Muslim Stereotypes Essay

The safety of native born Muslim immigrants was fragile for the first few years after September 11. Higher levels of discrimination have been found in the Chicago area, which had the highest number of reported hate crimes in the nation. Harassment and hate crimes happened more in southwest suburbs of Chicago, which was an area high in Muslim concentration. This would explain why many Muslim American’s have encountered hate, mainly due to their extensive presence. Many of these crimes relate to woman wearing a hijab. The threat of a woman wearing a hijab presents that they conform to a set of values that are interpreted as “un-American”. Often one’s own demeaning stereotype can rationalize their behavior against a minority group. Common American

Images of Muslims are constantly recycling in American culture, whether accurate or neutral, images of Muslims presented in mainstream media and cultural forms are usually tied to terrorism. Although they existed before, stereotypes have emerged since 9/11. The reaction to them has increased, they are seen in movies, news media, political debates, and it distorts the way every Muslim is now seen. Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin in Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and representation after 9/11, suggest that Muslims tend to always appear as a problematic presence whenever they are represented.Stereotyping fixes certain characteristics, Muslims are now stigmatized as a threatening to society. Agreeing with what Morey and Yaqin have to say, Mohammed Saleem and Michael Thomas studied the reporting of September 11th terrorist attacks in textbooks and found that Muslim Americans are misrepresented. They go on to say that the topic of 9/11 is presented in superficial ways, where a textbook will not show the impact it had on an American Muslim itself but only those around them. Muslim Americans in the United States experienced the impact of stereotypes in countless forms. A small group of extremist, whose terrorist actions determine the public image of the entire Muslim community, misrepresenting Muslim Americans who do not follow Islam to that extreme. A common theme that surrounds many of the articles I have read, show that Muslim Americans feel confused about their identity and their place within society. Post 9/11 increased the negative image placed on Muslims in the United States and unfavorable attitudes toward Muslim Americans originate in broader concerns about