Stereotypes Of Muslims

My most recent series of paintings, Society’s Reflection, deals with religious stereotypes. Starting with six traditional religious figures, I alter their appearance in ways society wouldn’t expect such as adding tattoos, piercings, or including a transgender figure. This allows me to break up stereotypes and reflect the true diversity of our society. These changes are intended to show that anyone can study a religion or hold a certain set of beliefs, regardless of how they look on the outside. I have been stereotyped for my entire life, which is why I have a strong connection to this series.

Islamic stereotypes are not new to Western culture. Problems can be traced back to the time of the Crusades, when Christians and Muslims were vying for control of Jerusalem. At

Post 9/11 negative stereotypes and attitudes toward Muslims intensified in many Western societies. “The FBI recorded a sixteen-fold increase in hate crimes (e.g., acts of arson, aggravated assault, property crimes) against Muslim Americans from 2001 to 2002” (Rodriguez Mosquera & Khan & Selya, 2013). All of this goes to show that Non-Muslim Americans were taking out their emotions on innocent Muslims. Not only was all this going on, but the U.S. Congress’ response to the attacks was the USA Patriot Act. The USA Patriot Act gave, “the government investigative powers to fight against terrorism and subsequently targeted those in the Arab, Muslim, and South Asian communities with not just prejudices against these communities, but blatant racism toward innocent people, just because they appear to look like they “identify” with those who have made terrorist threats” (Akiyama, 2008). The discrimination post 9/11 was awful. The hijab which was seen as a prideful garment for Muslims became a target for discrimination. In the article, “9/11 Ten Years Later: Muslim Women, Organizations Work to Fight Discrimination, Patel talks about a woman, Wasan Mohamad. Mohamad talks about how she and her friends/family were discriminated against ten years after 9/11. Her daughter in class got told that her people were responsible for 9/11. Her friend changed his name from

The world is filled with different races, cultures, religions and beliefs; everyone has a different opinion and perspectives on life. Unfortunately not everyone respects other peoples personal opinions, this had led to discrimination, stereotyping, hatred and even war. After many incidents that affected the world; Arabs started being discriminated by many people. People were stereotyping the Arabs and they had the wrong image about them.

Even before 9/11, the effects of stereotyping against Muslims has been present. For example in a Harvard University article about Muslim Americans struggling with stereotypes it states,”in the immediate wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, early news accounts included reports of people of “Middle Eastern heritage” fleeing the scene; many journalists, “experts,” and even former Representative Dave McCurdy linked the bombing to “fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups.” In media such as newspapers they have printed in a way that could be misleading to the reader, “newspaper headlines regularly print the words “Islam” and “Muslim” next to words like “fanatic,”

am a fourteen year old Muslim girl, born and raised in America. As a teenager, I watch a lot television. Whether I’m watching cartoons with my siblings, scary movies with my friends, or the news with my mom, I love watching television. One thing I have noticed on television is that the media’s coverage on Islam has changed significantly in various ways this past decade. The way the news portrays Muslims has shifted and the image of Islam has become distorted. The amount of coverage on Islam has increased as well, especially since the events of September 11th 2001. Those events played a role in why the coverage of Islam changed dramatically in the media. I also believe that the media is biased against Muslims, therefore many stereotypes and misinterpretations about Islam were created and spread. Some of these misinterpretations include Islam as a violent religion and oppression of Muslim women. I think that the media degrades and dehumanizes Muslims. Whether it is intentional or unintentional, I do not believe that the media portrays Islam accurately.

There are many religions throughout the world in today's society. One of the religions that is discriminated the most is Islam. Muslims who are part of the religion are hated because of a terrorist group called Isis. Some of the reasons why they are discriminated is because Isis shares the same religion, Americans think they are terrorist, and are the fastest growing religion in the world. Although people around the world look at this religion being terrorist, they need to understand that the innocent muslims don't want to be a part of the terrorist group.

The Sikhs are a group of peaceful people from India. “The Sikh religion intertwines the spiritual and secular spheres, seeing love as the ultimate goal, one achieved only by practicing love in one’s everyday life.” (pg 5, US News) Followers believe in reincarnation, karma and salvation, and that spiritual evolution depends on their deeds and actions in life. People who don’t understand, or even know about, the Sikh religion commonly mistake them for Muslims because they resemble each other, both having darker skin, men with beards and wearing turbans. September 11, 2001 was one of the worst days in American History and will be remembered forever. It was a day that brought America together to take down the terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center. With this came a fear and hostility towards the people who attacked us. Even though it was a group of Muslim extremists, Americans started grouping what they think to be Muslims all in one. “Darker skin, beards on men and turbans” (pg 3, US News) Anyone who is seen with these characteristics is stereotyped into the ‘terrorist’ category now. This shows how close-minded people can be. You don’t see everyone turning against the whites when they act in a terrorist manner.

Nowadays , people are being classified based on their ethnicity . A great example would be the Islamophobia or fear of / for Islam or Muslims . Often times , Muslims are being judged quickly as terrorist because of some issues today like the Paris terror attack which is caused by group of ISIS . Muslims are being affected on how people see them as a threat especially those who are unaware of the certain issues . The reason for this kind of concern is because of how media portrays the matter . In this issue , some people care and some don't . This is not only happening to Canada but around the world . As a student studying sociology , this stereotyping is a bad news to hear . It is a big concern to society more importantly to Muslims , as they

Nowadays, racial, societal, and cultural stereotypes are, unfortunately, becoming more and more common. Whether it be about something as insignificant as every high schoolers’ supposed immaturity, to something as substantial as a gender stereotype that denies people their rights, these misconceptions are hurting people every single day. One popular group to stereotype recently has been the Middle East. Almost everything people say about them is factually incorrect. The political world does not help much either. Many biased or misinformed politicians say things that aren’t true, which then imprints society, which causes these misconceptions to bloom. Some of the most common misconceptions are what defines an Arab, all Middle Easterns hate Americans and are out to bomb them, and more. Middle Eastern stereotypes are misguided due to assumptions made with a lack of information, biases in the news, and implications made by our government, and other citizens only speak what they hear.

to 100 Years of Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim stereotyping by Mazin B. Qumsiyeh “Arabs in TV and movies are portrayed as either bombers, belly dancers, or billionaires in reference to Arab men being portrayed as terrorist or as wealthy oilmen and Arab women being portrayed as sex objects...these stereotypes don 't only cause psychological harm (culture, insult) but also helps feed into actions that are physically harmful by dehumanizing a group first before attacking it.”

Stereotypes often determine how we see people who are different from us. Stereotypes play such an important role in our perceptions of others, but what exactly are they? A stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing (Williams, 2013). In essence, stereotypes are not limited to different races and ethnicities, but also include: genders, social classes, cultures and even certain hobbies. In light of the increase of negative attention that Muslims have been receiving in the media, the stereotypes discussed in this paper will be centered on Muslims. Specifically, the stereotype that all Muslims are terrorists will be analyzed.

Thinking as a sociologist, you might ask yourself, why does this happen? What causes people to categorize a whole group of people solely based on their faith? What exactly causes someone to not want to sit with someone, because the other person may be wearing a hijab? When did Islamophobia spread and became an issue? What are some possible solutions?

In light of all the time I research on the internet before I participated the service and the service time, I really curious the way they practice religion, before this worship, I had a stereotype that when people worship they will kneel down and speak to God, it is totally different from my culture that professor you talked about in lecture that “FengShui building” , when we practice religion, we have to kneel down instead of singing. And people in the church are very friendly and kind, I have feeling that I don’t know how to express when I was in the church, all in all, it could be my experience in the religious

Standing against religious discrimination will decrease harassment on different religion of different classes. Muslim women experienced racism in workplaces. People determine others by their appearance. Muslim women often follow rules of their own religion, but people will start isolate Muslim women due to their religion and their habits. “By permitting a ban on the hijab, Europe is essentially permitting a ban on Muslim women in the workplace.‘I have friends who have taken to wearing the hijab in recent years because they feel their Muslim identity has been threatened, and they have decided to take a stand for their faith’.” (Amrani). In the column, a muslim women feels her identity has been threatened, harassed by people. But still, she chose to stand for her faith. If we stand against religious discrimination, there will be less people threatening muslim women because of their beliefs and identity. In