Post-9/11 Islamophobia
Post-9/11 Islamophobia
Islamophobia denotes prejudice against, hatred for, or irrational fear of Muslims. Such fear and hostility leads to discriminations against Muslims, exclusion of Muslims from mainstream political or social process, stereotyping, the presumption of guilt by association, and most frequently, hate crimes. In post 9/11 America, Islamophobia has resulted in the general and unquestioned acceptance that Islam does not share common values with other major faiths, that Islam is a religion of violence and supports terrorism, and even that Islam has a violent political ideology. According to a study done in July of 2002 by the Arab American Institute Foundation on profiling, “[n]early one in three Arab Americans say they have personally experienced discrimination in the past because of their ethnicity.” A poll done more recently in 2011 suggests that only “[t]hree-in-ten Americans say they interact daily (6 percent) or occasionally (24 percent) with a Muslim. More than two-thirds (68 percent) report that they seldom or never interact with a Muslim.” This paper will discuss that in accordance with Muqtedar Khan’s article “American Exceptionalism and American Muslims,” that while the “United States has become a place where Islam thrives in all its diversified glory,”3 statistics show that Muslim’s are discriminated against. In 2011, The Washington Post conducted a survey and found that “Muslims felt that the terrorist attacks made it more difficult to be a Muslim in the United States.” For example, despite nearly a decade after 9/11, the study found that many people had been singled out during airport security checks and that “people had acted suspiciously of them and called them offensive names.”4 Under the Obama Administration, airport security was heightened for passengers while traveling to the US from particular nations. This resulted in a copious amount of complaints from Muslims who claimed that President Obama's response to terror threats
Islamophobia denotes prejudice against, hatred for, or irrational fear of Muslims. Such fear and hostility leads to discriminations against Muslims, exclusion of Muslims from mainstream political or social process, stereotyping, the presumption of guilt by association, and most frequently, hate crimes. In post 9/11 America, Islamophobia has resulted in the general and unquestioned acceptance that Islam does not share common values with other major faiths, that Islam is a religion of violence and supports terrorism, and even that Islam has a violent political ideology. According to a study done in July of 2002 by the Arab American Institute Foundation on profiling, “[n]early one in three Arab Americans say they have personally experienced discrimination in the past because of their ethnicity.” A poll done more recently in 2011 suggests that only “[t]hree-in-ten Americans say they interact daily (6 percent) or occasionally (24 percent) with a Muslim. More than two-thirds (68 percent) report that they seldom or never interact with a Muslim.” This paper will discuss that in accordance with Muqtedar Khan’s article “American Exceptionalism and American Muslims,” that while the “United States has become a place where Islam thrives in all its diversified glory,”3 statistics show that Muslim’s are discriminated against. In 2011, The Washington Post conducted a survey and found that “Muslims felt that the terrorist attacks made it more difficult to be a Muslim in the United States.” For example, despite nearly a decade after 9/11, the study found that many people had been singled out during airport security checks and that “people had acted suspiciously of them and called them offensive names.”4 Under the Obama Administration, airport security was heightened for passengers while traveling to the US from particular nations. This resulted in a copious amount of complaints from Muslims who claimed that President Obama's response to terror threats