Effects Of Witch Hunts On Arab Americans

After a horrible terroristic attack that shocked the whole world on September 11th in the center of New York City, Muslims in the Western world have been constantly fighting against prejudice. After September 11, media interest in Islam increased, where Islam was usually portrayed in a negative way. Before 9/11, many Muslims lived the normal, everyday life. However, the attack has changed lives of many people that belonged to the Muslim community, where they were the victims of guilt. Unfortunately, many Americans were introduced to Islam, after the 9/11 attack, thus even till today, Islam is associated with terrorism. For the past ten years, Muslims felt excluded from the American society by being rifled, attacked, discriminated, checked

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.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, the U.S. immigration population is at 42.2 million, which is 13.3 percent of the total U.S. population. There are a variety of reasons immigrants come to the U.S. Many of them have been forced out of their homes and countries because of war, persecution, and poverty. They see the United States as the opportunity for employment, freedom, and overall, a better life for them and their families. However, sometimes in the United States they are treated just as bad, or even worse than they were in their home countries. They are met with violence, non acceptance, and ignorance. Although immigrants have gained many more rights than before, they are still falsely

According to the report of FBI(2000), the number of anti-islamic hate crime incidents prior the terrorist attacks were 28. In the immediate year after 9/11, 481 incidents were reported against the Muslims and Arabs(FBI 2002). The hate crime statistics of FBI conforms a staggering increase of 1617 percent in such a short period of time. The Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) reported that over 700 violent incidents were ruthlessly targeted against Arab Americans within the first 9 weeks after the 9/11(Ibish 2003). These incidents included physical violence, death threats, harassment, mockery ,hate mails and many others. Suddenly, an unknown society was brought into the negative spotlight due to the actions of a handful of people.

The first reason for the witch trials is the least important idea which is jealousy. There was a group of young girls who started the trials due to jealousy of the older women married with men that they like. If you look back at (Document B) the chart shows that most of the accused are older women who are married which could be a sign of jealousy. If you read the play it says that abigail likes john which is married to elizabeth and abigail takes her to trial to get rid of her that way abigail can get john all to herself but in the end everything goes bad.

The Salem Witch Hunt began on March 1, 1692. Three women were questioned on this day about if they were witches or not. Hundreds of people in and around Salem, Massachusetts for the next 15 months, 20 of them were executed. There was an English Christian sect that came to the U.S. for their religious freedom. They were the Puritans, like most Christian groups, they believed that an evil force called the devil tries to influence human behaviors. These groups considered witches to be the devils helpers on Earth. January 1692, 9-year-old Betty Parris and her 11-year-old cousin, Abigail Williams were beginning to act strangely. Shortly after, other girls started to act strange as well. One would flap their arms like a bird. One would bark like

American History – HY 1110-15L-15 Unit II – Scholarly Activity – Salem Witch Hunt By LeQuay Marsh – 218182 It is extremely challenging to know with a great deal of certainty what happened in 1692 in Salem. However, there are many otherwise reliable sources that suggest that the Salem Witch Hunt began when multiple females from the Village of Salem began demonstrating odd behavior including strange fits with insane responses followed by a mixture of crying and laughing, unintelligible speech, endeavors to fly, and entering into a phase something like that of a trance. This peculiar behavior allegedly began shortly after mysteriously sessions with an Indian slave named Tituba from the Caribbean. During these sessions, the girls would chant with

Witches were people that were believed to use magical powers and make pacts with Satan. They were taken as threats because they were believed to be the cause of disease and misfortune. There were many people that confessed to being witches and digging up the diseased and using the bones for necromancy. In the period of 1500-1650, witch hunts increased due to religious passion thats resulted from the protestant reformation and the social status of women, however witch hunts started to decline due to the scientific revolutions emphasis on reason and technology.

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

A witch hunt is a campaign directed against a person or group holding unpopular views. This modern day witch hunt goes against more than views, it goes against what most can't help, nationality and citizenship. An anonymous group in Utah "The concerned citizens of the United States" wrote a list of supposed illegal immigrants saying that the government needs to start deportation now.

Muslims faced tremendous amounts of prejudice after the September 11th attacks. The September 11th attacks were four coordinated attacks perpetrated by the terrorist group known as Al Qaeda. These attacks killed 2,996 people and injured more than 6,000 innocent people. These terrorist attacks also contributed to the fear that we now know as Islamophobia.

Historians, specifically American historians of the 21st century have demonstrated an interest in the Middle East in Islam, due to Americans frequent contact with the Middle East in the early 1960s. Islam and the Middle East have played a remarkable role in Americans discussion and reaction to the events that took place on September 11th, 2001. During this time Americans were beginning to regard the Middle East, Muslims, and Islam as one entity. Americans and the world regarded the Middle East as Islam and Islam as the Middle East. Thus, this correlation between the two made Muslims say Muslim Americans and Muslims in America as less western and more of another, but they were also seen as untrustworthy individuals. Additionally, prior to the September 11th, attacks and an after effect of September 11, was that Muslim men were violent and Muslim women as oppressed individuals. Thus, the perception of Islamophobia and the threat it brings to western society has impacted the discussion of Islamophobia in America.

“Islamophobia is prejudice towards discrimination against Muslims due to their religion, or perceived religion, national, or ethnic identity associated with Islam because Muslims have different beliefs and values”. (Islamophobia wikipedia 1) Like anti-semitism, racism, and homophobia. Islamophobia describes mentality and actions that domain an entire class of people. Jews, African-Americans, and other populations throughout history have faced prejudice and discrimination. Islamophobia is simply another reincarnation of this bigotry. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary,a phobia is an exaggerated, usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation. It may be difficult to determine or communicate the source of this fear, but it exists. From this definition we can see how is so unfair to connect the word phobia to Islam specially because the word Islam in arabic means peace and safety. All that means that a lot of people don’t know nothings about Islam and the unknown can easily provoke fear.

A current cultural conflict taking place in America today is religious. Many Americans discriminate against the Islamic faith and there have been countless acts of mistreatment of Muslims in the work place, at school, in public, and in the media. Negative feelings and acts toward Muslims have become so prevalent that in 1991 the Runnymede Trust Report coined a term for it. The report defined the “unfounded hostility toward Muslims, and therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims” as “Islamophobia” (Defining “Islamophobia”). There has always been some religious cultural conflict with Muslims in the United States, but since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, conflict has escalated significantly.

Before the September 11, 2001, hatred towards Muslims in the United States started in 1923, when Muslims started migrating to the United States, an unlike increased presence. The hatred towards Muslims, also known as “Islam phobia”, was first featured in The Journal of Theological Studies. Many Muslims were targeted, the religion of Islam, Muslims, or any ethnic group perceived to be Muslim were characterized as having “bad faith and cruelty”, according to prejudice Americans.