The Islamic religion has a mass following of 1.6 billion followers, which is nearly twenty-three percent of the world’s entire population (DeSilver). Of this following, a percentage of them are followers who were born in the United States; these people are referred to as Islamic Americans. Every day, hate and discrimination threatens the nearly eight million Islamic Americans that live in the United States of America (DeSilver). After learning this astonishing statistic, it is evident that the fear of the Islamic race is clearly a definite issue in the United States. Due to various racial stereotypes as well as the yearning to cling onto past events, Americans tend to criticize and separate themselves from the Islamic race. On September 11, …show more content…
It is a commonly known saying that you cannot replace the first impression that something gives you, it is forever etched into your mind. That seems to be true in this case. When news broke pertaining to 9/11, people automatically judged a religion that they were not educated about nor familiar with. Had they researched the religion in its entirety, then they would know that the Islamic religion is under a strict five-pillar set of rules and guidelines. The third pillar of Islam discusses Zakat, or the donation of a proportion of one’s wealth to charity (“Religions”). All followers of Islam give 2.5 percent of their total income to poor Muslims and to new converts to Islam (“Religions”). In all reality, Muslims are in search of a life of peace, prosperity, and the hopes of one day making it to “paradise,” which is their personal view of what the afterlife consists of (Beliefs). If more people were to research the religion, then perhaps they would be more slightly open-minded. Part of the issue is that the press does not kindly review the Muslim race. The poor decisions of the few, such as Al-Qaeda, have permanently and negatively impacted the entire religion. Had the religion of Islam been promoted a little more highly in the media, then the people of the United States would have had a different view of Muslims before the terrorist attacks. This may have lessened the growth