Islamophobia In Netherland

A phobia, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is an extremely strong dislike or fear of someone or something. Since the history of 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA., a specific phobia has gripped in the Western population, which is Islamophobia. Many Americans grew up with the negative idea about Arabic speakers. However, Wajahat Ali’s “Inshallah is Good for Everyone,” published on April 22, 2016, in The New York Times shows a different perspective. Ali is a Pakistani American writer who was born in a Muslim family.

Marjane Satrapi’s perspective in her novel, Persepolis, is justified through the effects of the Iranian revolution, social classes, and imperialism and supports a pessimistic view of the revolution in the early 1980s. These themes constructed her opinions on the war and Iranian culture in itself. Imperialism lead to the idea of western culture being a sign of betrayal, revolution brought the harsh views of many people in Iran, and social classes plagued Satrapi with guilt and lead to the separation of many people. One key point that supports Satrapi’s negative perspective is imperialism, in the sense that imperialism brought many sorrows to the Middle East and as a result, Marjane’s views of the Middle East are, in fact, justified. Imperialism brought western culture and new ideas that helped the country flourish for years to come, though on the other hand, imperialism also brought an ever-standing battle for the Middle East’s oil.

The SALT II discussion was a treaty between the United States and Soviets attempting to limit the production of arms to help calm the Cold War. Upon the Soviet invasion, Carter put a halt to the ongoing discussions with the Soviets. Carter’s hesitation of the ratification of this treaty caused “superpower relations declined further in the latter half of 1979.” (Christian Philip Peterson, 651) The “Superpower relations” denote the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Yet, when representing similar events by individuals who are not Arabs, the media was careful to appear equitable and unbiased. Oklahoma City bombing is a perfect example to further support this claim, “the blast was set off by anti-government militant Timothy McVeigh”, the media were careful not to call him a terrorist and put the blame on one man rather than blaming an entire religion for his actions. The media lead Americans to blame 911 on Muslims although our religion clearly opposes terrorism. “Those who go to extremes are doomed”. So why is it that the western media insists on smearing Arabs’ image?

He also introduced cultural racism in which people associate beliefs with an illusory culture. It is something that shifts and molds in response to history. In response to 9/11 the world experienced fragility especially those of Islamic faith. Unaware of what the long-term effect would be the emergence of Islamophobia and animosity in the form of violent attacks directed at them from Western countries was consequential. Henzell-Thomas (2004) identified the major problems which were perpetuated by Islamophobia and one of them being “the misleading association of Islam with specific cultural identities and practices, especially Asian and African.

It is common today for people to assume that all Muslims are terrorists because of the recent terrorist attacks. This is not the only way people in America make assumptions based off stereotypes. The film Remember the Titans clearly shows discrimination between race in America in the 1970s.

During times of heightened tension between America and the Soviet Union, communism was cast in a light that made it look as though it was an evil system that eradicates freedom, while the capitalism of America was propagated as being the pinnacle of freedom and modern society (Semati, 2010, p.260). People no longer fear communism as they once did so a new threat had to be

The framing of media after the 9/11 attack of the Muslim states such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as presenting ‘Muslims’ as terrorist shows how easily these attacks has a violent effect on two countries relation. Further the relations between these countries are disturbed as other attacks happen. Recently US President Donald Trump ordered a ban against the entry inhabitants of Muslim majority states (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and Libya) due to the weekly terrorist activities in

As Edina Lecovic, Communication Director at MPAC stated, “Islamophobia is not a Muslim issue. It is an American issue. Islamophobia falls within a history of hate in this country, and we (Muslims) are certainly not the first and we will certainly not be the last” (ISM, 20 October 2007). Islamophobia is, undoubtedly, not a new phenomenon. Some scholars introduce the Iranian Revolution in 1979 as the beginning point for Islamophobia within the United States; however, Greenwald and Gottschalk (2008) found Islamophobia far earlier when Western world portrays Islam and Muslims as the “others” after their immigration to their

They did not think that, at the same time they were withdrawing troops from Iraq, another terrorist force was growing. It was called the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria. This terrorist group is different from the Taliban, as its influence was greater. The Western nation would had to deal with the mess that they had created in the first place, and this time it would not be as easy as sending in coalition

E. the west found it very difficult to from a factual ideal of Islam, held back by its own closed mindedness as well as an overall ignorance. Christians knew nothing about Islam, and saw Arab people only as enemies. Two very different populations in the West expressed a vision of Islam. One was that of a common people, that was influenced by false information from the Chanson de Geste. The other negative propaganda from scholastics ,which the scholastics were Although sometimes it was saw as a reaction to see Islam as violent and fanatic, in general the scholastics vision of Islam was balanced and portrayed Islam more realistically than the stereotypes that influenced Christian Culture.

The Red Scare was intimidating and shocking and Americans did not want that to spread by nativism to take over the U.S (Doc 1). Bolshevism was thought to drag down civilization in a mess caused by WWI (Doc 7). Bolsheviks were causing negativity in America, caused strikes and negatively influenced the social ideas of Americans (Doc 8). The spread of communism caused Americans to come together and show what kind of nation they really are. Patriotism and nationalism arose to counter other beliefs and immigrant biases.

Images of Muslims are constantly recycling in American culture, whether accurate or neutral, images of Muslims presented in mainstream media and cultural forms are usually tied to terrorism. Although they existed before, stereotypes have emerged since 9/11. The reaction to them has increased, they are seen in movies, news media, political debates, and it distorts the way every Muslim is now seen. Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin in Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and representation after 9/11, suggest that Muslims tend to always appear as a problematic presence whenever they are represented. Stereotyping fixes certain characteristics, Muslims are now stigmatized as a threatening to society.

As time elapsed from September 11, 2001, the public began to break ideas about who was to blame for the attacks on September 11. A vast majority believed that the 9/11 attacks were solely to blame from the Islamist radical group, Al-Qaeda, a terrorist regime that sought to rebel against western civilization norms and enact their hate among the United States. The other idea, which is highly noted as a conspiracy theory, was that government knew the terrorist attacks were likely to happen and the only reason the government took a back seat was to conduct a reason to mobilize troops into the war-riddled Middle East. Whether the public believed either or, a paranoia was created, later to be recognized as Post-9/11 Paranoia. This paranoia would harbor certain ideals in American brains, creating a specific view and caution for certain areas, actions and personnel.

Any identity can be used to create a social inequality and in this case the religious minority identity is being used to create injustice. Terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, reformed the religious minority identity of Muslim Americans which caused social inequality. After the terrorist attack on September 11 being a Muslim American is associated with the terrorism and created systematic inequality. Clearly the 9/11 attacks caused Muslims to be labeled negatively, but how it exactly happened is the important question here. Byng states that “a source of data for an empirical analysis of external identity construction is the media” (662).