Cause Of Islamophobia

It is no secret that Western media has its fair share of Islamophobic stories to report or Muslim villains to cast in their latest hit movie. Their anti-Muslim sentiments are evident every time you turn on the T.V. and see blatant Islamophobia disguised under “journalism” or “free speech”. The reasons behind the media’s constant portrayal of Islam in a bad light is fueled by several causes such as Muslim extremists, the West’s wrong interpretation of Islam’s true message, and their inability to comprehend the Islamic lifestyle. Radical Muslims and their extreme acts in the name of Islam are the root cause to the rise of Islamophobia. 9/11 is when Islamist Jihadist group, al-Qaeda, decided that crashing into the US World Trade Center is the

Although it existed prior to the event, Islamophobia’s infamy rose to extreme heights after September 11, 2001. The West began to generalize Muslims, assuming that, by default, all Muslims carry the same innate traits of violence and terrorism. Although it was a tragic event, people need to realize that 2,976 people died on 9/11 while 2,500,000 people died in wars justified by 9/11. Moreover, the Boston Marathon bombing, a recent terrorist attack in the name of Islam, further popularizes Islamophobia. The Tsarnaev brothers who masterminded the whole thing planted the bombs as retaliation for US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Although it is justified to report all those Muslim terrorist attacks, the media tends to keep a biased view on every story and hides the parts that make them look bad. For example, an ex-army veteran was arrested for driving to Detroit’s largest mosque with a trunk

Though the Quran teaches acceptance and morality, its correct message is corrupted by extremist leaders who use it to justify their fanatic views and consequently spread these misconceptions about Islam to the Western world. The biggest misconceptions of Islam is that Muslims are terrorists even though there are many verses in the Quran that go against the idea of terrorism. This proves the power that the media’s unfair stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists has on the public’s views. Furthermore, contrary to popular understanding, jihad does not mean to fight for the sake of Allah. The meaning of jihad is ‘struggle’ and it had been reported that Prophet Mohammad said: “We have returned from the lesser jihad (going into battle) to the greater jihad (the struggle of the soul).” That means that it is far more important for a Muslims to struggle against himself and his soul rather than go to war. Another misunderstanding that is often associated with Islamic ideology is that Islam is intolerable to other religions. This is false and is disproved in the Quran verse: “God does not forbid you, with regards to those who fight you not for religion nor drive you away out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them, for god loves those who are just.” Another problem that follows Islam is the generalization