Anti-Muslim Stereotypes

Finally, 9/11 developed a lot of discrimination towards Muslims. Selby expressed in her research that negative stereotyping of Muslims or “Islamophobia” in Canada from media arguably became increasingly after 9/11. Not just that, fourteen focus groups across the country revealed a sense of horror at the terrorist attacks as well as distress about unfair negative stereotyping of Muslims and difficulties in travel (Sebly, 2015). The research tells us how the media instructed Canadians to portray Muslims as terrorists and be cautious around them. As a matter of fact, Canadians started to hate Muslims and tried to eliminate them from places as much as possible. Accordingly, most of the women who wore ‘hijab’ got negative comments from public and

The article “Attitudes Toward Muslim Women in the West” is about an interview with Lila Abu-Lughod by the Asian Society is explaining how people treat Muslim women and how it affects them. One example of this is how things changed after 9/11. Abu-Lughod says “Many of us have noticed that suddenly, after 9/11 and the American response of war in Afghanistan, the hunger for information about Muslim women seems insatiable. My own experience of this was the form of an avalanche of invitations to appear on news programs and at universities and colleges.” Once there were terrorist attacks by Muslim men, anyone who was Muslim became a threat to society in people’s minds. Even though this happened over 17 years ago, when people walking along the street see a woman wearing a hijab (a traditional Muslim headdress) or a man who looks Middle Eastern they stare or walk faster, even pull their kids away and tell them not to look. What is that kid going to think, do they understand and think that this person looks different so that means they should treat them differently? When you think about it, racism is passed down through generations, even if you do not realize it, kids are being taught to be

Evelyn Alsultany takes a different approach to the oppression of Muslim women that the U.S. portrayed in the media to fuel the War on Terror and analyses that the U.S. portrayed Islam as backwards and an uncivilized culture. Alsultany analyzes published stories and news shows on CNN, NBC, CBS, and Fox after the 9/11 attacks and concludes that these news stations used women’s oppression and linked it with terrorist attacks because they conveyed that Muslim men hated the West’s cultural ideals of women being free and wanted to impose Islam on the West. The media portrays women’s veiled oppression, female genital mutilation, honour killings, and women being beaten as they did not dress properly as the nature of Islam’s backwardness and

Over the last twenty years, Islamophobia has emerged as a distinct, contemporary phenomenon with deep historical roots, driven by “othering” and exploited for personal gain (Cluck, 2008, p. 34). Regardless of one’s feelings towards Islam, Muslims, and the term Islamophobia itself, the anti-Muslim sentiment is an important issue for Canadians to address. In order to better understand how legitimate is the fear of Muslims and the consequences of the Islamophobic actions against Muslim Canadians after the September 11 attacks I have looked at the changing Canadian demographics, Canadian policy and security concerns about Muslims, as well as the injustice faced by Canadian Muslims. Although fear and hatred of Muslims are as old as Islam itself,

Since September 11, 2001 the Muslim religion has been assaulted verbally and physically. People of the religion had to fear from physical threats, their religious gathering places vandalized, and hate speech is readily heard. 16 years later, this behavior is still in existence but has gone further by demonizing their beliefs through the media. Hate groups such as ISIS and the Taliban support the demonize being made and causing the non-extremist to feel the wrath of intolerance. Social intolerance of this religion has caused conflict for women wearing Hijab. They are being subject to having to remove such item to participate in events of daily

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.”

In Europe, Islamophobia emerged together with new anti-Semitism, where the targets are the new immigrants, Muslims, as well as Jews. The reason for that is in France and United Kingdom, Muslims and Jews for the past decade inhabit the poorest neighborhoods. Media, on the other hand, portrays this as an incapability of Muslim immigrants to integrate into European society and susceptibility to the imported Islamist ideologies (Silverstein, 367).

Following drastic events such as 9/11, national moral has shifted in terms of its openness towards foreign immigrants. Consequently, national security would be bolstered as more officials began to set ethics aside to allow room for prejudice and racial targeting. Just as African Americans were common targets of the early 20th century, Muslims have become the scapegoats for much of today’s issues, often being labeled as terrorists just because of their difference in looks and beliefs. It was unfair to the innocent majority of this labeled group, as many outsiders into the belief that “Post-9/11 Islamophobia demanded that all Muslims answer for the violent actions of a few extremists.” (O’ Connor). With this strict interpretation came the rise of many hate crimes, set to punish the whole Muslim race in efforts to scare off the few, actual terrorists. It has led to this back and forth growth in tension, as extremist groups have come to prominence in the Middle East to address such pressures. Just as the Brotherhood spoke out on their intolerance of their racial discrimination, vocal leaders have risen in today’s age, not just to discuss Muslim equality, but to give a say for everyone throughout the world. Continued progress is being made towards disregarding this sense of prejudice that is made that is solely based off of looks or

Immigrants from Islam practicing countries are extremely unfairly stereotyped as terrorists, this stereotype is even more severe if they are a practicing Muslim. This stereotype stems from radical Islam groups such as Al Qaeda and Isis performing extreme acts of violence in the name of their religion. A religion that preaches peace and acceptance. There is an emphasis on the word radical in this context, as these groups are formed by extremely radical "followers" of Islam. Often times non-radical practicing Muslims will refrain from wearing their hijab's or other religious attire in fear that they will be terrorized for their practice. The acts of terrorizing Muslim immigrants has become common practice in the last two decades, following events

In the late 20th Century new images emerged: the terrorist and the suicide bomber. Arabs have become the all-purpose villains across all American media, including books, films, television, and computer games. “News media play a pivotal role in informing the public in a democratic society; yet, biased news coverage entrenched in stereotypical undertones and in favor of the White Western elite fuels a cycle of discrimination and prejudice that impacts many aspects of society” (M.Eid, The New Era of Media and Terrorism, pg. 612). News media and other social media’s have a huge role in the stereotyping of the muslims and arabs, the news shows only the bad, and other social medias embrace any stereotype given to the muslim and arab community. Even us as people who may have muslim and arab friends will sometimes stereotype them, its what we are used to and what we are allowed.

This week I focused on finding articles about how the media affected Muslims refugees and why European are afraid of Muslims. I took a class about the European Union in Norway, and because European Union biggest fear is refugees and immigrants. EU citizens are afraid of the Islamic law because they don’t anything about it. Most people use the media as a resource because they don’t have time to study and look around. From me, living in the US for about 5 years and so many people were asking me about the Islamic law and how we do it. So many people were afraid of asking me at first, but my friends and me were cool about it and we showed them that we are cool with questions. For me I don’t main asking and receiving questions because it will break the ice, and we need to break the ice to live peacefully together. Writing this paper because I want to inform people about our fears. As Muslim, the media made our lives so hard abroad. We have to explain ourselves after every attack. Meanwhile other attacks have been committed by others from a different religion, but no one making it big a deal.

Although women can appear to be unlikely suspects in terrorist attacks, women are increasingly participating with terrorist organizations that promote hate, violence, and destruction. In the last 10 years alone, there have been several women associated with terrorist groups, such as ISIS, trying to ensure the groups’ mission statement is carried through. Women are not only leaving their home and their country, but they are also giving up their freedoms to join terrorist organizations. This paper will focus on various ways women become involved in terrorist groups and their role within the groups. The treatment of women within the group will examined as well as their reasons for staying within a group that belittles the female race. Furthermore,

Within the twenty-first century, terrorism has sparked a global hysteria. In recent years the group ISIS or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seems to be the cover of every newspaper and TV broadcasts headlines and breaking news. Since June of 2014 the group has inspired at least 90 different terrorists attacks in 21 countries around the world, killing around 1,400 people and critically injuring 2,000 others (ISIS attacks). This trend has pushed men and women from western cultures to research stereotypes many Westerners hold against Middle Easterners. Some examples of these stereotypes include: “All Middle Easterners are Muslim.” “All Muslims are terrorists.” “Islam is a violent religion.” “Muslims are all foreigners who can not adapt to Western culture.” (Typical Misperceptions and Stereotypes) This type of thinking is not only corrupt, but also damaging to those who are being stereotyped. Terrorism is a bigger threat to our society today than it ever has been before; however, the hysteria and fear pointed at certain ethnicities and religious

This survey reveals that the problem with the Islam faith is not racial: The Muslim people are welcomed, the Islam faith is not. The violence that has been perpetrated against America, whether executed or planned, has brought to fruition religious persecution not seen since the persecution of the Jews in W.W.II. This “trust no Arab” attitude has brought shame to the Constitutional intentions of freedom of religion intended by our forefathers, and has set religious tolerance back 200 years. Looking at media representation of Muslim Americans prior to 9-11, it shows religious diversity in America, depicting Muslim America as just another religious community seeking to advance and protect their interests, not unlike other Americans. After 9-11 the media portrayed representations of threat and fear, creating boundaries between Muslims and other Americans. Such depiction transforms the identity of Muslims and American religious pluralism (Byng, M. pg. 3).

The increase of islamophobia can cause social problems for students and a big factor that contributes to the spread of it is the mass media. Negative images of Islam are shown on the media almost everyday helping to create fear of Muslims. When students turn on the TV, they see images of horrific scenes of bombings and terrorist attacks. They hear arabic words over images like planes flying into the twin towers. Dedria Bryfonski, author of Islamophobia points out that “instead of isolating political, economic, and military reasons for actions, the mass media portrays all events involving Muslims as religiously motivated behavior”(26). They watch people like President Trump singling out muslims or immigrants and blaming not individuals for