Islamophobia

It’s been nine years since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States and yet its impact can still be seen till today. This attack has affected many people like the innocent people who died, the families that lost their loved ones, the war on terror, and Muslims. Muslims have fallen victims of the 9/11 attack and have been affected to many different degrees. One way that this attack affected Muslims is that it increased Islamophobia amongst U.S. citizens. Islamophobia is when "fear and hostility leads to discriminations against Muslims, exclusion of Muslims from mainstream political or social process, stereotyping, the presumption of guilt by association, and finally hate crimes” (http://www.cair.com/Issues/Islamophobia/Islamophobia.aspx). So who should we blame for the extensive growth of Islamophobia? Well we can start with the biased media’s portrayal of Islam. Newspaper and news reports show pictures of Muslims protesting and taking violent actions, but they never explain that such actions are due to discrimination and injustice. I believe that it is completely wrong for the media to be targeting Muslims because this will only cause more dangerous situations. More non-Muslims will become scared of Muslims and this way peace will never be achieved. It’s gotten to the point where the majority of U.S. citizens have accused their own president Barak Obama of being Muslim. Why you might ask? It is merely because he supports freedom of religion and supports anti-discrimination. In a survey conducted recently about 52%  "of Republicans believe that President Barak Obama 'sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world'" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/30/obama-islamic-fundamentalist-gop-polled-majority-says_n_699883.html) Not only that but they also accused Obama for being Muslim because they questioned his integrity when he traveled to Arab countries in an attempt to promote peace. So clearly these two accusations are not true and yet they are believed to be true due to the Islamophobia that is instilled in their minds. Just because the president is supporting Muslims, like he supports Christians and Jews, does not in any way mean that he is going to suddenly become Muslim or even a terrorist. Yes, the U.S. is at war with Muslim extremists but not all Muslims are extremist just like not all Christians are extremist. Thus people should not be Islamophobic because, if anything, Islam teaches peace not violence and the majority of Muslims are not “evil” like the media portrays them.