Change of Perception after the September 11 Attacks

After the September 11 attacks on the world trade center, the world’s perception of the Middle East and Muslims drastically changed. For individuals previously exposed to Islamophobic ideologies, these attacks reinforced them. On the other hand, these attacks exposed and established negative stereotypes about Islam within other individuals for the first time. Anti-Muslim sentiment increased drastically post 9/11; which in turn led to the advancement of abuses towards Muslims. These abuses were through the systematic implementation of political policies, along with independently instigated discrimination of society. The victimization of individuals who adhere to a particular religion is not a modern phenomenon. The Nazi regime personifies the religious discrimination phenomenon, through the prosecution of Jews. We find that there are many similarities between the anti-Semitic movement endorsed by the Nazi Germany, to that of the Islamophobic movement seen in western countries post September 11. The later of the two movements focuses on the maintenance of an unpolluted, homogeneous western culture, whereas, the former focused on the maintenance of an unpolluted, homogeneous western race. This essay will argue that modern ideas of cultural purity are in fact the evolution of the long-established ideas of racial purity. This essay will explore this evolution while looking specifically at the current prosecution of Muslims, in order to maintain cultural purity, moreover comparing it to historical prosecution of Jews, in order to maintain racial purity. This essay will begin by addressing theoretical sociological concepts along with establishing several key terms and concepts important to the understanding of these arguments. This essay will then present a brief historical overview.
In Goldberg’s (2002) The Racial State the theoretical sociological concepts of naturalism and historicism along with ideas of assimilation and amalgamation all explain the ideas of cultural

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