Being Muslim in the United States and What is Islamaphobia?

 

Being Muslim in America Links to an external site. (18 minutes)

This module will take 40 minutes if you read and watch everything.

Islamophobia is a fairly new concept, relatively speaking, that became very prominent in the United States after the tragic events of 9/11, when terrorist attacks by an Islamic terrorist group called al-Qaeda against the United States on September 11, 2001, brought awareness of Muslims in the forefront of American consciousness. All Muslims, even those who were not aligned with al-Qaeda were erroneously lumped together in an anti-Muslim racism.  Islamophobia is defined as the “intense fear or hatred of, or prejudice against, the Islamic religion or Muslims”. This is best demonstrated in the media with the word terrorist. A terrorist is a person that uses fear and/or violence for political gain. An example of this association between Islam and terrorism can be seen everywhere. As a test, go to Google and just type "terrorist" into Google and hit enter. When this happens, to the right of the screen you should see ‘See Results About Islamic terrorism’ or something like that.

Now that you have a definition, reflect on the question below and speak to yourself honestly.

1. Whenever you think of the terms "Islam" and "Muslim", what comes to your mind?  What do you think about -- such as names, images, media events, practices, and places you associate with these terms?
2. Think about how these images may impact the way you interact with the students and/or parents.

Here is a story from a teenage Muslim woman about her experience with Islamophobia.

"I remember when I was in elementary school and my mom would have the news on, and I would see people burning Qurans in the middle of the street. I remember hearing about Mosques being burned down as well as new Mosques not being built because of the denial of permits. There were Mosques that were being shot up as well as death threats being sent. If you read the definition of a terrorist, that is what people were doing to Muslim people, but it was not seen that way because a terrorist can only be a brown person in the eyes of the media. I was afraid to tell people I was in Muslim Student Association in high school out of fear of being discriminated against or being called a terrorist. The concept of Islamophobia is something  that will affect students directly in and out of school."

Now that you have a quick overview of Islamophobia, watch this video to get a better idea of some things that your students may see or hear depending on what their parents watch or what their peers may reiterate depending on what they see or hear at home. Disclaimer: this video may trigger some deep emotions so you can stop at any time.

The Media's Most Islamophobic Moments Of 2015 (4 minutes) Links to an external site.

Now that you know the media side of things, here is a video that has Muslims talking about their experiences in America and their experiences with Islamophobia.

Young Muslim Americans react to Islamophobia (3 minutes) Links to an external site.

To conclude the videos on a more humorous note, watch this video that has Hasan Minhaj responding to an Islamophobic event that was started in London.

Hasan Minhaj Breaks Down "Punish a Muslim Day" | The Daily Show (4 minutes) Links to an external site.

Now that you watched the videos and have an idea of what Muslim children may encounter, not only now but possibly for the rest of their lives, reflect on the following questions.

1. How do you think the popular images of Muslims in the media may impact students' feelings of coming into the school environment with non-Muslim children and staff?
2. How might a school promote a positive climate for children who are aware of the negative images about their group in U.S. society?

 

(Optional) If you want to look deeper into this topic, here are some articles as well as an overview of the articles that you can take a look at at your leisure (Click on the blue words to jump to the links).

Islamophobia Links to an external site.

• This article came from the perspectives of psychologists.
• It gives statistics about the rising number of hate crimes against Muslims
• There is a great section that describes the kinds of impacts Muslim children have undergone since the rise of Islamophobia such as the bullying and what it can do to impair their learning.
• There is also a section about the mental health stigma Muslims often adhere to, but there are some great resources at the bottom of psychologists that are Muslim and specialize in those types of situations.

Islamophobia and Public Health in the United States Links to an external site.

• It is geared toward the public health perspective so it shows some of the extreme cases of the effects of Islamophobia
• There is a section specific to the US and how people associated Islam with fear inducing language.
• It then goes on to describe how Islamophobia can affect the health of Muslim people.