Islamophobia: Dislike or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force.
Orientalism is one of the main reasons for the cause of Islamophobia. When Europeans visited the East, the people they saw were sexist and violent, and applied these traits to all those people in the East. Because of war history, and other extremist groups, people of the West (America), assume all Muslims are misogynist, and extremely violent.
Before 9/11, there have been multiple Islamic Attacks around the world, which is why the world has negative impressions of Muslims. What the general population fails to understand is that Islam is the world’s biggest religion. Out of the billions of Muslims, an extremely small handful of Muslims have the intention to do harm. Muslims have always faced prejudice due to the actions of terrorist groups, however, things got worse after 9/11.
The United States can never forget about 9/11 and the thousands of people that got injured and passed away. But, no one seems to talk about what Muslims living in the USA had to go through after this tragic event.
Below is a graph from the FBI with the recorded amount of hate crimes in the United States. It’s visibly obvious that 2001 had a spike in hate crimes.
In a Vox article, a few Muslim-Americans shared their post 9/11 stories.
On the day of 9/11, a mother was picking up her children from school, and a police officer pulled her over and started arguing with her and pulled a gun out in front of her. The mother and the children were just as scared as non-Muslims and were coming together with the community by putting American Flags in their lawn. They knew that if they didn’t act patriotic, people would fear them and that they were more likely to be victims of hate crime.
Another girl’s neighbors went up to her house the day of 9/11 with flowers, and told her family that they can go to the grocery store for them in case they need any items. One more girl’s father told her that she has to be home by 7pm every night because it’s not safe outside.
A boy grew up in a small Ohio town, and was bullied starting from Elementary School, for many years. He was physically abused and was called names like “terrorist” and “Osama”. On top of everything, no one had his back because he was the only Muslim in his school.
We understand that 9/11 is a monumental event in American History, however, we must learn about the struggles that millions of innocent Muslim-Americans faced because of stereotyping.
We asked our followers to anonymously complete a google form describing any experiences with Islamophobia that they have had and the results were absolutely horrifying.
Many people expressed that they are constantly called terrorists and blamed for 9/11. One follower also expressed that her uncle was beaten up for being named Osama and since that day he only went by Sam so that no one knew what his real name was. In Islam some women wear a hijab (a head scarf) to maintain modesty. Several people told us that they have had their hijab pulled down and one follower even told us that while she was in the bathroom adjusting her hijab, a girl took pictures of her without her hijab on and sent it to a group of boys.
Another follower described an experience where her and her mom went to the library. The daughter only had to return some books so her mom stayed in the car outside of the library waiting for her daughter. While the daughter was inside, a white woman drove by the mom and started honking and shouting that she should be deported and that she would call the police on her. The mother who was concerned for her daughter’s safety stayed in the car but began recording everything that was happening. Thankfully, the police officer that came understood the situation and told the white woman that she was harassing the mother and daughter and that they did nothing wrong.
Unfortunately, these incidents occur often but what disgusts us the most is how young they start. You would think children would be more kind to one another but one follower said she was told that “My religion is stupid and fake and that I should become Christian instead.” When did people lose the basic principle of respect?
Islamophobia is normalized within the Indian community. One follower said that her parents would not allow her to date a Muslim man because it would be “bad for her”. She also expressed that this statement comes from a place of pure hatred (the Hindu/Muslim conflict and history of India) and no reason.
Another follower said “In my opinion, being a South Asian Muslim specifically is challenging. It's hard to separate culture and religion. Many members of the Muslim community who aren't South Asian have made comments about my darker skin before. Members of the South Asian community have made comments about me being Muslim before, saying I ‘act Hindu’ or that they'd view me differently if I ‘acted more Muslim.’”
Even though India is home to approximately 200 million Muslims, they are a minority in the predominantly Hindu country.
Experts say anti-Muslim sentiments have heightened under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has pursued a Hindu nationalist agenda since elected to power in 2014. Since Modi’s reelection in 2019, the government has pushed controversial policies that critics say explicitly ignore Muslims’ rights and are effectively intended to disenfranchise millions of Muslims. The moves have sparked protests in India and drawn international condemnation.
An example of a controversial policy that ignores Muslims’ rights is the Citizenship Amendment Act that was passed by the Indian Parliament in December 2019. This act allows for the fast-tracking of citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Critics say the law is discriminatory because it excludes Muslims and applies a religious criteria for the first time to the question of citizenship.
When a lot of Indians preach inclusivity and equality why are we so hypocritical within our own community?
Why is Islamophobia so normalized? 9/11 jokes and other unintentional jokes are taken a bit too far, especially with the realm of social media. For example, during the summer, a woman on TikTok went viral for being very patriotic about her home country Pakistan. At first, South Asians were laughing at her and the children she was interviewing. However, as the video extended outside of the South Asian community, people started making TikToks mocking Pakistan and 9/11. Many Muslims felt extremely uncomfortable with how far this video went, and many wished that the video never went this viral. South Asians users left comments like “this doesn’t sit right with me” under many of these 9/11 terrorist joke videos, but the original creators continued to leave their videos up.
On top of that, the media itself portrays Muslims badly. Whether it's tabloids thirsting for attention, or movies, the representation is never accurate, and is always based on stereotypes.
Speaking of stereotypes, even Punjabi Sikhs who wear turbans face prejudice in the USA because they “look Muslim”. Another factor that many people fail to understand is that Muslims don’t have a certain “look”. A generalization that many people make is that the women are covered up in a hijab, and the men have long beards, and wear turbans, but this isn’t the case. In fact, many girls don’t wear a hijab, and wearing one is a personal choice.
As Gen Z we have the ability to change the future. There are many steps we can take to prevent this issue from getting any bigger than it already is.
First and foremost educate yourself on Islam, the impacts of Islamophobia and the movement to counter it. You can not defend your argument and help others see your side without being educated first. You can build a relationship with your local Muslim community and find out what you and your peers can do to advocate for change.
Next, you need to call out Islamophobia when you see it. As close as you may be with someone, if you know that a comment they made is simply not right you must respectfully make them aware of their mistake and educate them. As uncomfortable as this might make you feel it is necessary to move forward or else people will continue to make these comments without understanding why they are so hurtful.
We hope at least one person was inspired by this post to talk to someone who they know has said something Islamophobic in the past or continues to say these things because those are the actions necessary to create change. Thank you for reading and come back next week for our next post on Periods!