A great terror struck our nation September 11, 2001, two aircraft’s hit the world trade centers, killing 2000 people and injuring over twice as many. A third aircraft flew into the Pentagon while a fourth crashed in a rural area in Pennsylvania. This day will forever be engrained into history as one of the worst terror attacks faced in this nation. Nearly three years later, in an attempt to figure out what happened on that tragic day, scholars came together to discuss the possible parallels between foreign and domestic terrorist. The author, Michael Kimmel, outlines the possible cause of the 2001 attacks and offers us a link between both foreign and domestic terrorism.
In the book Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers, Eggers informs his readers about how Muslim Americans were treated while living in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. He emphasizes many flashbacks from Zeitoun's past, which helps persuade readers; also why Zeitoun is so passionate about helping the community and why he works hard to provide for his family. Eggers presents his argument by appealing to logos and pathos to support his argument. Eggers’ purpose is for his audience to understand that Muslims should not be stereotyped, as it was revealed through Zeitoun's life experience.
Stark compares European colonialism across the world and the Islamic fury due to Crusades as a motivation for the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center by Muslim terrorists (Tristano). European colonialism can be found in both the times of the Crusades and today. During the time of the Crusades, many of the Crusaders set out to spread Christianity; therefore, leading to the spread of Christianity. During the time of the Crusades, “the crusaders marched east not out of idealism, but in pursuit of lands and loots; that the Crusades were promoted by the power-mad popes seeking to greatly expand Christianity though conversion of Muslim masses” (Stark, 4). Whereas the United States is primarily Christian county (because of European colonialism), the Middle East is still primarily Muslim, leading to the next points of pursuit of land, loot, and power, as well as, and crime in need of atonement (Tristano).
They begin with the persistence of 9/11 rumors, which are characterized by the mixture of raw emotions as they emerged during a time of disaster. Most, however, arose out of immense fear, fear of what was to come, and fear of these foreign “others” who were seen to be invading “home.” The authors write that these forms of rumors create divisions in society, as they pit one group - usually a single ethnic group - against the innocent masses who have become victims. As Fine and Ellis (2010) write these rumors stem into concepts of fear but there are rumors of hope, but as they argue, “rumors of hope are less common” (p. 203).
Many held stereotypes against the Middle-Eastern because of the September attacks. Lots of these stereotypes were held up by ignorance of the misinformed. Many weren’t familiar with the culture and customs of the Middle East, and this raised the question: What is the Middle East really like? All calls were answered on October 31, 2005, George Saunders, a graduate from Syracuse and former GQ magazine writer, traveled to Dubai and experienced what the other side of the world is like.
One of the main stereotypes that arose after 9/11 was that Muslims and Arabs were linked to radical Islam and terrorism due to the 15 out of 19 attackers were Muslims. ( New York Pakistanis) This stereotype that arose was a big distrupement of American citizens who practiced Islam. Their everyday lives were altered drastically, for example many Arab organizations were vandalized like Mosques were bombed and vandalized. ( New York Pakistanis 1) Muslims and Arabs suffered greatly from these hate crime, these such crimes have a serious effect on their lifestyles.
Samira Ahmed’s realistic fiction novel, Love, Hate, and Other Filters, takes place in modern-day Chicago where a suicide bombing has engrossed the attention of America. Maya Aziz, a Muslim teenager, is targeted for her heritage while attempting to lead a life free of high school drama, controlling parents, and difficult relationships. As Maya copes with Islamophobia, prejudice against Muslims, she begins to understand the horrors and shortcomings of violence. One lesson the story suggests is that hatred is an infectious and blinding motive. From the very beginning of the story, readers are familiarized with the source of terrorism through thorough description and sentence structure.
In Behind the Backlash: Muslims Americans After 9/11, Lori Peek explains the post 9/11 backlash against Muslim communities in the United States. She did so by interviewing Muslim American men and women after the terrorist attacks over a time frame of two years, most of the sample being from New York and a small sample from Colorado. She found that individuals felt prejudice and discrimination before 2001 and ignorant stereotypes about Islam. However, they expressed that after 9/11 they felt more isolated, excluded, and fearful of hate crimes by their neighbors and experiences various forms of harassment. Expanding on what Peek found, in Humane Migration, Christine G.T Ho and James Loucky state, “In the aftermath of 9/11, a brutal attack was
In fact, according to a study of attitudes towards Muslim Americans post 9/11, after 9/11 “the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported a 1,700 percent increase of hate crimes against Muslim Americans between 2000 to 2001” (Khan). While discrimination towards Muslim Americans existed before, after 9/11 the general public’s view of Muslim Americans rapidly declined and resulted in an increase in the Muslim-terrorist stereotype as well as many individuals having to face unwanted hostility. In a study on microaggressions directed towards Muslim Americans, a participant shared, “’A truck driver said to my mom, ‘Say hi to Osama,”’ presuming that because she was Muslim she was associated with terrorism (Nadal). While in another case, a participant described how because his name was Osama, his seventh grade teacher “accidentally” called him Osama bin Laden during attendance, “but [he knew]
The British media has played a vital role in the sympathy and victimization of non-muslim terrorists. This removes the fear of non-muslim terrorists in society, while innocent, non-extremist muslims are being painted as terrorists due to the British media’s constant use of misinformation of
The media often tries to look for underlying conditions with white mass shooters while discarding other groups of people as terrorists. How does this instill racism and skew the view of terrorists in the direction of Muslims? The second topic
Tayla Galvin Grade 12-M History Original Research Task Research Question: ‘To what extent does the movie United 93 accurately depict the devastation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as the economic and social consequences it still has on the USA in present times?” Introduction On September 11th 2001, a series of 4 co-coordinated terrorist attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda – an Islamic terrorist group, in order to cripple the US and destroy their main hotspots. The origins of al-Qaeda can be traced to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan and helped organize Arab mujahideen to resist the Soviets.
Many say that 11 September 2001 was a start of a new era for muslims in the United states, as they became unfortunately targets of hate and racism from many.
During the 1950s to 1980s, Arabs Americans faced stereotypes surrounding the media. Media items such as school texts, novels, magazines, newspapers, comic strips, television, cartoons, and novelty merchandise. These dehumanized the Arabs and protruded them as the bad guys. All this was in support of Israeli conflicts with the Arabs.
In “Some Are Born to Sweet Delight” written by Nadine Gordimer, foreigners and especially Arabs are portrayed as poor, secretive and different as opposed to the Westerners who are classified as “normal”. Gordimer represents this negative portrayal through the characterization of Rad and Vera. The negative representation of foreigners is made to underline and criticize the stereotypes and generalizations that Westerners tend to make about them. In this short story, Gordimer focuses on Arabs as her main representation of foreign populations.