Alondra Villarreal

Ms. Coco
English 1001
14 November 2016
Audience: People who are prejudice toward Muslims or people who just want to learn more
about Islamophobia
Preface: I think what is working well for me is that for the most part I can write freely about it
when I comes to my own opinions and things I have to say on the subject because I have very
strong feelings toward it. Also, my articles and sources that I am using are pretty easy to follow
and they all have the exact facts that I have been looking for to put in this paper. I think the way
that I word things and the way I have organized the paper so far needs work. Im not sure if what
Im writing is in the right order. Some roadblocks that I have faced while writing this are that
sometimes Im stuck and Im not sure what to say and I feel like Im repeating myself. In the
conference I want to focus on ideas on what else people would want to learn about and hear
about Islamophobia.
Islamophobia in the West
If you are Muslim and live in the Western world, more specifically The United States of
America, you have probably experienced Islamophobia. Islamophobia can be defined as
violence against Muslims in the form of physical assaults, verbal abuse, and the vandalizing of
property, especially of Islamic institutions including mosques, Islamic schools and Muslim
cemeteries (Sway 15). It can also just be being discriminated against in the workplace, school
or anywhere else. Either way, Americans seem to be the most prejudice and violent toward
Muslims with the FBI reporting at least 6,000 hate crimes in 2014. After the terrorist attacks on
9/11 some Americans became much more hateful and prejudice against this religion, although

not all Muslims are the same and most of them are good people, they fail to realize this and use
patriotism as an excuse to be prejudice and violent toward them.
The Muslims committing these acts of terror are not following their book, the Quran, they
are actually going completely against it although they claim that they are doing as it says. Some
people stereotype all Muslims and assume that they are all bad but extremists are even killing
their own people who dont comply with what they say and dont follow them. In the article
Misunderstanding Islam on the Use of Violence Bassiouni supports my claim by saying western
perceptions also fail to take into account Muslim societies cultural diversity and their respective
human, social, and economic conditions, (Bassiouni 645). Most people of Islamic faith are just
following their religion and are normal people just like any Christian, Catholic, Baptist, etc. So,
if not all Muslims are bad why do some Americans treat them as if they are and act violent and
prejudice toward them?
Ever since September 11, 2001 Americans have had some sort of fear toward Muslims,
hence the term Islamophobia. Although Muslim people were the ones who performed the
terrorist attacks that day, people fail to understand that the ones who did this were extremists and
not everyone of this religion is like that. Before the attacks, Islam was not a prominent religion in
this country, causing us to have a misunderstanding about it. We didnt know what it was so
when we heard of the attacks, it was some peoples first time even hearing of the religion,
causing the majority of America to believe that the purpose of the religion was to be a terrorist.
Our thoughts and feelings toward this group of people have been negatively influenced by the
acts of terror that extremists have done to this country and people tend to group every Muslim
together although extremists are doing the exact opposite of what their religion preaches [AV1]

(Bassiouni 643). There have been many hate crimes against Muslims throughout the years and a
lot of them are also unreported so it is hard to say the exact number. Although there have been
terrorists attacks in America done by Muslims, Americans seem to downplay their own terrorist
attacks done by their own people and victimize themselves. They act as though they are the
innocent ones and have done nothing wrong to anyone and are outraged when someone who is
different from them commits a crime but do not want to own up to the crimes that they
themselves are committing. That, or they use someone attacking us as an excuse to attack
somebody else.
The main reason people act this way toward Muslims is because they have a complete
misunderstanding of the religion or they just are not educated on the religion at all. A lot of
people believe that Islam promotes violence and they are taught to hate Americans. I actually
heard someone in class say that they teach children when theyre young to dislike Americans and
say that they need to kill us. That is not the case. Islam is actually a peaceful religion but because
of numerous terrorist attacks against the United States people have this perception that it is a
violent religion.
Although not all Muslims are evil, they are not all innocent. There have been many
attacks against Americans these past years and that is a huge reason why some of us are afraid of
them and react to them violently and are prejudice toward them. The first big terrorist attack was
of course 9/11 when Muslim extremists hijacked a plane and crashed it into the World Trade
Center, killing at least 2,996 people. There have been numerous other terrorist attacks like the
Boston Marathon bombing where two Jihadists exploded two pressure cooker bombs near the
finish line killing 3 people and injuring at least 264 others (Wikipedia). There was also the
Orlando night club shooting where 49 people were killed by someone who pledged his allegiance

to the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, otherwise known as ISIL. Another big
terrorist attack that happened recently was the Saint Bernardino shooting where the shooter had
been radicalized and committed to Jihadism prior to the attack. 14 people were killed and about
22 were seriously injured. These attacks are one of the reasons that many Americans are hateful
toward Muslims and profile a lot of them and assume that they all have bad intentions. Since
they are attacking us some of us feel the need to attack them back and some of it is just a matter
of pride and patriotism. Some Americans are so proud to be Americans that they dont want to
accept anything but themselves.
The media and the impact it has on how we perceive Muslims is also a huge reason that
people are Islamophobic. The media tends to group all Muslims together and make it seem as
though they are all Jihadists or extremists. This is an example of how the media helps shape the
way that we think of Muslims. It also shows how the media can report false information and
people will listen to it without even bothering to check if the source is credible. Another way that
the media contributes to Islamophobia in America is that when covering the wars in the middle
east, the media tries to use the attacks on 9/11 and other terrorist attacks on us to justify the war
(Imam 1). In the article The Perceptions of Islam and Muslims in the Media Mirza Imam quotes
a scholar who says the War on Terrorism is a war of images (Imam 2)., this shows that the
media really does have a pretty great impact on how everyone sees things. The media uses
propaganda and censors what they do and dont want us to see to manipulate our thoughts and try
to sway them toward a certain opinion.
Some Americans only take into account how they feel and not really about how their
actions affect other people. They do not realize that some Muslims really are everyday people
just like them who have their own lives and families and they dont care about how they treat

them. They think that just because some of the do cruel things in the world that they all do and
have no heart. When in reality, most the Muslims that you see every day are not extremists and
really just normal people. Muslims sometimes say that doing things that their religion asks of
them like wearing a hijab, or growing a beard can be used to pick them out from a crowd and
stereotype them by their looks. It is a struggle sometimes for them just to do everyday things and
not be given dirty looks or maybe even something said to them just because of the religion that
they follow.
Taking how Muslims feel and how Islamophobia affects them into consideration is very
important when learning more about Islamophobia. Thinkprogress.org wrote an article on how
religious discrimination is causing some Muslims to have mental disorders. In the article, there is
a quote by a group of Norwegian psychologists who said that Muslims not only experience
religious discrimination, but are fully aware of their devalued position in society, showing that
Muslim people really are affected by others actions and that they are not oblivious. We always
talk about how 9/11 affected America but we never took into consideration how life for MuslimsAmericans changed as well. In a 2011 study researchers found that a lot of Muslims felt safe
before the 9/11 attacks and at least 82% of them now feel unsafe following the attacks.
Although there are many different religions and races in the world, some people cant
seem to accept that. Numerous Americans feel threatened by the religion of Islam and its
followers because of the multiple terrorist attacks performed against America by their extreme
groups. Some Americans are also highly uneducated and do not know a lot about the religion and
make assumptions based off of what they hear about the religion on the news and other types of
media. Those are just a couple of reasons why some Americans are Islamophobic and act
prejudice and violent toward this religion.

Works Cited
International Institute for the Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences, Siracusa, Italy. This
Article is based in part on the Introduction to my 2014 book
The SharPa and Islamic
Criminal Justice in Time of War and Peace.
"Islamophobia: Meaning, Manifestations, Causes :: By Mustafa Abu Sway." Islamophobia:
Meaning, Manifestations, Causes :: By Mustafa Abu Sway. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.
"Patterns of Prejudice." The Crusade over the Bodies of Women: : Vol 43, No 3-4. N.p., n.d. Web.
10 Nov. 2016.
"Personality and Individual Differences." - Journal. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.
"Religion and the Unmaking of Prejudice toward Muslims: Evidence from a Large National
Sample." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of
Medicine, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.
"ThinkProgress." ThinkProgress. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2016.

"Main Page." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2016.