Classifying Cultures Generalization - Essay Example

This means that people will judge others based on the information they get from the media or any other source instead of trying to learn about them. This is because people will not take effort in trying to learn through experience, the behaviors of other groups, but they will assume what they have heard about them represents the entire group or culture. Generalization will have the effect of causing stereotyping and prejudice since it judges individuals as a group instead of trying to understand the individual characteristics.

The common American notion that people of the Muslim or Arabic culture are terrorists is false. After the September 11 attacks on the world trade center, the American government set up strategies on the war against terrorists and initiated the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are many differences in these wars, but they are all associated with war of the Americans against Muslims in their effort to do away with terrorism. This war has raised questions such as what the attitudes of the Americans are about Muslims living in the states and whether these attitudes will help in the war against terrorism.

These attacks were conducted by the Al-Qaeda group and caused many deaths of the American citizens (Sides & Gross, 1). The group has also been associated with other terrorist attacks all over the world and the war on the group was started in order to create security in the world. After theses attacks, politics was based on the war against terrorism and this changed the attitudes of Americans against people of the Muslim descent. Most Americans have associated Islam with terrorism since the Al-Qaeda group is from the Muslim culture and they see Islam religion as a weak one.

Islam followers and mostly people of the Arabic descent started being seen as violent people and they were sidelined as the violent extremists. President Bush signed the Islamo-Facists bill, and this changed the attitude of some Americans on people of the Islam religion despite the fact that it was war on some Muslims engaging in terrorism (Sides & Gross, 1). In the minds of some Americans, this created generalization, which implicated Muslims. Despite the efforts to separate the terrorist groups from the entire Muslim community, people still have derogatory attitudes towards Muslims and associate any Muslim they come across to be a terrorist.

Research data shows that most Americans have the stereotypes of Muslims as aggressive and they do not trust them (Darren, 27). The Americans perceive Muslims negatively and they believe that their goals are not compatible. Media has emphasized on the negative intentions over the years and it has played a crucial role in heightening the generalization of the Muslim culture. Media dose not directly implicate Muslims with terrorism, but it has contributed to the perception on the Americans of Muslims being hostile.

Research shows that most news coverage involving Muslims tend to cover stories associated with war and crisis (Sides & Gross, 3). After the attacks on the world trade centre, the war against terrorism is seen to have been directed towards Muslims and people of the Arab descent. Most of the depictions of the Muslims have been negative since then, and this has caused Muslims living in the United States and in other places in the world to be feared and associated with terror (Brigette,