Muslim Immigrants And The United States

Today one does not even have to wait for a movie to be released. Simply click the “ON” button on a remote and suddenly, thousands of news and television shows are available for one to enjoy. Muslims are also the target of prejudice in these news broadcasts and programs. One such television program released was a drama titled “24.” Issues and Controversies reports: “The show, which deals with a counterterrorism unit based in Los Angeles, featured a group of Muslim terrorist characters who were plotting to detonate nuclear weapons in the U.S. At the end of one episode, the terrorists successfully detonated a small bomb in a Los Angeles suburb, killing about 12,000 people” (“Race and Ethnicity in Entertainment”). This fictional show wrongly spreads the stereotypical image of Muslims and their clichéd image of the fundamentalists on 9/11. By adding the title and image of “Muslim” to the phrase “terrorist” the program wrongly advertised that potentially every Muslim could be a terrorist. This stereotypical image is similarly expressed in news broadcasts through the use of terrorism news. By increasingly using terrorism and Muslims in top

This book chapter also introduces surveys, examples and statistics that will help support my argument and further my research. This book chapter differs from the article, “Framing Arab-American and Muslims in the U.S. Media” because it explores the way that the U.S. media attempted to aid in the destruction of the Arab and Muslims terrorist stereotype, but ultimately failed. It provides an interesting contrast from the article, presenting a more positive way that the media tried to portray Arab and Muslims after 9/11. This book chapter, although different than the article, does reinforce the same idea that Arab and Muslims were ostracized following the events of 9/11 and felt they needed to prove themselves to the rest of American citizens as “good Americans”. The information in this book chapter is reliable because it has numerous cited examples and statistics that reinforce the validity of the main idea. This book chapter helps perpetuate my research as it gives me another perspective on the influence of the U.S. Media, and encourages me to continue down this path of research, and I will now be looking for how the U.S. media have tried to correct the terrorism stereotype they perpetuated against Arabs and

This is a 39% increase in the Australian Muslim growth rate since 2001, alarmingly, surpassing Australia’s current total population projections, however, although Islam is the fastest growing religion internationally, it is not domestically and Muslims are still an under represented minority in Australia. The above mentioned figures are an example as to how statistics can be manipulated into the wrong context to fit a media publications own construction of Muslim discourse. The contemporary (post 2000) links between Muslims and terrorism made by the media were the unprecedented widespread attacks in the United States that occurred on 11 September 2001. These events set the scene for the Australian medias role in implicitly and explicitly identifying Muslims as the other, equating Muslims [and Islam] with the threat of terrorism (Anne Ally,2007). An example of the equating of Islam with terrorism is Sharia Law. The media often associates this holy law of Islam documenting the expectations of Allah, and the positive principles followed by billions of Muslims of different backgrounds and cultures globally through scenes of brutality and oppression of the people in the conflicted middle eastern region linking it to the corrupted Jihadist fighters

In the contemporary world, many individuals are continually exposed to different types of news, movies, television series, radio programs, media texts and social media among other popular cultures. Such cultural products surround people with images that contribute to the shaping the way they understand different groups of people. Consequently, how facts are portrayed shape our insight of others and negatively impact our opinion and view of a group of people. According to Elbih, the concept of portrayal or representation has the capability to imply that certain media expose, repeatedly, particular situations, stories and images (112). The result of this representation makes the culture appear familiar or natural. One example of the popular culture in the U.S.A is in The American Sniper; a film in which the portrayal and the consequential conflation of Muslims communities were outlined in a manner that they are seen to be the threat to the United States of America (American Sniper). Therefore, The American Sniper demonstrates a very harmful representation of the Muslim populations concealed behind hypnotizing panoramas of the American patriotism. Thus, the focus of this essay will be how The American Sniper portrays negative stereotypes of the Muslim religion as violent while representing a positive stereotype of other religions in America.

There is a problem in the modern world with the way we look and understand images having to do with Islam. Efforts taken by the media to share images which creates a positive perspective on Islam, are rare. Instead images that cause the public to connect Muslims to terror and radicalism are common because the media utilizes punctum’s such as, an image of a young victim of a terror attack, to tap into ones emotions, gaining the public’s attention. the reason why the media cares about increasing their audience is because the world revolves around money and unfortunately the world has become so used to opening up the newspaper in the morning and seeing negative images, that positive images don’t appeal to media moguls. An important

After over half a decade since the 9/11 terror attacks on American soil, the consequences of the devastating incident have continued to spread out on Muslims in the United States who have been subjected to harsh experiences because of association. These people have not only been held accountable for their actions but also for the actions of people with false banners in their name since the attacks. Before the 9/11 attacks, Muslims in America were mainly involved in developing institutions and had equal rights with other American citizens. As everyone was treated fairly by the law, Muslims were no exception making them to be optimistic and elated. The attacks had a major impact on the American Muslim community that was seemingly experiencing a successful integration into the country's political process. They not only lost their developmental impetus but also faced prejudice and hostility like never before as the media began to portray the strong link between Islam and extremist political violence.

Every year, one million immigrants settle in the United States hoping for a new beginning, new opportunities, and a new life; however, they are welcomed by animosity, injustice, and discrimination. Even the president of the United States finds these immigrants to be troublesome despite their dedication to work hard to sustain themselves in their new home. Race related crimes continue to increase and the government is clearly making efforts to prevent more immigrants from seeking refuge in America as evidenced by the recent Muslim ban put into place by the Trump administration. Individuals fleeing from discrimination in their homelands are welcomed to a new form of discrimination here in the land of the free. Muslim

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

In contemporary American society Arab Americans are perceived as Muslim immigrants whose intentions are tied to terrorist groups, when in fact 35% of Muslim Americans are native born here in America, (Moule, 2012, p. 315). In addition, 60% convert to Islam later in life and only 40% are born Muslim, (Moule, 2012, p. 315). The misconstrued view of Arab and Muslim Americans began in part with the tragedy on September 11, 2001 when the Twin Towers collapsed. Following this event the media exploited the Islamic culture and anyone tied to it. Tragedy continued with the Iraq War in 2003, a civil war that continues to plague the country and its borders.

Many people come to America to live their dream. Some people were privileged to be born and raised in their American dream, but others were not so lucky. They were not born here and they didn’t get the opportunities that Americans were born with. Some people had to fight to get here and fight to get what they wanted. Although, America has not always been nice to them. We claim that coming to America is the best thing that can happen to someone, but when they get here there isn’t much “traditionalists” are willing to offer them. This is especially true when it comes to individuals from the Muslim or Islamic decent. America promotes their acceptance, but they are not willing to accept everyone. This is the injustice that is ramped in America

Freire (2006) writes, “Almost always the oppressed, instead of striving for liberation tend to become oppressors” (p.45). This quote embodies the significant rise in Islamophobia after the events of 9/11. As a response to attack by a select group of radical Islamic terrorists, Americans reacted with aggression towards all Muslims. The increase in monitoring of immigrants on a governmental and policy level affected, and continues to affect, a large number of immigrants from the Middle East. However, some of the most demoralizing changes that impacted the lives of these immigrants occurred in civil society where there was an increase in harassment, physical abuse, and discrimination from landlords, employers and educators (Bozorgmehr, 2012).

September 11, 2001. This day led to the deportation and incarceration of thousands of Muslims and Arabs, based almost fully on their immigration status and national origin. Moustafa Bayoumi, the author of the novel “This Muslim American Life” aims to consider how culture, politics, and the law all reinforce the idea of the dangers of being Muslim or Arab and how together they create this War on Terror Culture. War on Terror Culture relates to the wrongdoing of many Muslim and Arab American citizens because of this tragic event that has shaped our societies minds. After the September 11 attacks, “more than five thousand immigrants were rounded up by early law enforcement sweeps in a systematic effort of selective prosecution.” (Bayoumi 85)

The agonizing terrorist attacks of September 9th, 2001 left the country in emotional distress. The United States of America decided to prepare for tragic attacks like this and reevaluated its immigration and foreign policies, the citizens of the US also became united and stronger from these attacks. This ideology that the US has become more united after an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people has become mainstream and may be true in some cases, but many people overlook the impact it had on the millions of Muslim Americans. The Muslim generation before us had its own problems dealing with racial discrimination and hate crimes, many people believed it stop their but this contempt was passed on to my generation. The discrimination I have received has caused me to change my aspirations in order to ensure that no one else receives the treatment I had gotten.

The media’s negative influence on Muslims, foregrounds the aspects of society’s perspective of Muslims and misrepresents Muslims as a whole. One study showed that when subjects were exposed to news stories that were negative about Muslims, they became more accepting of military attacks on Muslim countries and policies that curtail rights of American Muslim. This reinforces how the misrepresentation of Muslims through the media, has impacted society’s outlook on Muslims and disparaged their sense of

Syed Soharwardy asserts that “Media always tried to portray Islam as a religion of terror and all the Muslims as terrorists. The way the talk-show programs and news are produced and presented, it seems that the media has already decided the guilty verdict, regardless what would be the outcome of an investigation” (Soharwardy). So too do members of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee recognize the media’s predisposition toward bias, as is pointed out in this statement, found on their website: “Key industries of American mass culture, Holllywood and television, for decades have been bastions of anti-Arab stereotyping, and have consistently resisted positive or realistic representations of Arabs and Arab Americans. (Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee).”