Islamic Religion in America

Running head: ISLAMIC RELIGION IN AMERICA
ISLAMIC RELIGION IN AMERICA
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Is Media Responsible for rise of Islamophobia in America?
America is home to one of the most diverse Muslim inhabitants in the world. This
includes people of nearly every cultural groups, country and school of thought. A significant
proportion of Americans are of the opinion that Islam as a religion is incomparable with
American values. Nathan Lean has stated that media plays a major role in the promotion of
Islamophobia throughout the world. Reports have been observed where seven charitable
foundations has spent 43 million dollars between 2001 to 2009 in order to support the spread
of anti-Muslim rhetoric. Another factor was revealed which included 2010 Gallup poll win,
which 43% of the Americans were, reported to feel a sense of prejudice against Muslims. Fox
news has also been idenfied as the small component of Islamophobia in US media. Fox news
has been found to retract false claims about Muslims. Various empirical evidences has been
found to provide possible interactions between the latent Muslim feelings and media
coverage. However, since 2011, Muslims in the United States have been showing significant
concern regarding extremism in the name of Islam across the world. Concurrently, majority
are of the opinion that there is minimal support of extremism with Muslim community even
though the general public differs (Spring). This has led to a rise in discernment and fear
against Muslims in America. Such a social aversion and prejudice against Muslims in
America has been gradually facilitating and continuing by vehement and uncivilized
stereotypes exhibited in diverse forms of American media organization and political domains
which instigate high level of prejudice, discrimination and exclusion of the Muslims. The
thesis statement of the essay is “While some Americans believe Islamic religion promotes

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terrorism, this misconception is due to ignorance caused by media, but this could be solved
by mandatory education about Islam in colleges.”
The effect of media chiefly mass news media as well as technology in influencing
Islamophobia has been increasing expanse of concern from the time of the 9/11 attacks.
Several standpoints tend to problematize the way the media through numerous avenues
related to news; film as well as nonfiction destructively depict, racialize and demonize
Muslim-American identities. The impression of these edifices of Arabs and Muslims on
unconstructive typecasts as well as events of marginalization amongst Muslim-American
communities are apprehended in many academic domains. Considine in his study of Muslim
portrayal in the United States during late 1980s and early 1990s have found that Muslims
have been depicted negatively in news reporting since then. Moreover, majority of the
narrations which mentioned Muslims to be intrinsically related to terrorism and war did not
find sufficient evidence of more generalized negative prejudice. However, after 9/11 the
negative media representation of Muslims has been compounded by reporting on Islamic
religion and Muslims who depended on by Huntington’s idea of a ‘clash of civilisation’.
Furthermore, Pew research on religion-related news in the United States media showed
reluctance in analysing whether news during 2009 showed positive or negative bias, but shed
light on main stories of the year.
Islamophobia has also been exacerbated by the Islamophobia industry. At present,
anti-Muslim associations and administrations have liked the rights of using no less than $ 205

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million in order to blow-out terror as well as antagonism towards Muslims. According to
Considine in 2011, the Center for American Progress (CAP) which has been identified as a
public strategy investigation as well as advocacy group located in Washington DC found that
around seven liberal foundations have paid around $ 42.6 million between 2001 and 2009 in
order to support the blowout of hatred towards Muslims in America. Apart from the acts
taken up by anti-Muslim groups, media depictions of Islam as well as Muslims have been
considered as key dynamics for the intensification of Islamophobia amongst the non-Muslim
Americans. By drawing insights from previous research, Considine has mentioned that media
agencies such as Fox, NBC and CBS have characterized Islam chiefly as foundation of
vehemence between 2007 and 2013. Furthermore, it has been noted that the entertainment
industry has been adding to the prejudice and fear towards Muslims and Islamic religion
which worsens anti-Islam as well as anti-Muslim attitudes. Addition to this, it has been
mentioned that news coverage conducted by LexisNexis Academic as well as CNN showing
all terrorist assaults in America between 2011 and 2015 depicted that news agencies provided
severely more exposure to the anti-social attacks by Muslims chiefly foreign-born Muslim
people, while these acts have been far less common as compared to other types of terrorist
attacks (Burke).
While Barack Obama’s uncertainty that labelling anti-social acts as terrorism will
tend to slow media outlining of terrorism, the impact of media attention in framing acts of
violence and attributing motives to Muslims in opposition to the non-Muslims serves critical

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role in the rise of Islamophobia. Since media has been focusing on covering acts of terrorism,
the consequence shows continual exposure after an event that instigates a fearful ambiance
(Oded). At this juncture, Powell has stated that media has been used as a tool by terrorists for
disseminating their views and messages to the public. In the view of Terman, terrorist attacks
committed by Muslims have attained 105 headlines in the national media agencies in
comparison to common 15 headlines exposing anti-social acts of non-Muslims. The
inconsistent and disparate media coverage of anti-social acts by Muslims has been in
contradiction to the reality that most of terror acts in the United States has been spread by
right-wing extremists especially the non-Muslim supremacists. According to Powell, the
differences in news exposure of terror acts exacerbates an extensive fear of Islam in the
United States which subsequently influences the public opinion on the basis of
misconceptions and misleading facts and legitimising discriminatory regulations by the
Trump regime related to dishonourable Muslim ban. Moreover, by failing to provide
evidence on anti-social acts instigated by the right wing extremists and anti-government
terrorists, the media proactively gives the latter an authorization to commit ruthless acts of
violence with almost no proper investigation (Pratt and Woodlock). Consequently, it adds to
the dissemination of corrosive national epidemic which in due course have created the feeling
of Islamophobia across the country.
On the contrary, Zaidi has claimed that until satisfactory pressure has been exerted on
the US media agencies to bring resolution to the rise of Islamophobia in American media, it

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is vital for the non-Muslim US citizens to gather awareness of the actual statistics related to
local terror acts. For example, the Marshall project known as the non-profit journal on
criminal justice has been viewed as the likely source which US citizens can consult while
investigating on the issue as it retains a reorganised list of all anti-social acts committed by
right wing activists as well as white xenophobes (Islamophobia.org). Moreover, offering
education on intolerance and prejudice against Muslims requires to be incorporated in
educational curriculum. It can further be organized as part of comprehensive lessons on
citizenship, human rights and intolerance. These can underline anti-Muslim stereotypes and
rise of Islamophobia particularly and can confront them in uniform and dignified ways. In the
view of Spring, a human rights-based approach towards education can offer students as well
as educators a comprehensive framework within which in order to analyse behavioural
patterns and approaches in educational setting. Human rights based approach essentially will
shed light on shared values and ideologies instead of divergences. It further underlines the
equal privileges and position of every individual irrespective of individualistic religion,
cultural origin, gender and additional factors.
Elbih has claimed that educational institutes report an improvement in behavioural
pattern once students comprehend that they have the right to be safeguarded from prejudice,
abuse and violence in addition to the accountability of according this right to others.
Furthermore, report has mentioned that in response to rising Islamophobia, colleges, panels
and regions have reported robust assertions and undertaken steps to oppose prejudice and

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discrimination against Islamic religion. The US Department of Education has generated a
written documentation mentioning range of actions it would carry out in order to confront
prejudice and discrimination against Muslims and form inclusive college environment (Mir
and Sarroub). This incorporated the establishment of new website on ethnic discernment on
Islamic religion which would subsequently offer evidence and facts on federal regulations
safeguarding Muslim students along with a restructured civil rights grievance form along
with an expanded survey of US educational institutes on religious-based marginalization and
outreach on challenging ethnic aggravation in educational domain. According to Berglund,
professional training for those who teach about Islam in non-confessional contexts is also
important. As comparative study of religions has been considered as a well-structured
discipline in colleges of the United States, curriculum based on Islam can be easily
incorporated in teacher training programs. One of the studies identified the fact that Fox news
viewers has been exposed to anti-Muslim feelings at a very high rate. Thus, it can be stated
that there is an impact of media promotes islamophobia throughout America. This
incorporation will facilitate not only the prospective non-confessional religious education
educators, but also the ones which might be providing knowledge on religions within the
context of history, art as well as nonfiction.
To conclude, education in the U.S has been oppressed with challenged and
inconsistent procedures and practices for several students, teachers as well as educational
institutions at all levels. Thus, educational institutes must diligently seek in offering provide

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prospects for argument on stereotypes and representations of Islamic religion. Media has
been concentrating on casing acts of violence, the significance shows repeated experience
after an event that prompts a terrible atmosphere. Since media coverage associated with Islam
and Muslim has been found to shape the feelings of people, it has been important to analyse
the association between media portrayals, which the people have towards Islam. These facts
were claimed by several researchers while performing their research studies on this topic.
Various other countries have been found to report different data about the impact of media on
Islamophobia. Furthermore, discussions might occur in the classroom or in external settings
or might reflect on other experts or visitors. Students in the United States must be provided
with appropriate prospects to investigate and discuss the foundations of negative stereotypes
on Islamic religions. Hence, it is significant to comprehend the power of descriptions and the
hazard of familiarizing with new categorises that might have significance in the awareness of
youths in the nation.

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Works Cited
Berglund, Jenny. Publicly funded Islamic education in Europe and the United States. 2015.
Burke, Daniel. "Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes: Ignorance In Action?." CNN. N.p., 2017. Web. 10
Feb. 2020. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/30/us/islamerica-excerpt-hate-crimes/
index.html
Considine, Craig. "The racialization of Islam in the United States: Islamophobia, hate crimes,
and “flying while brown”." Religions 8.9 (2017): 165.
Elbih, Randa. "Teaching about Islam and Muslims while countering cultural
misrepresentations." The Social Studies 106.3 (2015): 112-116.
Islamophobia.org. "Civil Rights Report 2017: Islamophobia In Educational Institutions."
Islamophobia. N.p., 2020. Web. 10 Feb. 2020.
http://www.islamophobia.org/reports/200-civil-rights-report-2017-islamophobia-in-
educational-institutions.html
Mir, Shabana, and Loukia K. Sarroub. "Islamophobia in US Education." (2019).
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1315&context=teachlearnfacpub
Oded, Yair. "Islamophobia Permeates Mainstream U.S. Media | Fairplanet." Fair Planet.
N.p., 2018. Web. 10 Feb. 2020. https://www.fairplanet.org/editors-pick/islamophobia-
permeates-mainstream-u-s-media/

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Powell, Kimberly A. "Framing Islam: An analysis of US media coverage of terrorism since
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Pratt, Douglas, and Rachel Woodlock, eds. Fear of Muslims?: International Perspectives on
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Spring, Joel. Deculturalization and the struggle for equality: A brief history of the education
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Terman, Rochelle. "Islamophobia and media portrayals of Muslim women: A computational
text analysis of US news coverage." International Studies Quarterly 61.3 (2017): 489-
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Zaidi, Rahat. "Islamophobia and Education." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.
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