Misconceptions about Islamic Religion in America Mehwish Elahi English 1A Danielle Stokes 13 February 2020 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 have 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 identified as the small component of Islamophobia in US media. Fox news has been found to retract false claims about Muslims. Various empirical evidences have 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 1,5). 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. While some Americans believe Islamic religion promotes 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 concern from the time of the 9/11 attacks. Several standpoints tend to problematize the way the media through numerous avenues related to news and 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. Howe.

1. Misconceptions about Islamic Religion in America
Mehwish Elahi
English 1A
Danielle Stokes
13 February 2020
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 have 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 identified as the small component of Islamophobia in US
media. Fox news has been found to retract false claims about
Muslims. Various empirical evidences have been found to

2. 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 1,5).
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. While some Americans believe
Islamic religion promotes 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
concern from the time of the 9/11 attacks. Several standpoints
tend to problematize the way the media through numerous
avenues related to news and 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,

3. 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 companies that
are benefiting from islamophobia. At present, anti-Muslim
associations and administrations have liked the rights of using
no less than $ 205 million in order to blow-out terror as well as
antagonism towards Muslims. According to Considine in 2011,
the Centre 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).
The impact of media attention in framing acts of violence as
Muslims targeting non-Muslims serves critical 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,

4. 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 4), But when it comes to non-Muslims committing
mass shooting who are depicted as lonely and mentally unstable.
Furthermore, the press may evoke empathetic responses toward
non –Muslim terrorists and inappropriately justifying their
actions as if this doesn’t make them any less of a killer. Media
is showing double standards in recent years presenting Muslim
perpetrators of violence and terrorism and the non-Muslim are
being overlooked and ignored. The 2016 Orlando and 2017 Las
Vegas shootings were the deadliest taken out by two different
people but the major difference was one was Muslim and the
other Non Muslim. Omar Mateen killed 50 people at gay night
club in Orlando on 1 June 2016, similarly Stephen Paddock
killed 59 people in concert that was happening in Las Vegas on
1 October 2017. He is white non-Muslim American and Mateen
was of Afghani descent who had received more coverage by
media than Stephen Paddock. There was a discrepancy in the
newspapers’ labelling of the two perpetrators. While Mateen

5. was labelled as a “terrorist” in approximately 38 percent of the
articles about Orlando, Paddock was described as a “terrorist”
in only five percent of articles about Las Vegas. What is even
more striking, though, is that Paddock was labelled a “gunman”
in over 80 percent of Las Vegas articles, compared to just over
55 percent of the articles for Mateen (Elmasry and el-Nawawy).
Consequently, it adds to spread of Islamophobia across the
country. Therefore, we have to take major steps to find the
solution for these problems because it is affecting Muslims on
daily basis. Why is the Muslim immigrant getting attacked and
not liked by Americans there is diverse population in America
that are Muslims. It 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 (civil rights
report 2017). 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

6. 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 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 5). 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 have 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 prospects for argument on stereotypes and
representations of Islamic religion. Media has been
concentrating on casing acts of violence the significance shows

7. 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.
Work Cited
Berglund, Jenny. Publicly funded Islamic education in Europe
and the United States. 2015.
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Action?” CNN, Cable News Network, 30 Jan. 2017.
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Elmasry, Mohamad Hamas, and Mohammed el-Nawawy. “Can a
Non-Muslim Mass Shooter Be a ‘Terrorist’? A Comparative
content Analysis of the Las Vegas and Orlando Shootings.”
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Oded, Yair. “Islamophobia Permeates Mainstream U.S. Media:

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