Islamophobia In America

Since the attacks on 9/11, Muslims became more relevant in the public eye. This could have been a good thing, except that it wasn’t. Muslims worldwide faced the backlash of 9/11 every day of their lives, from living in war-torn countries to being verbally and physically abused in Western nations, specifically in America. According to the Bridge Initiative Team at Georgetown University, “Islamophobia is prejudice towards or discrimination against Muslims due to their religion, or perceived religious, national, or ethnic identity associated with Islam.” This topic is very significant and important today because of a number of reasons including the fact that it does in fact ruin and damage American relationships and communities. Islam is the third

us” environment by targeting American Muslims. More broadly, it gives supposedly “Islamic” terrorist groups a platform to grow when they see that anti-Muslim sentiment is growing in the United States and, unfortunately, it intrigues them when they see a “them vs. us” environment is growing. This achieves their goal of creating a barrier between Islam and “The West”, and more specially America. Also, this essentially leads to America being terrorist groups’ biggest recruiters. How is this? America alienates and demonizes Muslims and makes them feel like they do not belong and this makes it easier for terrorist groups, such as ISIS, to recruit by making individuals feel like America is the enemy and by giving them a sense of belonging. In this paper, I will argue that Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment largely exist in American society through the media, politics, popular culture, and social media; and as it continues to grow, it affects Muslims in America and it damages American communities and