Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the term phobia as “an exaggerated, usually inexplicable and illogical fear of an object, class of objects, or situation.”
In the wake of the deadliest act of terror on U.S. soil, the events that took place on September 11, 2001 had suddenly given Americans a reason to fear a religion that had never once brought war to the United States’ own backyard. Before 9/11, the general attitude in the United States towards Islam was an attitude built from a hatred directed only to the handfuls of radical extremists who deliberately attacked American embassies overseas. At the time of 9/11, Americans still remembered the recent 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, half the world away. Very few, however, believed the threat of “radical Islamic terrorism” had the potential or the audacity to trespass American shores. 9/11, of course, nailed the coffin of this sense of arrogance and naivety. Yet at the same time, the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center and shook the walls of the Pentagon had changed something else in the American mentality. The true grit of the American people, which had pulled them through times of war and economic hardship, was suddenly eroded by a common fear that quickly turned into a common misconception. Suddenly all Muslims were considered “the enemy” simply because of the actions of a few who represent their own twisted views of an otherwise merciful and peace-loving religion. This wave of paranoia became known as “Islamophobia.”
Islam, the world’s second largest religion with more than two billion adherents, already has a strong footing in the United States where as many as 2.6 million Muslims—.8 percent of the country’s population—are currently living. And yet of these 2.6 million, the number of Muslims who commit acts of terror in America is microscopic when compared to the scale of violence “in the name of Islam” that has become commonplace in Europe and Africa. Terrorists, however, only make up the bottom .00009 percent of the overall Muslim population. Therefore, it is both “inexplicable” and “illogical” to say that all believers in Islam should be blamed for the actions of a few bad apples, just because they are affiliated with the same religion. In the Middle East, Muslims are being oppressed by the hand of terrorism as ISIS tightens its iron grip on Iraq and Syria. It is just as inexplicable and illogical for the media to portray Islam in the way it does. If the purpose of “submission to the will of God” in the Muslim faith resorted only to violence, then the United States would have been engulfed in a holy war already and we would be seeing the black flag of ISIS raised over every corner of the nation today.
Nelson Mandela once said, “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” Islamophobia is the "poison" that the American people is being spoon-fed today, and so far it has failed to kill the real enemy that threatens to walk over the free world while chanting, “Death to America!” The media’s exaggerated correlation of radical terrorism with true Islamic ideals needs to stop. As long as Americans are being misinformed through fear-mongering news broadcasters, the twisted principles of extremist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS will continue to prevail while the goodhearted Muslims will continue to bear the brunt of discrimination in the United States.
