The Stereotype and Misconceptions about Muslims - Research Paper Example

Muslims in the USA The US is a multicultural society with many ethnic and racial groups living in the country. This con s an intriguing cosmopolitan outlook whereby cultures and individuals are diverse. The Muslims in America are a part of this diversity. There are primarily three categories of Muslims in America. The Muslims group into immigrants, American converts to Islam, and the individuals born of the previous groups. Research shows that Muslims’ population in the country is 2.11 percent of the current US population (Bayor 19). In this figure, most reports show that about 60 percent of US Muslims are immigrants while more than 70 percent of US Muslims are citizens (Bayor 19). This means the rest of the population could be Muslims on temporary visits and residence in the country. In as much as this diversity has an aesthete, a deeper scrutiny reveals It is essential to highlight of the notable factors that have influenced movements of Muslims from the Middle East to the US. To begin with, Arabs, as Muslims, have pursued education in the Western countries. This thrives on the belief that the Western countries have better educational structures and systems than home countries. In addition, economic incentives such as job opportunities and a dynamic investment platform attracted the Arabs. Emigration could also be explained by the wars and instability in the Middle East. The core character of this migration has majorly contributed towards the misconception of Muslims. To begin with, a common stereotype describes Muslims as only Arabs (Sirin and Fine 198). This belief ignores the fact that the Muslim community is a culturally diverse population. For instance, there are South Asians, Arabs, and African Americans in the Muslim community. Indeed, around 60% of US born Muslims are African Americans (Bayor 19). In spite of the excessive illuminated attention towards the Arab Muslims, African American Muslims have existed since the days of civil rights movement. Malcolm X, an activist for African Americans’ right, is one of the most conspicuous of this outfit (Abdullah 11). In addition, these groups have diverse styles of worship that are unique to their unique ethnic identity. It is crucial to highlight that the stereotype and misconceptions about Muslims is largely a media and commercial-driven phenomenon. Americans mostly drive their preconceptions and misconceptions from the films and commercials that portray Muslims in give ways. To begin with, films and commercials significantly portray Arabs as Muslims and portray Muslims as Arabs. In turn, Islam is perceived as an ethnic outfit rather than a religious body. In close relation to this phenomenon, most Americans do not understand the difference between Muslims and Muslim Americans. This occurs in spite of the fact that merely 12% of Muslims are Arabs (Aslanand Aaron Tapper 166). In addition, films portray Muslims as foreigners in Hollywood movies. Part of this foreignness is associated with strangeness to customs of US. Most Americans believe that Arab Muslims are recent immigrants in the country. This means such people feel as if the Muslims do not share a sense of ownership to the country. This feeling closely intertwines with the attitudes that Muslims are in the country to destroy what the American people had spent decades building (Rashid 67). In essence, some Muslims had migrated into the country in the late 17th century and in the early 18th century. In this sense, while speaking in English, the Arab Americans in film mostly appear as having heavy Middle East accents. Surprisingly, Muslims working in mainstream professions such as law and teaching. This image strives to portray Muslims as strangers to the American community. An American working with a Muslim in the same office is highly likely to view one as a stranger who is temporarily staying in the country. This country has two impositions. To begin with, it ignores the fact that a significant number of Muslims were born in the US. In essence, most Muslims are capable of speaking good English. Besides, this conception impedes Muslims’ integration into the American community. Sirin and Fine reports of Suha, a Muslim-America teenager, who laments, “Why is this country treating me like an outsider? I’m not (Sirin and Fine 91).” The perpetual portrayals of Muslim women in veils have deterred the understanding of sexuality in the Islam’s context. A veiled woman is a stereotype of commercialized sex that typifies a Muslim woman as an object of sexual intrigue. This gears the male population for sexual fantasies regarding the women in Islam. On the other hand, certain music videos portray Muslim women as belly dancers. This image links with the latter image as a succession of opening up the Muslim woman sexuality (Lumbard 134). In this sense, the American audience receives the Muslim woman as a person with a ferocious sexuality behind the veil. The Muslim woman sadly seems utterly repressed in spite of her urge to extremely experiment with her sexuality. This is a catastrophic perception since it portrays the liberal American woman as the ideal representation of femininity. In this lens, the media judges the Muslim woman’s sexuality in American cultural terms. This occurs in spite of the fact that Muslims have independent beliefs and possess unique conception of their sexuality. The 9/11 terrorist attack and catastrophe, a significant event in the US history, influenced several socio-cultural attitudes in the US. Besides, the country has centered its governance and politics on the war on terror. This is coupled with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars have the inherent feature of defining the relationship between the US and the Muslim world. In turn, critical thinking asks about what the Americans think of Muslims living amongst them. In addition, one would most likely ask about these attitudes’ effect on the fight against terrorism and their impact on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Politics is an intricate process that has perpetually contained a group-centric bias. The group implicated in a given issue, therefore, becomes the core to the politics and attitudes towards such an issue. This, hence, affects policies on welfare, foreign policy, immigration, and other related issues (Abdullah 176). This is the unfortunate situation of both the Arabs and the Muslims in the America that emerged out of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Indeed, the thereafter investigations revealed that fifteen of the 19 attackers were Saudis. The image of a bearded Arab as a Muslim man best exemplified in the image of Osama bin Laden and his other Al-Qaeda associates was ingrained in the American subconscious. The politics of war on terrorism unfortunately gained a religious tone as Islam attained an evil connotation. This thrived on the angst oft the common American against the terrorist attacks and the death of the people involved in the incident. This occurred in spite of the fact that the war on terrorism merely implicates a small set of Muslims. Attempts to differentiate the Al-Qaeda type sects from the rest of the Muslim community in America, therefore, have become futile. In turn, an ordinary non-Muslim American is highly likely to perceive a Muslim as a conniving person up to a malicious act on others’ lives. This misconception ignores the extent of other grave incidents such as gun killings in schools and robbery with violence that happens regularly in the US soil. In turn, most Americans view Muslim Americans as an ethnocentric group. This means that such people possess irrational nationalism towards themselves and their culture. This would be a terrible interpretation since it portrays the average Muslim American as someone would do extreme things to defend one’s identity and culture. In addition, a Muslim person directs one’s patriotism towards another Muslim instead of engaging the same attention to American welfare. An average American, therefore, is highly likely to perceive a Muslim as a person striving for the welfare of Middle East Asia. Consequently, other Americans view Muslims as people fighting for an Arab cause. In this frame, A Muslim is a person planning to destroy the American country. This occurs in spite of the fact that a significant number of Muslims were born in the US and dream the country’s way. Most Americans believe that Muslims are threatening and aggressive. This perception ignites the attitude that a Muslim is a person with a pent-up anger (Neusner 9). Such a person, therefore, waits for the least trigger to explode. It is crucial to break down this attitude into several components. To begin with, the Muslim man manifests as a callous person with no emotions. The constant portrayal of Muslims in movies as individuals capable of doing anything inhuman is a significant cause for this attitude. A Muslim person, therefore, would storm into a building and bomb playing children. A Muslim American, therefore, becomes a person who lacks emotions such as mercy, love, and grief. Such movies rarely portray family values in such men, as they possess casual attitudes towards women. This is precedence to an intense fear about Muslim men as they are projected to possess an irrational streak. Besides, the projection of a Muslim American as a violent person connotes that such a person only solves conflicts through fighting. In extreme cases, an American believes that a Muslim man may act violent without provocation. Terms such as fundamentalist, radical, and extremist have summed up what constitutes a Muslim in the American soil. This perception even jeopardizes the lives of professional Muslims, as other people believe they are covering up for their seemingly concealed terrorist activities. In addition, an average Muslim has become a terrorist in the American eye. This also affects the lives of Muslim children who other people think of as growing up to become suicidal bombers. Karoub mentions of Bakri-Bazzi, a student, who says "When people look at me walking down the street, theyll feel like Im an al-Qaida radicalist," (Karoub 1). More worrying, this conception has led towards the misunderstanding of the term Jihad. Muslim leaders and intellectuals always emphasize that Jihad is a spiritual process that entails struggle, perseverance, and effort. Jihad is a broad Islamic concept that transcends every individual’s effort to avoid evil and encapsulates the efforts to improve the quality of life. Muslims continue committing various forms of effort towards restoring their image in the American eye. To begin with, they have lobbied most of their home countries’ governments to project a clear stand on terrorism. Americans mostly misconceive Muslim Americans as spies of countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq. In turn, countries such as Afghanistan are commonly misperceived to support terrorism. Countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have always declared their clear stance on terrorism by denouncing the vice. For instance, they admitted the citizenship of the Saudis who participated in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and robustly condemned the acts. In addition, Muslims have committed towards an intellectual cease of helping Americans interpret Islam correctly (Khan 103). This manifests in the formation of organizations and Islamic websites that teach individuals the precepts of Islam and its beliefs. Besides, some Muslims have assumed an activist role in fighting stereotypes (Karoub 1). This mostly manifests in the cases of commercials that portray Muslims in contemptible ways. During such instances, Muslims usually rise to defend their heritage and halt the formation of given caricatures about Muslim Americans. Religious activism also manifests in the Guantanamo issue whereby most Muslim felt that the American government was implicating the members of Islam. This is possible through lobbyists who strive to provide counterevidence against the government’s conviction that certain Muslims are terrorists (Berinsky 98). Muslims have revolted and continued their worship. This is a bid to assure the American public that the religion operates without the Jihad concept of violence. Khan says, “Islam does not preach violence. It prohibits forced conversions or the use of violence against innocent or unarmed people (Khan 95).” Indeed, there are common misconceptions about Muslim Americans in the US. To begin with, most Americans do not understand the distinction between Muslims and Muslim Americans. In essence, Muslim Americans belong to a diverse group that entails groups such as African Americans and Arabs. In addition, most Americans do not understand the difference between Arabs and Muslims in spite of the fact that Arabs only form 12% of the general Muslim community in the world. The 9/11 terrorist attacks worsened the conception of Americans towards Muslim Americans. The latter group, therefore, are commonly perceived as conniving people who are either spying for their countries or planning to plant bombs in the country. The media and Hollywood film industry majorly influences this misconception. In addition, Americans view Muslim Americans as violent and callous people. This is coupled with the attitude that the Muslims suppress their women. Fortunately, Muslim Americans, through socio-political activism and intellectual work, have risen to defend the authenticity and humanness of their religion. Works cited Abdullah, Zain. Black Mecca: the African Muslims of Harlem. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print. Aslan, Reza, and Aaron Tapper. Muslims and Jews in America: commonalities, contentions, and complexities. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print. Bayor, Ronald. Multicultural America: an encyclopedia of the newest Americans. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2011. Print. Berinsky, Adam. 2009. In time of war: understanding American public opinion from world War II to Iraq. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Karoub, Jeff. ‘Muslims in Southeastern Michigan, nationwide find defending themselves exhausting.’ The Associated Press March 12, 2011. Web. June 21, 2014. Khan, Arshad. Islam, Muslims, and America: understanding the basis of their conflict. New York: Algora Pub, 2003. Print. Lumbard, Joseph. Islam, fundamentalism, and the betrayal of tradition: essays by Western Muslim scholars. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2009. Print. Neusner, Jacob. World religions in America: An Introduction. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. Print. Rashid, Samory. Black Muslims in the US: History, politics, and the struggle of a community. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print. Sirin, Selcuk, and Michelle Fine. Muslim American youth: understanding hyphenated identities through multiple methods. New York, NY: New York University Press, 2008. Print. Read More