Rise Of Islamophobia After 9/11

Islamophobia, the term that was not very well-known before September 11, 2001, is now known to almost any individual of any age. After September 11th, islamophobia became a part of many Muslims’ daily lives (O’Connor “How 9/11 Changed These Muslim Americans’ Lives Forever.”) Not only did Muslims have trouble going through customs and security at the airports, but they also encountered islamophobia in their daily routine. Since September 11th, terrorist jokes became popular among many non-Muslim Americans who oftentimes did not understand the seriousness and the offensiveness of those jokes. Some found the “Muslim terrorist” stereotype to be somewhat justified and did not consider it to be as insulting as, for example, the representation of Black and Asian Americans in 1920s and 30s cartoons. However, the two are equally abusive and it is horrible to realize that in some ways, the American

After the attacks on September 11, 2001, media approaches have altered. On Television shows and movies, in newspapers and on the radio, there has been an increase in hate crimes targeting Arabs and Muslims. Most coverage today follows a script that represents Arabs and Muslims only in the context of terrorism. Evelyn Alsultany wrote a book called Arabs and Muslims in the Media in 2012. The stories explained the new standards in racial and cultural representations after 9/11.

Since the dawn of human civilization, there has been an unfortunate but natural tendency to marginalize and oppress those belonging to "the other"--those not in power, not part of the most popular group and those who are different. One such manifestation of this fear of the different is Islamophobia--the "dread or hatred of Islam--and therefore [the] fear or dislike of all or most Muslims." Although the exact word "Islamophobia" was brought to public awareness in 1997 after an academic journal from the British Runnymede Report, it has existed for many years prior to the journal, as a term to describe the experiences of the oppressed and discriminated sections of Muslim communities. The simmering prejudice towards Muslims gained ferocious momentum

9/11 marked the beginning of the multitude of cases of Islamophobia. The actions of a few radicals shaped what is the false perception of Islam. Many Americans, especially New Yorkers, believe that Islam is a faith of violence, terrorism, and misogyny. Prior to 9/11 there were only 20 to 30 cases of islamophobia a year nationally (Wulfhorst, New York City Is Taking Aim At Islamophobia). In 2001 alone there were 481 cases of Islamophobia according to the FBI, which

The September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States generated fears across the Earth not previously seen in history. The terrorist group responsible, known as Al-Qaida, ushered high levels of panic, causing millions of people who witnessed the attack or read about it to develop widespread fears of Muslims. The dislike or prejudice against Islam or Muslims has become known as Islamophobia, generating hate crimes and discrimination against Muslim people. Recent researchers have highlighted the effects that 9/11 have on Middle-Eastern people, primarily Muslims. Researchers have studied the increase in discrimination on Muslim people post 9/11. Researchers have also studied how 9/11 impacted the public’s view on immigration. Furthermore, studies

Concerning the issue of prejudice against Arab Americans, few researches have been done. It is surprising seeing as little attention has been paid to this ethno-religious group whose population rate has tremendously increased after 9/11. However, one study by Park, Felix, and Lee (2007) do give us an idea of how prejudice is expressed, implicitly or explicitly, against Muslim people. In their study, they found that discrimination against Arab Muslims is never shown in an explicit way but rather in a subtle way. They used an Implicit Association

Recently, there has been an enormous spark of outrage in America. An increasing amount of prejudice and Islamophobia has taken place in the country, and it is not a situation that one can turn a blind eye to. The social prejudice towards the Islamic religion, especially in regards to terrorism, is a worsening problem that needs to be taken care of today,

(2000: 22-42) looks at the generalizations and predispositions utilized as a part of the depiction of Muslim Arabs in

The word ‘Islamophobia’ refers to the fear, dislike, suspicion, or hatred of Muslims. As irrational prejudices go, this one is a fairly new phenomenon. It became most prominent after the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, but certainly existed prior to that (Sheridan 2006). Islamophobia is nourished by a number of misconceptions which are related to but distinct from these attacks. The so-called ‘War on Terror’ is sometimes perceived as a war on Islam. Muslims are depicted in the media and by the United States’ government as ‘hating freedom’, though as we will see this idea does not make any sense. The present paper is a discussion of the sources of, and irrationalities involved in, Islamophobia.

Islamophobia is defined as the prejudice against, hatred, or bigotry towards or fear of the religion of Muslims. I attended the islamophobia event with Dr. Todd Green, on March 31 at 2:00 PM in the nest at Century College. The event was about the prevalence of islamophobia in America how it is created and perpetuated, the history of rivalry between Christians and Muslims that can be seen as part of the reason for its prevalence in the U.S. today, as well as other contributing factors. The speaker also talked about how Islamophobia impacts society and how we can combat it in society with meaningful social change. I choose this event because I am interested in the impacts and reasoning of peoples view of Muslims and the attribution of them to

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.

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.

In Oxford English Dictionary, Islamophobia is defined as “intense dislike or fear of Islam, especially as a political force, hostility or prejudice towards Muslims.” This term was first used in 20th century and had its’ own definition at 1970s. Particularly, after the 11 September events -which a radical Islamic group claimed its responsibility- in U.S.A. most of the non-Muslims in the world knew the Muslims with violence. The Berkeley Institute on Racism Studies says that Islam is often seen as a religion of violence which supports terrorism and has a violent political ideology. This perception of Islam is enlarging globally more and more because of some reasons such as terrorist attacks in non-Muslim countries, effect of media on the people, misunderstanding of Islam, and lack of the true representative

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).