Why Study World Religions

The number of hate crimes against Muslims in the United States went up after the 9/11 attacks and it remains a huge problem today. According to Disha, “the numbers of anti-Muslim hate crimes

After the attack, hate crimes in the United States towards Muslim communities have increased by 1,600 percent from 28 hate crimes in 2000 to 481 in 2001 (Disha, Cavendish, King, 21-22). From the research done by Disha, Cavendish and King, with the data acquired from FBI, it is

Religion is the belief in a higher power, by higher power I mean something something superhuman or inhuman, that is worshipped, followed, and cherished as the almighty guiding light or pathway through life and afterlife. Religion is the practicing of following a guiding figure or higher power. Religious guidance may occur with or without a God, but regardless of whether a God is present or not in the specific religion being practiced or not, it is still a belief in something superhuman, generally a higher power or purpose found in something inhumane. Religion gives that higher power or guiding figures supreme importance and significant to the community which follows. In some sense, religion is the bonding, and sometimes even the controlling,

While hate crime is a fairly new label for a crime, the existence of hate crimes has been present since the early days of the United States. Throughout US history, murders, assaults, and destruction of property has occurred against African Americans, American Indians, Irish immigrants, Asian Americans, Latino’s, gays, the mentally handicapped, and all other groups of minorities. Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, there has been an increase in racial based attacks against those of Middle Eastern descent, whether they are Muslim or not. Of all of these, African Americans are subjected to the highest number of hate crimes (Martin 1996), with Muslims, homosexuals, and transgendered people on

A 2006 Today/Gallup poll found that 44% of Americans had the perception that all Muslims were too extreme in their religious beliefs and 22% of the respondents would not want a Muslim as a neighbor. Islamophobia in America skyrocketed as a result of the 9/11 attacks and changed the way that Muslim-Americans and other Americans were able to interact with one another. These statistics show that there was significant fear of Muslims in the years after 9/11. In the years following the attacks, the number of hate crimes against Muslims in America spiked and have not dropped to pre-attack levels since. As Graph 1 shows, in 2001, there were a reported 481 hate crimes and majority of these would have occurred in the months following September. Although

Between 2006 to 2017, as reported by O’Reilly, hate crimes targeting Muslims has increased by an outstanding 91%. The average increase in all forms of hate crimes rose by 41% between 2016-2017 (Farivar, 2017). Hence, inarguable statistics and numbers establish a very high rate of increase in hate crimes, most especially during 2016-2017, coinciding with the campaign and subsequent election of Donald Trump.

Immediately affter 9/11, Muslim Americans were victims to more frequent hate crimes and bias incidents. According to the FBI (2002), hate crimes against Muslims rose 1,600 percent between the years of 2000 and 2001; going from 12 hate incidents in 2000 to 93 in 2001. A study conducted immediately after 9/11 showed that 40 percent of Americans felt that the attacks represented the “true teachings of Islam” and that between 2002 and 2003 the number of Americans that thought Islam promotes violence against non-Muslims rose by 14 percent (Panagopoulos, 2006). When Muslims themselves were surveyed, their feelings mirrored the findings in post 9/11 studies: 91 percent of Muslims surveyed believed that discrimination against Muslims in the United

Almost all religions around the world are based on a belief. Almost every religion have certain rules and principles that order together within a society: Many people misunderstand and misinterpret the holy texts the Bible, Quran, Torah, and others fabricate. Religion is defined as faith to a higher being who one believes has created us. It has also been used as laws through history to stop the committing of crimes. In many religions, the consequences of breaking rules and regulations of the religion are burning in the pit of hell. Religion is man-made and was created for many reasons but mainly to keep peace and justice in the world. But the words can be manipulated and used as an excuse to start wars on this planet. This caused many to believe that the world would be a better place without religion.

The emergence of the hate crimes has reached the criminal justice system despite that it was somehow unknown to many in the past. Not many understood what is meant by hate crime but is rather becoming known with the understanding of the offenses related to hate crime becoming a standard issue among the citizens across the divide. Actually the criminal justice system has come up with clear definition of hate crime terming it as any kind of offense that is targeted to individual as brutality or prejudice against the person based on the race or ethnicity or religion, sexual orientation as well as gender identity of such a person (Freilich and Chermak, 2013). It is common to any individual or a group who has been targeted due to a holding a specific characteristic that is not present in a person or group

Plenty of recent studies and cases that involved hate crimes have had a steady increase in recent years throughout the United States. The crimes range from minor cases such as disagreements and gender bias however the major cases are the ones that have constantly surfaced such as crimes related to Religion, Race, Sexual Orientation, and most importantly Gangs. Hate crimes have always been around although many of the people committing the crimes know that what they are doing is wrong psychologically they believe their actions are justified by themselves or a group they ae associated with even at the cost of a human life. Many group and individuals committing these crimes make it a part of their lifestyle to commit these crimes based upon their

Hate groups, and hate crimes associated with their ideologies, are a major problem facing Americans. This is evident when observing the increasing number of hate groups becoming radicalized in recent years. For example, hate crimes in major metropolitan areas such as

In November of 2015, the Federal Bureau of Investigations published a statistics report on hate crimes that was based on incidents that occurred the previous year. The data showed that there was about a ten percent decline of incidents documented since the prior year. But not all of the groups correlated with this report saw decreases in hate crimes. Occurrences involving Muslims have increased in the last several years after shifting for a decade following the wake of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Prejudgment towards Muslims isn’t something that is new though, according to hate crime data and surveys. About fifty percent of U.S. Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Mormons, and Muslims believed that most Americans were prejudiced toward Muslim Americans in a 2010 Gallup survey. The survey also uncovered that Muslims were more likely to experience religious discrimination than any other religious group. A matter of fact Muslim Americans are five times more likely to be a victim of a hate crime today than before 9/11 according to the FBI. But not all people believe that Muslim discrimination is such a massive problem that impacts many people’s lives. Florida senator and U.S. presidential candidate Marco Rubio stated in an interview, “Where is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against Muslims?” which is rather amusing because if Mr. Rubio were to have done a quick internet search he would have

I think that it is important to study world religions because it can help people to become more tolerant of other’s beliefs and more compassionate to other people’s causes. With so much war and misunderstanding in the world based on religious viewpoints, it is important to take the time to find out where and why people believe the way that they do. While I find that most people in the world follow a religion based on their geographical location, this is not the case in the United States. Because the US is a country where people from all over the world can come to live it is a place where many different religions are practiced. It is important, especially for people in this country, to study world religions

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of religion is as follows: “the belief in a god or in a group of gods, an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods, or an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group” (Merriam-Webster.) My personal definition of religion is that it is a set of beliefs and practices that generally pertain the worship of one or more than one spiritual beings or representations of a spiritual power. Religion can be personal belief or an organization or group of people who have similar beliefs and values. There are many different types of religions in the world and have been since the

Religion has lots of meanings it depends on the person how he or she thinks.in my opinion religion is a word means truth or peace believing in one god and follow his rules and his holy books. In the 20th century of western culture religion was a positive ultimately by making the world and each single person believe in one god either Christianity,