Did you know that there are currently 1.5 billion Muslims living
throughout the world? One in every five people in this
world is a Muslim. It is proven that Islam is the fastest growing
faith in the world and also happens to be the most widely and openly
misunderstood faith as well. Americans have misconceptions about Muslims concerning the rights of Muslim women and whether Muslims believe in the existence of Jesus. "When a gunman attacks a mosque in the name of Judaism, a
Catholic IRA guerrilla sets off a bomb in an urban area, or Serbian
Orthodox militiaman rapes and kills innocent Muslim civilians, these
acts are not used to stereotype an entire faith." How many times is it
heard that a Christian, Jew, or any other majority robbed a bank or
was involved in a mass murder? Very few, which is ironic because once
a Muslim does such perils, it is blamed on the faith on whole and not
the individual that makes that decision.
Islam can literally be translated to mean submission to God and is
derived from the root word meaning peace. One should always remember
to go to the true source of Islam and separate what the true religion
of Islam says from what is portrayed in the media. Many consider Islam
an exotic religion or even too extreme for the modern world. But this
is because religion does not dominate everyday life in the West, where
as, Islam is consider a way of life for many Muslims; who from the
teachings of the Quran have learned to balance their material and
spiritual life. Like Christianity, Islam only permits fighting in
self-defense, in defense of religion (but not the excuse for your own
personal or political purposes), or on...
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...mething it all gets blamed on
the faith? The American government has been at war for almost two
years to give rights to the people of Iraq, but how much of a
difference can they actually make when their own people don't get
proper rights? They say the people have freedom of speech, religion,
and etc…but in reality they have nothing. If the government wanted
unity between the people than they would create a better understand on
a situation rather than turning citizens against each other. A recent
example of how much the American government 'cares' for the rights of
the people is shown through the pictures they found of the prisons are
being taken care of in Iraq. Many misconceptions of religion, culture,
and just people on a whole would be cleared if the government and
media did not exploit them for their own advantage.
In the article “Modern-Day Witch Hunts”, Jamie Dailey focuses the attention on problems that Muslim Americans commonly face on a day-to-day basis. He first paints a picture by comparing the violent acts performed on Muslims to the Salem Witch trial in 1692. The Salem Witch trials resulted in 19 deaths of innocent individuals, because they were accused of witchcraft. Dailey goes on to explain in America, the type of persecution Muslims endure has many forms. A more recent controversy towards this religion involves the building of the Ground Zero Mosque in central New York. The name of this building is very misleading, especially to the eyes of an American. Even though this structure is actually built a few blocks away from where the former World Trade Center stood, problems have still risen from the public. Americans often mistake Muslims as the group of people who had performed acts of terrorism on American soil, when it was actually an Islamic group known as Al Qaeda. Mosques all across the United States started being vandalized by people protesting against their religion. This article shows how irrational fear can corrupt the thoughts of people.
On September 11, 2001, since the terrorist attacks, many American Muslims have been stereotyped negatively in the United States. Salma, a Muslim woman, says that the way Muslims have been recognized in the media has played a big role in the antagonisms directed to her. “I don’t know how many time I heard my classmates accuse me of being al-Qaeda or a terrorist” (Mayton 2013). Salma, along with other Muslims, even after a decade, are still struggling with trying to find their “American” and “Islamic” identities, while facing verbal attacks for their ethnicity. Too often, the general Muslin population gets lumped in with the immoral acts of a few because of the lack of knowledge about their culture.
...e perpetrators can be justified in terms of Islam. He answers with a straight to the point, no.
In the essay, the writer acknowledges the misunderstandings that come from media images by explaining the contrasts between these images and the teachings of the faith to support her claim that fear is the reason for this misconception. The conception that many people have of Muslims is that they are terrorists, anti-Semites, and fanatics. This conception exsists because television news and newspapers support that stereotype. The broadcast of such stereotypes encourages fear and accusations of the Islamic relegion's teachings. The writer explains that Islam teaches peace, tolerance, and equality. She further states that Muslims shown in the media have violated these teachings ...
The religion of Islam dates back to the 7th century CE and the life of its founder, Muhammad of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. Islam is an Arabic word meaning: making something safe and secure, making something sound and whole, entering into peace and tranquility, and surrendering to something other than oneself. A follower of Islam is called a Muslim. In the religion of Islam, it requires the belief in certain core tenets, which include the articles of faith and the five pillars of worship. These two combined, form the Islamic creed.
4) Explain how belief in the concept of Risalah and the different forms it can take might affect the life of a Muslim today.
Islam is portrayed and is commonly accepted as the most violent and largest direct threat to the West. This is a generalization made by most of the West, but it is not particularly the West or the Islamic people’s fault. There is constant turmoil in Islamic countries in the Middle East and these conflicts are what make the news in the West. The only representation in the media that the Islamic nation gets is that of war. Though most Islamic people are not violent, the select few that do participate in terrorist groups give the rest of the Islam nation a bad image.
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
September 11, 2001 America was hit by terrorist attacks. American citizens were shocked, outraged at the attack on our own soil. After initial hours of shock, grief, and anger it became apparent that the suspects in the attacks were Arab Muslims—American Muslims and Arab Americans. For American Muslims and Arab Americans the tragedy was doubly painful. The whole World watched in the horror that the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked. There were a lot of calls, questions if any friends or loved ones were in these planes or inside these buildings. Muslim Imams gave a lot of speeches, articles, lectures that to prove that Islam is not evil religion, they say that “terrorists were Muslims, but these people do not belong to our community here; they used Islamic names and did evil”. In their lectures they cited in Qur’an to support their statements “Islam is a religion of tolerance and peace. In our sacred book, the Noble Qur’an, we are taught the value of innocent life in these words: ...
I feel the biggest misunderstood culture today is the Muslim culture. Muslims are always ridiculed and stereotyped as terrorists and are always getting racist jokes thrown at them. Whenever people see someone of the Muslim culture on the street, they’re so quick to judge them and give them dirty looks as if they are aliens from a different planet. Everyone thinks Muslims are terrorists that hate America, when in reality, that is just a big stereotype that is far from the truth. I feel most of these stereotypes and racist jokes about Muslim Americans come from the fact that we have troops fighting across seas against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and people seem to link all Muslims with those two terrorist groups, which is a very racist accusation of anyone who believes that. Muslim Americans are stereotyped as terrorists who hate America, when in reality, the Muslim people and culture are a very peaceful people.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 changed America and the world forever. When we hear about terrorists in the news, most often the media is referring to a person of the Islamic descent. The actions of a small group of radicals caused society to generalize about the entire Muslim community. Research done by Jack Shaheen, a professor of Mass Communication from Southern Illinois University and a consultant to CBS News, showed that the media has the ability to create false stereotypes of Muslims. The government enforces stereotypes here at home, which influence policies. During times of conflict, the media functions as the carrier of government policies. (Alexandar, Hanson, 64). Through this form of mediatization, prejudice and misconceptions about the Muslim community has risen.
They are a reminder of America’s long and deeply ambivalent history with Islam, Arabs, and the Middle East.” (Makdisi 1). Makdisi feels that the fear of Muslims was not always there; stating that Thomas Jefferson read the Quran and was very interested in the religion. Protestant missionaries wanted to save and convert the people that practiced Islam; the missionaries did not fear Muslims or Arabs (Makdisi 1). Makdisi goes on to say that the fear of Muslims did not start until the end of the 20th century mainly because the new wave of Immigration in the 1960’s. Makdisi says, “rather, the stigmatization of Arabs and Muslims occurred principally because of the politics in the Middle East and because of the enormously consequential United States role in the region” (Makdisi 1). Makdisi blames the United States ' involvement and support in Israel and states that the Iranian hostage situation was "similarly a direct response to the United States support for t he Shah of Iran” (Makdisi 1). Makdisi argues that the people of the United States were hurt by the policies our own country had in place. Both Lyre and Makdisi agree that the attacks on September 11th, 2001 only reinforced the stigma that was there and make it easier for the world to view all Muslims, Arabs, and all people from the Middle East in a negative
Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion alongside Judaism and Christianity. It is currently the second largest religion in the world today. Its beliefs come from the Qur'an which literally means "the recitation" which is believed to be a literal transcription of the word of God. Its main prophet is named Muhammad who began Islam by speaking with the angel Gabriel in a cave during his meditation and then acting as an instrument of God to help write the Qur’an. Muhammad then spread Islam to the scattered tribes of Arabia by becoming the leader of Yathrib and using his wonderful leadership abilities to then grow his influence over virtually all of Arabia. Muhammad is known by Muslims to be the seal of the profits because no profits after Muhammad should be considered legitimate. Muhammad also left behind the Hadith or “tradition” which is a collection of writings compiled of reports of Muhammad’s actions as leader of Yathrib. These reports are used as a more specific code of ethics in day to day life and from these reports the 5 Pillars of Islam are derived (Smith 160). Although Islam shares many similarities to Judaism and Christianity it is often viewed in the US with hate derived from preconceived notions following the attack on September 11th 2001. This paper seeks to provide an overview of Islam’s history as well as its two major sects and 5 main pillars to remove preconceived notions and provide a glance into the minds of the Islamic people.
Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world but it is still one of the most misunderstood religion by many. The Non-Muslims who are unfamiliar with the faith tend to have misunderstandings about its concepts and teachings. These misconceptions misguide Non-Muslims from learning what Islam really is about. Islam simply means submission to God and peace, but many believe that it promotes terrorism, oppression of Muslim women, and that the religion has too many restrictions.
Many people have been led to the fact that Islam is violent, but all these people do not know the truth, they hear it by the famous people and believe it. The famous people have led other people to believe that all Muslims are risky to be near. I believe that because of these Muslim terrorists, media thinks that all Muslims or believers of Islam are disgraceful, which leads to everyone believing the media.