Discrimination Against Islam In America By: Trevor Kumec Jayda Kosar Janely Bonilla-Mendoza Sergio Ferrino
Issue At Hand Our topic is discrimination against Islam in America. This is a prevalent issue in our society today. Many people have prejudices against people of this faith because of a few heinous acts done by extremists. This has led to many issues between innocent people of this faith and people who are prejudiced against them.
Historical Context for the Issue
Janely Bonilla-Mendoza
Major Occurrences that Caused Discrimination â—?
Two of the most historical and terrorizing bombings in America were the bombing of the World Trade Center, and 9/11, creating Muslim discrimination throughout the United States. In the initiation of persecuting groups based on religious backgrounds.
Janely Bonilla-Mendoza
Major Occurrences that Caused Discrimination Bombing of World Trade Center
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Context: ○ A beginning gateway that enforced the discrimination against Islam occurred on February 26, 1993, the World Trade Center collapsing due to a bomb that was planted in the building’s garage. Six people were instantaneously killed, while thousands of others were injured.
Janely Bonilla-Mendoza
Major Occurrences that Caused Discrimination 9/11 Attack â—?
Context: â—‹
On September 11,2001 terrorists attacked the United States in the following locations by hijacking four airplanes in mid-flight: The Twin Towers, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and in the field of the Pennsylvania. Which evidently led many Americans to blame the whole islamic community rather than those individuals solely responsible.
Janely Bonilla-Mendoza
Aftershock of Both Incidents ●
Government officials reported, due to distrust in the justice system and fear of deportation, incidents of racially biased attacks in the U.S. are underreported. ○
From 1992 - 2000, incidents motivated by racial bias comprised the largest portion of reported hate crime incidents, and lower hate crime incidents resulted from ethnicity or national-origin bias until 9/11 occurred in 2001.
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An increase in 2001 was among religious-bias incidents along with Anti-Islamic religion incidents that were previously second least reported, but ultimately changed after 2001. Suddenly rising second highest reported among religious-bias incidents, increasing by 1,600 percent over the 2000 volume.
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In 2001, reported data showed that there were 481 incidents made up of 546 offenses having 554 victims of crimes motivated by bias toward the Islamic religion. Janely Bonilla-Mendoza
Aftershock of Both Incidents â—?
American citizens lived in a state of fear after these incidents occurred in commencing the hatred, and opposition towards the Islamic community since it quickly becoming acceptable. â—‹
Numerous accounts of harassment towards islam citizens boarding on airplanes were on the rise. Being easily subjected to harassment by their customs from women wearing the hijab to men commonly known to have long beards.
Janely Bonilla-Mendoza
Case Studies
Trevor Kumec
Building a Cemetery in Farmersville, TX ●
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The Islamic Association of Collin County (IACC) is proposing to build a 35-acre cemetery in rural Farmersville The cemetery may provide burial services for the 22,000 Muslims that live in Collin County The citizens of Farmersville have responded with fear and much opposition to the proposed cemetery
Trevor Kumec
Building a Cemetery in Farmersville, TX ●
Reasons given by residents for opposition to the cemetery: ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
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Islamic Burials contaminate groundwater (Islamic burial occurs without a coffin) Muslims cause controversy wherever they go The cemetery is actually going to be a Mosque or Muslims training center for terrorists The Middle East Conflict is reason enough to oppose the cemetery Muslims will “take over” Farmersville
Apparent falsehoods ○
Burials at the proposed cemetery would use coffins, thus there is no concern of groundwater contamination
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Mosque/madrassa is not a part of the proposed building plans, and the IACC has no terrorist affiliation or history
Clearly, several other of these claims are based on fear, and notTrevor factsKumec
Building a Cemetery in Farmersville, TX ●
Analysis: ○
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“You’re not welcome here!”...“Every place y’all have been, you’ve caused some kind of controversy in the schools, and the government lets y’all have y’all’s way. Well, it’s not going to happen in Farmersville.” These are words from one citizen to Khalil Abdur-Rashid, the man representing the IACC. This is an unfortunate situation, where the basis for resisting the cemetery seems to be not based on tangible reasoning or evidence, but rather is based on ignorance and hate. Local clergy members may be partly to blame. David Bethlehem, a local Christian pastor, tells his congregation and others that the Muslims are trying to build a training center for terrorism. “When you have local clergy members telling people that Muslims are a danger, they take it as true,” says Abdur-Rashid. “We hope to engage the pastor, the church and local residents in order to build bridges.” Abdur-Rashid recognizes causes of this hate, and seeks to work with his opponents, rather than fight them.
Trevor Kumec
Building a Mosque in Sterling Heights, MI
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Background ○ ○ ○
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Sterling Heights is host to many Muslims and Chaldeans (a sect of Iraqi Christians) Chaldeans have suffered much persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists in Iraq Thus, there is much tension between the Muslim and Chaldean communities in MI
Reasons given for opposition to Mosque ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
There will be increased traffic Deep enmity of Chaldeans and Iraqi Muslims would make residents feel unsafe Women who wear headscarves are “scary” to children The mosque will be used as a center to plot terrorist attacks The style of mosque doesn’t fit with the neighborhood Trevor Kumec
Building a Mosque in Sterling Heights, MI
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Analysis â—‹
Several valid reasons for opposition: increased traffic in neighborhoods is certainly a valid excuse to be opposed to something, as is a general opposition to a very large structure being built in a neighborhood. These reasons are
Trevor Kumec
Building a Mosque in Sterling Heights, MI ●
Analysis ○
However, when the mosque was finally rejected in September, locals showed up in large numbers to celebrate, flaunting signs such as the one shown to the right. Additionally, the crowd chanted “No More Mosques”, and attacked women in headscarves with antiIslam epithets. Trevor Kumec
Final Analysis of Case Studies ●
Legitimate reasons mask racial prejudice ○
Often, there are legitimate reasons given for opposing a given Muslim-related activity, such as the increased traffic example with the Michigan mosque, or the groundwater contamination example with the Texas cemetery. However, such claims are often lacking any evidence. Furthermore, as was seen in Sterling Heights, the true root of opposition to the mosque construction was not traffic or any other reason. The residents of Sterling Heights clearly showed, with their actions, a blanket hate and fear of Muslims.
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A reoccurring theme with the cemetery and mosque was the fear of a secret “training center.” In both instances, non-Muslim residents feared that the construction in question would eventually be turned into a haven for terrorist groups. Trevor Kumec
Supporters of Discrimination Against Islam
Why People Discriminate Against Muslims ●
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In America, as we have previously talked about, there have been terrorist attacks by a few radicals that consider themselves to be a part of Islam, because of that people believe that it is okay to blame every Muslim for the actions of a few. Donald Trump is a huge Anti-Islam supporter, he has recently proposed to ban Muslims from entering the United States, and he has also proposed that Muslims wear an I.D. and create a database of who is Muslim and who isn’t. Jayda Kosar
Oppositions to Islamic Discrimination
Facts Against Anti-Islam Discrimination/ Terrorism
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A Duke University study found that Muslims themselves notified authorities about suspected terrorism more than the U.S. government found by investigation. Also a Pew survey discovered that most Muslims in the United States believe that their religious leaders are not doing enough to denounce extremist Islam. The FBI has reported that 94% of terrorist attacks since 1980 in the United States have been perpetrated by non-muslims.
Jayda Kosar
Conclusion
Conclusion The issue of discrimination against Muslims in America is very prominent in today’s society. Several unfortunate events, that have occurred in American History, are what largely contributed to the negative outlook on Muslims by Americans. Part of the reason they caused so much distress was because of the location, The World Trade Center. The first attack occurred on February 26,1993 and the second on September 11, 2001. Unfortunately, the second attack resulted in the collapse of both buildings and the deaths of thousands of Americans.
Sergio Ferrino
Conclusion With the memories of February 26th and September 11th still fresh in the minds of Americans, they became exponentially more racist and violent toward Muslims. An example of the racism is clearly shown in the cases of the Muslim cemetery in Farmersville, Texas and the Mosque in Sterling Heights, Michigan. In Farmersville, Texas local residents opposed the building of a cemetery within the city limits. In Sterling Heights, Michigan residents opposed the building of a Mosque in a neighborhood within the city. Clearly hate still exists in our country to this day, which is shown by recent attacks in the U.S. and foreign countries, and the remarks of Donald Trump. However, there are people working to stand against the Anti-Muslim Discrimination. Sergio Ferrino
Literature Cited Alnatour, Omar. “Muslims Are Not Terrorists: A Factual Look at Terrorism and Islam.” The World Post. Huffington Post, 09 December 2015. Web. CNN Library. “1993 World Trade Center Bombing Fast Facts.” CNN U.S. CNN. 13 February 2015. Web. CNN Library. “September 11th Fast Facts.” CNN U.S. CNN. 07 September 2015. Web. Jayda Kosar
Literature Cited Diamond, Jeremy. “Donald Trump: Ban all Muslim travel to U.S..” CNN Politics. CNN, 08 December 2015. Web. Friess, Steve. “Proposed Mosque in Detroit Suburb Draws Sharp Opposition.” Aljazeera America. Aljazeera America, 08 Sept. 2015. Web. Obeidallah, Dean. “Donald Trump’s horrifying words about Muslims.” CNN Opinion. CNN, 21 November 2015. Web. Jayda Kosar
Literature Cited Strickland, Patrick. “Plan to create Muslim Cemetery Sparks Uproar in Texas City.”Aljazeera America. Aljazeera America, 13 Aug. 2015. Web. Yan, Holly. “The Truth About Muslims in America.” CNN U.S.. CNN. 09 December 2015. Web.
Literature Cited Parachini, John, and Jonathan Tucker. "James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies Combating the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction with Training & Analysis." CNS. 12 Sept. 2001. 10 Dec. 2015. Web. Greenspan, Jesse. "Remembering the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 26 Feb. 2013. 10 Dec. 2015.Web.
Literature Cited "FBI 100." FBI. FBI, 26 Feb. 2008. 11 Dec. 2015.Web. Gann, Richard. "Publication Citation: Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster (NIST NCSTAR 1A)." NIST Manuscript Publication Search. 20 Nov. 2008. 11 Dec. 2015.Web.