To What Extent, does the media Change America's Perception about Muslim Culture?

Abstract People from all around the world have a dream of coming to the United States for more opportunities and a better life. However, they don’t know that when they enter the United States they will be judged and discriminated against. Muslims can definitely relate with this. America views all Muslims as terrorists. “I thought that coming America would be an opportunity, not a place to be judged for something that you really can’t control.” This is how majority of the Muslims that live in the United States feel.

On May 2, 2017, a survey was conducted to see how many Americans are concerned about the amount of Muslims in the United States.

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During the survey they were asked, “Do you American people view Islam as a part of their mainstream society?” And sadly, 62% of American people answered no to this question. This just goes to show you how divided this country actually is.

Terrorism has been a terrible problem that has been affecting the United States. Thousands of lives have been lost because of terrorism. However, not all terrorists are Muslim. It is blasphemy that Americans fear Muslims because they think that all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Americans think this way but, as we can see majority of the people in America think this. Keywords: Terrorism, Discriminated, Blasphemy To what extent, does the media change America’s perception about Muslim Culture? Muslims all around the world are suffering because of the way that Americans treat them every day. The media hasn’t helped with the mistreatment of Muslims at all.

At least once a month there is a new story about something bad about Muslims. For example, last month there was a news story that was headed as “Counter-terrorism police investigating 'Punish a Muslim Day' letters offering rewards for Islamophobia violence”.

In this news article, about 480 Americans got together and created something called “Punish a Muslim day”. On this day, tons of Americans decided to punish the Muslims. So, they spat, fought, and terrorized them. Do you think that this is fair? The mistreatment of Muslims goes back centuries. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t be the generation to stop it. Historical Review Although we think that it is bad now there was a time where the treatment of Muslims was horrible. It really all started September 11, 2001. On September 11, “Islamist extremists hijacked four planes that were flying above the US. Two of them were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Another was crashed into the Pentagon, the top military building in the capital city, Washington DC.” More than 6,000 people were wounded and 2,996 lives were lost because of this terrifying incident.

People all around the world were affected by this and this is when the mistreatment if Muslims basically started. After 9/11, the hate crimes against Muslims went up drastically. Muslims were petrified throughout this time. One Muslim even said “'I was afraid to go outside. If I stayed inside, I couldn’t mess up, except maybe with my words, which I policed carefully. I couldn’t speed, I couldn’t frighten anyone, I couldn’t break any law — no matter how tenuous — and therefore couldn’t be thrown in Gitmo,” Like I said before, Muslims were definitely petrified about doing anything wrong because they knew that if they did anything wrong they would be criticized about it. Do you think that it is okay to live in fear? Just imagine what Muslims felt like at this time.

The media hasn’t made the lives of Muslims easier either. It doesn’t help that our own president of the United States takes part in this too. For example, on September 30, 2015, “At a New Hampshire rally, Trump pledged to kick all Syrian refugees — most of whom are Muslim — out of the country, as they might be a secret army. “They could be ISIS, I don't know. This could be one of the great tactical ploys of all time. A 200,000-man army, maybe,” he said. In an interview that aired later, Trump said: “This could make the Trojan horse look like peanuts.” Social Review “I’m an American, and being labeled a safety threat is unacceptable in a country founded on tolerance and freedom.” This is a quote from a Muslim woman named, Niala Mohammad. She has always felt that since she has moved to the United States of America she has been judged.

Before she moved to America, she had bright dreams and hopes for her new home. She thought that everything was united and everyone loved each other. However, when she came to America she was very disappointed. The first day that she was here she was stared at. She even had someone tell her that she “didn’t belong here”. Niala Mohammad’s story is one of thousands of Muslim’s that have been mistreated by Americans. How do you think that they feel being mistreated for something that they cannot control? They moved out of their country to get away from the hate and the negativity. But, they just walked right into another mess. Literature Review A phobia, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is an exaggerated, usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.

It may be hard for the afflicted to sufficiently determine or communicate the source of this fear, but it exists. In recent years, a specific phobia has gripped Western societies - Islamophobia. Researchers and policy groups define Islamophobia in differing detail, but the term's essence is essentially the same, no matter the source: An exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from social, political, and civic life. Research shows that the U.S. identified more than 160 Muslim-American terrorist suspects and perpetrators in the decade since 9/11, just a percentage of the thousands of acts of violence that occur in the United States each year.

It is from this overall collection of violence that 'an efficient system of government prosecution and media coverage brings Muslim-American terrorism suspects to national attention, creating the impression - perhaps unintentionally - that Muslim-American terrorism is more prevalent than it really is.' Never mind that since 9/11, the Muslim-American community has helped security and law enforcement officials prevent nearly two of every five al Qaeda terrorist plots threatening the United States and that tips from the Muslim-American community are the largest single source of initial information to authorities about these few plots. Islamophobia affects more than a small fringe group of Muslims. Through various research vehicles and global polling efforts, Gallup has collected a wealth of data detailing public opinion about various aspects of respect, treatment, and tolerance relative to Muslims worldwide.

This brief serves as a snapshot of opinion and thought displayed by people from multiple countries, regions, and communities - findings that chronicle perceptions associated with Islamophobia globally. Solutions Intolerance and discrimination against Muslims are not new, but manifestations of these phenomena appear to have been on the rise in recent years. Muslims might experience verbal harassment or be the targets of hate speech, violent attacks or religious profiling. However, one solution for this is to stop the media from being able to say such harsh things about Muslims. For example, President Donald Trump decided to go to his twitter account and announce that he was going to stop allowing Muslims to enter the United States.

This is what the Vice President preceded to say, “'Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on,' a campaign press release said. Trump, who has previously called for surveillance against mosques and said he was open to establishing a database for all Muslims living in the U.S., made his latest controversial call in a news release. His message comes in the wake of a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, by suspected ISIS sympathizers and the day after President Barack Obama asked the country not to 'turn against one another' out of fear.” Another solution is to have the government control and monitor the hate crimes and hate motivated incidents against Muslims. Why do we keep letting these things happen? Muslims are being