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Katie Murphy
Islam & the West
Final Paper
25 February 2016

A Climate of Fear
The Rise of Islamophobia in America

Tensions are running higher than ever in the so-called Land of the Free. America has
never been a country free of prejudice, not by a long shot, but lately that bias seems to be
disproportionately directed towards the Muslim community. Even Muslim Americans whose
families have lived in America for generations as of 2011, thirty-seven percent were not firstgeneration immigrants, and that number has no doubt risen since then are targeted. On the
other hand, Arab Americans also face indiscriminate suspicion and prejudice, even though twothirds are Christians (U.S. Embassy). Islamophobia seems to be the buzzword of the 2016
presidential election circuit, much like Benghazi in 2012. When did a traditionally Middle
Eastern religion become a focal point for American politics? Furthermore, when did Americas
racial prejudices extend to religious bias? Regrettably, since the attack of September 11, 2001,
American nationalism has rallied around the supposed threat of this new other. When Osama
bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals in 2011, the U.S. media was overrun with images of
celebration. American flags were raised, people flooded the streets, spontaneous renditions of the
national anthem and chants of U-S-A! U-S-A! broke out among the crowds (Somodevilla).
Almost a full decade after the Twin Towers fell and without any other notable terroristic acts on
U.S. soil, the American people collectively cheered for the death of one man like their team had

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just won the Super Bowl, and patriotism soared. Now, not even five years later, the media acts
like American Islamophobia is a new, sudden phenomenon, but this hate was never just a latent
mine in the field. It was a pressure cooker, a ticking time bomb, and the shrapnel has only just
begun to fly.
In 2014, the Pew Research Center conducted a study in which over 3,000 American
respondents were asked to rate various religious groups on a scale of 1 to 100 according to how
warm or cold they felt towards the groups, with 1 being the most negative and 100 being the
most positive. On average, Islam scored a 40 4 out of 10, two stars. However the numbers are
spun, no one would argue that to be a positive result. In fact, the only other affiliation that scored
nearly as low was atheism with a 41. For comparison purposes, the next lowest score in the study
was a 48 for Hinduism. The highest score attained was Judaism, at 63, followed closely by
Catholicism, at 62. The biggest problem with Islams and atheisms numbers, when viewed side
by side, is that atheists make up over 3% of the American population, while Muslims make up
less than 1% (Pew Research Center). Therefore, the number of Americans who feel negatively
towards Islam vastly surpasses the number of Muslims in America (Chalabi). Looking at data
like this and considering pre-existing anxieties about terrorism in America, it is hardly surprising
that figures like Donald Trump have chosen the Muslim community for a national scapegoat.
Politically speaking, it is an ingenious campaign strategy. Muslims and those rallied behind them
are simply outnumbered. Fighting for the other side is not enough; the only way to reverse
Americas Islamophobia trend is by identifying the underlying causes and correcting the
misinformation therein.

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Before scrutinizing the nations major news sources, consider what other kinds of media
have significant influence over the opinions of the American people. Take a look at Hollywood
and its rich history of stereotyping minorities. There are very rarely roles in the American film
industry for Middle Eastern actors other than various incarnations of the very turban-wearing,
gun-waving terroristic figures that the public has been conditioned to fear. In light of the Arab
Terrorist movie trope, it is hardly surprising that non-Muslim Americans have developed such a
prejudice against the religion that is so irretrievably entangled with it. A recent, striking example
of this insidious form of prejudice is the 2014 film American Sniper, nominated for Best Picture
at last years Academy Awards. Based on a memoir by Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the film follows
him through four tours in Iraq as he hones his skills as a sniper and sets a record for the highest
number of confirmed kills. Kyle is depicted as a troubled hero, an American patriot proudly
defending his country from the Iraqi savages that are never even remotely humanized in the
films two hours and thirteen minutes.
The film opens with the Islamic call to prayer over a black screen an ordinarily
beautiful sound, distorted to be eerie and foreboding. From that very first moment, the tone is
set; every Muslim that appears onscreen is violent and barbaric, justifying their murders at the
hands of the brave soldier the audience is meant to sympathize with. Unfortunately, the real
Chris Kyle had a proclivity towards statements like, I hate the damn savages. I couldnt give a
flying fk about the Iraqis, and claimed to love killing them, lines that were presumably cut
from the first draft of the screenplay (Kyle). Of course, American Sniper is only a movie, even if
it is based on a true story. One would hope that moviegoers might be able to tell the difference
between the world of the film and reality, but a quick Google search shows otherwise.

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Immediately after the films release, social media was flooded with rampant racism and antiMuslim sentiment, even threats. Posts such as Great fking movie and now I really want to kill
some fking ragheads and Nice to see a movie where the Arabs are portrayed for who they
really are - vermin scum intent on destroying us, saturated Twitter and other platforms (Woolf).
Clearly, this movie was more than just a movie, at least in terms of its impact. The movie Jaws
inspired viewers to rid the oceans of sharks; American Sniper sent a similar message, whether it
did so intentionally or not.
Media rules the lives of the American people now more than ever. News is easily
accessible, perpetually at consumers fingertips, and there is no shortage of sources. Whatever a
persons political preferences, there is almost certainly a news outlet tailored to them. The people
are informed by the news, and the news is informed by media bias, creating a vicious cycle of
deception and confirmation of preexisting misconceptions. Conservatives tend to consume rightleaning media, and liberals tend to consume left-leaning media. This is nothing new, and it can
only be expected. Naturally, people would rather listen to opinions they agree with than ones
they disagree with. For the right-wing audience, that is almost exclusively Fox News, cited by
47% of consistently conservative respondents as their main source of political news in Pew
Research Centers 2014 survey. Consistently liberal respondents almost equally tended to get
their news from four different sources CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and the New York Times (Pew
Research Center). Viewers preexisting political leanings largely determine what news sources
they frequent, and the biased information that they get from those sources inevitably inform their
opinions going forward. It would be imprudent to say that Islamophobia is not an individual

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issue of course it is, but the lions share of the responsibility rests on the shoulders of the
media.
To dramatically oversimplify a complicated problem, the right-wing media largely
propagates a negative, terroristic view of Islam, and the left-wing media seems afraid to address
it for fear of alienating their liberal demographic. This falls in line with the tendencies of their
viewers. In a poll conducted earlier this year, 65% of Republicans said that the next President
should speak bluntly about Islamic extremists, even if they were also critical of Islam as a whole.
70% of Democrats, on the other hand, said that the next President should be careful not to
criticize Islam as a whole (Pew Research Center). Considering these numbers, the content
produced by each sides respective media is unsurprising.
Fox News, the primary news source for conservatives, recently published an article
concerning a federal lawsuit in which two parents accused a public high school in Maryland of
forcing their daughter to convert to Islam. The basis for this complaint was that the schools
religion curriculum required students to memorize the Five Pillars of Islam and recite the
Shahada. Furthermore, the high school was accused of teaching false statements such as Allah
is the same God worshipped by Christians and Islam is a religion of peace. The article and the
lawsuit have received support from Foxs viewer base, despite their unfounded allegations. The
article endorses the idea that for non-Muslims, reciting [the Shahada] is sufficient to convert
one to Islam. It neglects to mention the fact that the Shahada must be recited in Arabic or the
requirement that it must be said with conviction and the intention to convert in other words,
no, La Plata High School did not convert its students. Perhaps even more problematic is this
excerpt from the article: If La Plata High School wanted to teach children about jihad, they

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shouldve replayed the video footage of what happened on September 11, 2001 or the Boston
Marathon bombing or the San Bernardino massacre or the Chattanooga attacks. It goes on to
dismiss the literal translation of jihad, which is struggle, and the commonly held belief in
Islam in a greater jihad and lesser jihad, the former of which is actually internal (Starnes).
This kind of misinformation could be easily remedied with a simple Google search; there is no
excuse for it to be published by a major news source, whose audience accepts it as fact.
CNN, one of the four main sources of political news for liberals, has the opposite
problem. While Fox News radicalizes even the most harmless appearances of Islamic ideals in
America, CNN and its contemporaries seem to shy away from discussing radical Islam at all. In
fact, in an article published on CNNs website in late 2015, writer John McWhorter warns
against using the term radical Islam at all. In a highly technical analysis, McWhorter argues
that in a sentence like We must eradicate radical Islam, the object of eradicate is radical
Islam, but the core object is Islam, modified by radical. Thus, the true object of eradicate is
Islam (McWhorter). Essentially, he says that using radical Islam instead of terrorism unfairly
and irrevocably links Islam with terrorism in the minds of the public. Perhaps this kind of
semantic finger-wagging is why the right-wing media continually disparages the left for walking
on eggshells around the issue of Muslim extremist groups rather than addressing it. Neither
approach is beneficial to the American perception of Islam. The outspoken Republican method
plants false or exaggerated ideas in its viewers heads of the threat that Islam supposedly poses to
the American way of life. Conversely, the timid Democratic tip-toeing around the subject only
serves to discourage honest and open discussion about the truth of Islam as a religion and the

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reality that terroristic, extremist groups do exist within it. There has to be a middle ground, but
the media has yet to find it.
This has become especially problematic and more prominent than ever now that the
presidential election looms in the not-so-distant future. With candidates using their positions on
the perceived problem of Muslim immigration as a cornerstone for their political platforms,
Islamophobia and its opposition will undoubtedly inform the outcome. Both parties have spoken
publicly about the issue, although it has been more of a major talking point for the Republican
candidates, due at least in part to Donald Trumps outlandish proposal to ban Muslims from
entering the U.S. at all. At this point, he seems incapable of going a week without making a new
controversial comment on the subject. For instance, as he so eloquently said at a September rally
in New Hampshire, We have a problem in this country. Its called Muslims (The Bridge
Initiative). Trumps opponents neglect to effectively stand up to his outlandish and harmful
claims, with Ted Cruz responding that everyone understands why Donald has suggested what he
has, and Marco Rubio insisting that there is no such thing as Islamophobia in America. Where
is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against
Muslims? he asked in December 2015, when hate crimes against Muslims hit a record high (The
Bridge Initiative). According to Russian news source RT, there were at least ten anti-Muslim
attacks every day in the U.S. between December 5th and 11th of 2015 (RT). But anti-Muslim
crimes are publicized much less than presidential candidates even those who are grossly
misinformed.
The Democratic candidates have taken to the opposite end of the spectrum, with both
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders defending the Muslim community on separate occasions. In

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November of last year, Sanders made this statement at Cleveland State University: I am
disturbed by some of what I am hearing from my Republican colleagues, and I will just say this:
During these difficult times, as Americans we will not succumb to racism. We will not allow
ourselves to be divided and succumb to Islamophobia. In January of this year, Clinton said that
American Muslims deserve better. And now their children and they are the target of
Islamophobia and threats (The Bridge Initiative). Interestingly, though, neither candidate is
particularly forthcoming in terms of actually addressing the Republicans views. Regardless of
who ultimately earns each partys nomination, the presidential debates later this year promise to
be compelling. Undoubtably, radical Islam and Muslim immigration will be addressed, which is
sure to spark a major conflict between the parties candidates and voters alike.
Political parties and partisan agendas aside, there is a way to approach this issue in an
unbiased, factual manner. How big of a threat is Islamic terrorism to Americans, really? Should
the people be worried? Is this widespread fear founded, or is it simply an overreaction to a
largely misunderstood problem? Through the year 2008, those questions could be easily
answered by a visit to the FBIs website, where it published an annual report on terrorism. Take a
look at these charts from the most recent report (NCTC).

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Chart 1 (above) shows terrorist attacks and resulting fatalities in 2008, separated by region. Of
11,770 attacks, only 352 were even in the Western Hemisphere. The vast majority of attacks took
place in the Near East (4,594) and South Asia (4,354).

Chart 8 (above) shows the number of American fatalities as a result of terrorism in 2008 (33),
compared to the total number of non-US fatalities (15,732). That comes out to about 0.002%. To
put those numbers into perspective, 592 Americans were killed by accidental discharge of
firearms in 2008 (CDC). In other words, about eighteen times as many Americans accidentally
shot themselves as were killed in terrorist attacks. Yet somehow, the same people sounding the
alarm bells against terrorist groups are staunchly opposing gun control laws. Numbers cannot lie,
but politicians can.

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Curiously, the FBI has not published an official written report on terrorism since 2008.
Instead, the link to the current report redirects to the National Counter Terrorism Centers
website, pictured below.

The site includes an extensive Wanted list, filled exclusively with names like the ones above
Muslim names. It also provides a detailed timeline of terroristic attacks claimed by and suspected
of radical Islamic groups. While the terrorism reports used to provide factual, unbiased data and
statistics regarding terroristic movements worldwide, the NCTC site is an almost comically
simplified exhibition of a perceived threat, without any of the numbers to back it up.
The reality of the situation is that Americans are and historically have been a much
greater threat to Muslims than Muslims have ever been to them. According to the most recent
data published by the FBI on hate crimes, 16.1% of hate crime victims in the U.S. in 2014 were
victims of anti-Islamic bias. Interestingly, 52% of hate crime offenders in the U.S. in 2014 were
white (FBI). Furthermore, Americans pose a much more significant threat to their fellow

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Americans than Muslims do. According to a 2014 study by the University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill, Muslim-linked terrorism has claimed the lives of a total of 37 Americans since 9/11.
There were over 190,000 U.S. murders during this period (Kurzman). That means that between
9/11 and 2013 (the most recent data available at the time), Muslim-linked terrorism literally
accounts for less than 0.0002% of American murders.
Counterarguments are inevitable when dealing with subject matter like this. No matter
how many statistics reinforce one sides position, the opposing side will still deny it. One of the
most common responses to the disparagement of Islamophobia is to label the disparagers as
weak, overly sensitive, or afraid of the truth. However, there is no denial here. Radical Islam
exists. ISIS exists, and it is not the only group of its kind. Terrorism exists within the Islamic
community. The issues arise when the whole of the Islamic faith is equated with these radical,
terroristic groups when, in reality, other Muslims are their biggest target. Furthermore, it is vital
to remember that there are extremist groups in every religion and in every culture. Unless
American society is going to start fearing white men as a result of the Ku Klux Klan or the
countless mass shootings perpetrated on U.S. soil by that same demographic, it is illogical and
unfair to fear all Middle Easterners because of the actions of a few radical groups.
The new, growing phenomenon of Islamophobic tendencies amongst the American
population is not surprising in light of the evidence, but it is harmful. For a country that was
founded by immigrants, America is remarkably averse to new immigration. This is not a new
trend by any stretch of the imagination, but the prejudice has recently unfairly settled on
the Muslim community. Misinformation propagated by the media creates the perfect
environment for paranoia to grow, and politicians exploit those anxieties to construct a climate of

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fear. This allows them to unite their supporters against a common enemy, a perceived threat. It is
a tried and true tactic that, at its most extreme, breeds the kind of fanatical hatred that spawned
Nazi Germany. While effective, this strategy is also extremely dangerous. America has already
grown into a climate of fear, and from this fear violence has already sprouted in the form of hate
crimes burning mosques, attacking Muslims, vandalizing property. If the trend is not reversed,
if this rapidly spreading fire is not squelched, the violence and hate will only continue to
escalate. The U.S. is still a far, far cry from Nazism, but the fascist sparks are beginning to fly.
This leaves two choices: stomp them out now, or stand back and hope that the fire does not catch
and sparks are much easier to extinguish than flames.

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Kurzman, Charles. Muslim-American Terrorism in 2013. Rep. Department of Sociology,
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