam is not just a religion to its followers, it is more an ideology whereas its followers live for their religion; I think this is why some go to such extreme measures.

In Saitama Sanfo’s opinion piece, Islamophobia In America, she makes a point to direct attention to the amount of prejudice Muslim people receive and the amount of misrepresentation their religion is given. Through lack of accurate media representation, Islam has become synonymous with terrorism and Muslims have been subjected to a large amount hate crimes and slander towards themselves and their beliefs. Due to the constant generalizations of the entire religion, Sanfo made it a point to call out the double standards hidden amongst the negativity.

Islam is one of the oldest and largest religions currently, preaching of peace and acceptance to its followers. Often times, non-Muslim people will fall for the hasty generalization that every Muslim is violent, has “backwards morals”, or has a secret, anti-American agenda, or often a combination of the three. Suzanne

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

If one were to ask some strangers on the street if Islam is a peaceful religion, one would get a wide range of answers. Some would claim that Islam is a peaceful religion and the terrorists are extreme and do not truly represent the faith, whereas others deem Islam to be inherently violent and not peaceful at all. However, both views might fail to recognize that while there are Qur’anic verses about violence, the other two Abrahamic religions which are typically viewed by the West as more “peaceful,” also do contain texts of war wrath. Therefore, Islam in reference to the Qur’an cannot be considered truly peaceful, the same way Christianity cannot be truly peaceful, but practicing Muslims can live peaceful lives and practice their religion peacefully, and therefore Muslims should not be considered to be inherently violent.

Nowadays , citizens often hear about the troubles Islamic radicals brings to countries, especially in the U.S. and Europe. It is known that people have several opinions on this particular religion, but the real question to be asked is whether Islam is really a religion of violence or peace. There are many Islamist groups- Isis and al-Quaida for example- that are responsible for acts of terrorism. For instance, the bombing of the twin towers in 2001 in New York, the London terrorist bombings that killed 52 innocent lives, the many bombings and attacks in Paris, etc. Personally, I think Islam is neither a religion of peace nor violence. Islam is not revolving around the idea of violence, but they don’t necessarily act in a peaceful manner. Moreover, Islam is not just a religion to its followers, it is more an ideology where its followers live for their religion, I think this is why they go to such extreme measures.

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.

Does Islam promote violence more so than Judaism and Christianity? “The reality is that Islam—like Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and other major world religions—is neither inherently violent nor inherently peaceful. Like every other great religion, the history of Islam is darkened by periods of violent bloodletting. And the holy texts of all religions can be mined for quotes to legitimize terrorism—or indeed principled nonviolence.” This quote from Andrew Mack’s article “The Truth About Islam” applies to the prompt because Islam, Christianity, and Judaism do not encourage violence. Scripture and text from these religions should not be interpreted as quotes to legitify the acts of terrorism for their teachings.

My first stereotype is that Islam is a violent religion and Muslims identify with terrorism, I know so far that this isn’t true, not all Muslims are terrorists, but some people would argue against this because some of the things Muslims have down to America, but most of the Muslim people are really peaceful and wouldn’t harm anyone.

Fifty million Muslims supporting terrorism – at least, under circumstances where they feel their religion is threatened – is a truly worrying number.  It's not that there are 50 million terrorists to worry about; it's that the bloc of violence supporters and sympathizers will refuse to cooperate in rooting them out and preventing terror attacks.

The Quran is a very beautiful book in rich, unchanged, original, Arabic text that consists of everything a Muslim needs to know about Islam. In all reality, a pious Muslim would never speak of violence for no reason. A person who would speak of violence in the name of God is a person that has been taught to believe that. This is not what the Quran says. The Quran specifically states that violence is hated by God. (Ojeda)

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).

Terrorism is an unofficial and unauthorized use of extreme violence, force and intimidation in the pursuit of political and religious gain. Throughout the 20th century, terrorism is among the world’s leading issues. The reason for its existence can be found from the roots of imperialism and its injustice. Today its momentum and actions have many violent, devastating and deadly effects throughout the world. The terrorists that drive this fear are perverse Islamic fundamentalists. Muslim fundamentalists believe that the Qur’an should be interpreted literally and context, namely the time period and the social climate, cannot determine the texts interpretation and application. Extremists in this group advocate extreme violence in order to fulfil certain elements of the Qur’an. These extremist groups are numerous, however some are more notable than others. Al Qaeda, the terrorist group that had its formation in Sudan, before relocating to Afghanistan used the Qur’an to justify the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. Similarly, the Taliban, the terrorist group who have control over Afghanistan have imposed harsh and crude versions of Sharia Law and twisted the Qur’an to suit their endeavours. Furthermore Isis, a Sunni group that aims to create an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria, have also extracted Quranic verses to suit their ideals and justify their premature taking of life. Overall, the misinterpretation of the Qur’an and the Hadith has led to the justification of terrorism,

Following the attacks on the Pentagon and Word Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, many Muslim Clerics praised the attacks and many denounced them as the work of extremists. So although there may be violent Muslims, Islam itself promotes a very peaceful practice and a loving and forgiving God.