The West’s View on Islam/Muslims: Islamophobia?

The West’s View on
Islam/Muslims:
Islamophobia?
C a n a d i a n U n i v e r s i t y o f D u b a i
G E D 1 9 8 - I s l a m i c C u l t u r e
D r . K h o u l o u d A l n o u n o u k h
1 2 1 2 0 0 0 1 1 @ s t u d e n t s . c u d . a c . a e
1 8 - N o v - 1 5
Amirah Daghache 121200011
Thisresearchpaperwill take a deeperlookatthe West’s
view of Islamandasks questions whetherit’sall
Islamophobiaorsomethingdeeper.Itdetailshowit
started,who’sencouragingitandwhy,who’sbenefiting
fromit, how it’sviewedinothermediums,how itaffected
Muslims,whoare the most prominentpublicfigures
fightingitandhow it become differentinrecentyears.

Amirah Ahmad Daghache 121200011
The West’s View on Islam/Muslims: Islamophobia? Page 1
Abstract:
This research paper will take a deeper look at the West’s view of Islam and asks questions
whether it’s all Islamophobia or something deeper. It details how it started, who’s encouraging it
and why, who’s benefiting from it, how it’s viewed in other mediums, how it affected Muslims,
who are the most prominent public figures fighting it and how it become different in recent
years.
Table of Contents:
 Introduction…………………..……..……..Page 2
 9/11…………………..……..……..Page 2
 The Media: News Channels, Politicians and
Hollywood…………………..……..……..Page 2
 How It Affected Muslims…………………..……..……..Page 4
 Public Figures Fighting Back…………………..……..……..Page 7
 New Positive View of
Muslims/Islam…………………..……..……..Page 11
 Conclusion…………………..……..……..Page 12
 References…………………..……..……..Page13

Introduction:
“ISLAM IS A SATANIC CULT OF MURDER NOT A ‘RELIGION’”, a quote the
Travis County Republican Party of the United States of America posted on Twitter (then
removed) and linked it to an anti-Muslim article on ConservativeDailyNews.com in September.
(Bradford, 2015) In the last two decades, the West’s view on Islam has significantly transformed
although only recently Muslims have been shown ‘sympathy’ from various important public
figures, the media and the general public however if you’ve been reading the headlines lately or
comments on the religion from politicians it’ll be clear that it’s still a major issue that 1.59
billion Muslims (Pew Research Center, 2015) around the world still suffer from being misjudged
and forced to severely pay for the mistakes of a few. Islamophobia, a term made popular by
media, defined by Oxford dictionaries as the “dislike or prejudice against Islam or Muslims,
especially as a political force” while on Dictionary.com it is defined as “hatred or fear of
Muslims or of their politics or culture” so is it all just fear, religious bigotry or just a simple
misunderstanding?
9/11:
It all started with a black smoke from a tower on a dark day in September of 2001. A
series of four terrorist attacks erupted in the United States in different locations most notably the
2 airplanes that struck the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City bringing them to
the ground. More than 3,000 people died on that day and an ‘Islamic’ terrorist group called ‘Al-
Qaeda’ claimed responsibility for the attacks. After buildings turned to ashes and the smoke
cleared, the face of Islam was changed to the world forever. While Islamophobia did exist prior
to the attacks however it did see a sharp increase during the decade following the attacks.
The Media: News Channels, Politicians andHollywood
As the world started pointing the blame at Muslims, adding fuel to the growing fire was
the 24/7 western news channels, newspapers and magazines that ran discriminatory stories
portraying Islam and Muslims as blood thirsty, maniacs with anti-American views. What they
called ‘War on Terrorism’ escalated into the main reason why Islamophobia spread so quickly
across the world. The stories ran were often of ‘Jihadists’ (a word now very misinterpreted) or
Muslim terrorists justifying the killings of innocents because it’s either written in the Quran or
part of their ‘Sunni’ practice and suicide bombers are promised 72 virgins in heaven for their
sacrifice. Moreover there is the violent imagery, linked to the so-called ‘Jihadists’, splashed
across the screens or the extreme titles such as “Is Islam a Destructive Force?” that are always
ending with a question mark so it is not identified as a direct accusation. More often than not,
topics such as “Why do they hate us?”, “What do Muslim women think of their status in Islam?”

are open for discussion on shows with a panel of seemingly qualified experts (or in articles
written by Islamophobic writers) discussing the history of Islam and Islamic philosophy very
narrowly towards extremism and oppression. Very frequently the same figures and writers trying
to their arguments discuss how countries like Saudi Arabia ban women from driving and voting
and that homosexual conduct is punishable by death. Mirza Mesic said in his paper ‘The
Perception of Islam and Muslims in the Media and the Responsibility of European Muslims
towards the Media’, “These media depict Islam as “fundamentalism”, “extremism” and
“radicalism”. Of course, in the modern world where the role of media is central, the image of
reality can be manipulated to misrepresent the actual facts.” (MEŠIĆ)Yet somehow it’s all
justified as an act of ‘freedom of speech’ or defense.
Likewise politicians have a long stand history with condemning Islam or vilifying Muslims to
gain votes. Specifically the Republican Political Party in the United States has a long history of
discriminatory comments and actions against Islam and Muslims. In a 2012 poll, 60% of
Republicans have negative views of Muslim Americans; they even polled less favorably less
than Americans of every other faith. (Bergen, 2015) Recently the bid for United States president
2016 is ongoing with candidates campaigning across the country from state to state trying their
best to earn people’s votes by making future promises and setting their sides on controversial
issues (like abortion, climate change and ISIS). With the Republican party’s top candidates
making headlines around the world for their explosive comments like Donald Trump’s view
illegal immigrants and recently retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s comments on Islam and
Muslims. “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely
would not agree with that.” He continued saying that Islam was “inconsistent with the values and
principals of America [and the constitution].” Soon after the comments were made Nihad Awad,
executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), stated that the group is
asking Carson to “withdraw from the presidential race because he is unfit to lead, because his
views are inconsistent with the United States Constitution.” (Diamond, 2015)Gladly, most the of
the other candidates stood against the comments saying people should decide on a President due
to his qualifications and values not his religious views with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas saying,
“You know, the Constitution specifies there shall be no religious test for public office and I am a
constitutionalist.” (Diamond, 2015) (However, this November Senator Cruz introduced a
legislation to designate three Muslim Brotherhoods entities in U.S. including CAIR as Foreign
Terrorist Organizations.) (Mauro, 2015) Yet other candidates including leading in the polls
Donald Trump said that Carson “was speaking his opinion” and “feels very strongly about it”. In
less than a day Carson’s negative comments on Muslims/Islam were quickly dismissed in the
media and never brought to light again. And in the recent GOP presidential debate, candidate Jeb
Bush (George W. Bush’s younger brother) called on Islamic Terrorism as “the biggest threat
facing America today.” (Norton, 2015)
Such ideology against Islam was also spread onto the entertainment medium of movies
and TV series. Muslim men were always viewed as violent, abusive and on occasion more

commonly as ‘suicide bombers’. In numerous Hollywood films and TV series Muslims and
Arabs were nearly always depicted as terrorists, exceedingly vicious or coming from a
background of violence and anti-American beliefs. Western crime shows such as “CSI: Crime
Scene Investigation” and “Bones” both aired episodes where the viewer discoveries at the near
end of the episodes that the murderer was an Arab American emphasizing on him being a
Muslim with terroristic intentions and on Bones the Muslim later tries to detonate himself in a
public building but gets shot down by the patriotic American agent. Recently in an episode on
the political drama “Homeland” Arabic graffiti appeared on the walls of one of the episodes
stating “Homeland is racist.” (‫عنصري‬ ‫.)الوطن‬ The graffiti was done by Muslim artists referring to
Homeland’s constant false and discriminatory portrayal of the Muslims specifically Arabs,
Iranians and Afghani. In fact comedian and television host Stephen Colbert jokingly commented
on his show (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) about the topic saying that almost all Muslim
characters on the show were later revealed to either be working for Al-Qaeda or violent and the
only peaceful Muslim character was a woman oppressed and later killed by Muslim extremists.
Moreover, in early 2015, the movie “American Sniper” based on US solider Chris Kyle who
served during the war in Iraq and killed more than 160 people. The movie spiked controversy for
its viewing Iraqis as vicious. The movie led to an increase in violent threats against Muslims in
U.S. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) wrote to the director and Star
of the film stating that a “majority of the violent threats we have seen over the past few days are
result of how Arab and Muslims are depicted in American Sniper”. In fact, the threats being
made weren’t of secretive nature but they were mostly posted on Social Media outlets including
Twitter where one tweet out of many from a man tagged as #AmericanSniper reads “Great f***
movie and now I really want to kill some f*** ragheads.” A spokesperson for the Warner
Brothers film studio said that the company “denounces any violent, anti-Muslim rhetoric,
including that which has been attributed to viewers.” (BBC News, 2015)
While Muslim men are often seen as radical and/or violent, Muslim women have been
stereotyped in three significant ways: Either as submissive, ‘passive towards male power
imposed upon them’ and voiceless instead of the powerful, strong figures that they are without
the spotlight ever shedding on the great their great accomplishments, particularly the ones that
don’t fit in the victimized and veiled stereotype. Then there’s the fixation on looks, what they are
or are not wearing. And finally, while each Muslim woman has her own individuality yet all
stories ran and images promoted of them are as if they were all the same shade not individuals
with their own opinions, languages, culture and heritage, appearance and different jobs and
occupations.
How it Affected Muslims:
In the year following 2001 alone the FBI reported that hate crimes against Muslims or
‘Islamophobic attacks’ increased by 1,700% that’s from 28 to 481. Like horrifically there were

self-proclaimed ‘patriots’ who went on a revenge cruises for 9/11 were they murdered anyone
who even looked even slightly Muslim that is anyone with a turban or a beard (ironically none of
the hijackers had either). “I’m going to go out and shoot me some towel-heads” one uttered and
later on sadly, murdered an innocent man named Balbir Singh Sodhi who happened to be a Sikh.
Despite, yes, obtaining statistics for smaller hate crimes is challenging however one Muslim
advocacy group’s civil rights complaints have risen from 366 to 2,467. That is in 6 years alone
from 2000 to 2006. (Rose, 2013)
For women, the threat of abuse and discrimination was even higher more especially for women
who wore a hijab or head covers. 154 cases of those 2,467 were cases of harassment or
discrimination against head covering Muslim women. Another report published by the Council
of Europe commissioner for human rights states that “80% of the anti-Muslim acts which occur
in France are carried out against women” (Draper, 2015) There were countless incidents of
attacks, prohibition of wearing their head covers, refused entrée to public places and even
fired/rejected from their jobs.
They’ve been denied the privilege to wear a headscarf while filling in as cops and in different
occupations have been let go for declining to remove their headscarves. Teachers in government
funded schools have been kept from wearing religious clothing. Even the students were denied
the privilege to wear their hijab to class and have been kept from partaking in extracurricular
exercises, including musical shows and athletic events. And often times, both the teachers and
students were targets of harassment and assault. Furthermore, they were denied access to
shopping malls, swimming pools, and other public areas unless they agree to either remove their
head coverings or consent to being searched by male guards. And in Canada, women wearing
‘niqab’ were banned from taking the citizenship oath-taking ceremonies.
Yet there are several laws that protect these women from such acts. Like the First and Fourteenth
Amendments of the U.S. Constitution which prevent all governments both federal and state from
creating laws that prohibit these women from practicing their religion. And providing additional
protection is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) which prevents the federal
government and its officials from inhibiting women’s will to wear hijab.
However unfortunately, even with laws in place Muslim women still get violated and
discriminated against. More recently in March of this year, Tahera Ahmad, penned a Facebook
post describing her recent experience with a flight attendant. She was flying to a conference in
Washington on a United flight when, during the flight Tahera asked for an unopened can of Diet
Coke. The flight attendant, she says, refused to hand her one but instead chose to hand an
unopened can of beer to a man sitting just close by. When she questioned the flight attendant, the
flight attended slurred “We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people because they may
use it as a weapon on the plane.” Even more shockingly, when Ms.Ahmad asked other
passengers if they witnessed what happened, another man started verbally abusing her and yelled
“You Muslim, you need to shut the f--- up,” and “Yes, you know you would use it as a

weapon….”. “I am sitting on a United airlines flight in the air 30,000ft above and I am in tears of
humiliation from discrimination…” said Tahera in her post. United airlines later on publicly
apologized to Tahera when the post became viral and started a firestorm on social media with
hashtags like #UnitedForTahera and #IslamophobiaISREAL trending and people calling to
boycott the airline. “Ms.Ahmad was our customer and we apologize for what occurred on that
flight,” said United in a press release, “After investigating this matter, United has ensured that
the flight attendant…will no longer serve United customers.”
Sometimes such discriminatory acts could take on a more explicit form. One of many examples,
in early September of this year a CCTV video was released (taken on November 13th 2012)
showing 16 year old, Tasneem Kabir, who wears a hijab, walking to college when she was
attacked and knocked unconscious by a man in a hoodie. Fortunately the man was later brought
to justice and is currently serving 4 years in prison. (Linning, 2015)
And earlier this year in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings, a family of three young
Muslims was shot dead in the comfort of their own home in the State of North Carolina. The
victims were Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha, 21, and her
sister, Razan Mohammed Abu-Salha, 19. Both sisters wore Hijab. The shooter was 46 year old
man named Craig Stephen Hicks who was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree
murder. On his Facebook, Hicks labeled himself as an atheist and often posted pictures and texts
condemning all religions. Initially it started as a dispute over a parking space that evolved into
heinous hate crime. (Withnall, 2015)
It wasn’t just the discrimination and hate crimes that Muslim Americans had and still
induce but also the government seemed to have its own agenda. There was intense government
surveillance, and profiling that is very well-known to partake more notably at Airports were
anyone with a ‘Muslim-like’ name or features/looks (hijab, beard, turban…etc.) gets ‘randomly’
searched. Since 9/11 there have been only two Muslim terrorists on US air flights: the underwear
bomber and the shoe bomber. Neither of them ‘looked Muslim’ nor were they even Arab. The
Shoe bomber, Richard Reid was in fact British and the underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdul
Mutallab was Nigerian. In fact most Muslims are not Arab. Around 19% of the 1.6 billion
Muslim population are Arabs. Nether less, there are around 675 million enplaned passengers on
U.S. flights annually and if 0.8% of those are Muslim Americans “then the chances any profiled
flier will be a Muslim terrorist is 1 in 80 million” (Schneier, 2012) Which brings the point that
many people argue “racial profiling is no more effective than random screening.” (Timmer,
2009) With all studies and statistics published sieges are unfortunately still happen and “at least
700,000 Muslims have been interviewed by law enforcement” (Mujahid, 2011).

Public Figures Fighting Back:
While yes since 9/11 the media and film industry has portrayed Muslims and Arabs as
mostly violent and oppressed making the terms ‘Islamic’ or ‘Muslim’ even ‘Arab’ linked with
militants, jihadists and extremisms as if they all belonged together, (Islamic war, Muslim
extremist, Muslim time bomb) however in the last couple of years these terms have started to
fade away thanks to the help of the hundreds of public figures fighting back and educating the
public and also to the new view of Islam and Muslim characters being incorporated into films
and TV shows.
One of the many public figures fighting back the discriminatory media is Reza Aslan, an
Iranian-American, religious scholar and professor at the University of California. For the past
year, Aslan has been invited to numerous prominent news channels’ and talk shows’ debates on
Islam, because of his tough arguments defending Islam and his fearlessness when describing how
and why the west views Islam in a negative image.
In September of last year Aslan was invited on CNN to discuss “Does Islam promote violence?”
The issue was initially stimulated first by talk show host, Bill Maher, on his show “Real Time
with Bill Maher”. Maher criticized the United States president, Barack Obama, for insisting that
terrorist group ISIS is not ‘Islamic’. Maher argued that ISIS “has too much in common with the
rest of the Muslim world” because they all believe in the beheading of people of different
religion, in female genital mutilation and not respecting women’s rights such as their right to
drive. Aslan who gained wide recognition picking out a Fox News anchor’s islamophobia in a
live interview, shut down Maher’s comments by first stating that they were “unsophisticated”
and that “the argument about female mutilation is … not an Islamic problem, [but] it’s an
African problem.”, he explained, “Eritrea has almost 90% female genital mutilation and it’s a
Christian country, Ethiopia has 75%.., it’s [also] a Christian country. Nowhere else in the
Muslim majority states is female genital mutilation an issue.” In fact in most of these states that
issue is almost unheard of. He continued saying that yes “it’s certainly true” that in while some
Muslim countries women are mistreated like Saudi Arabia and Iran however it is not true for the
rest of the Muslim majority countries and that “Muslims have elected 7 women as their heads of
states, how many do we have as our heads of states in the United States?”. CNN anchor Don
Lemon pressed Reza asking, “Be honest though…it is not a free and open society for women in
those states.” Reza simply replied back with the same argument and added “The problem is that
you’re talking about a religion of one and a half billion people,” he explained, “and certainly it
becomes very easy to just simply paint them all with a single brush by saying, ‘Well in Saudi
Arabia [women] can’t drive,’ and saying that’s representative of Islam. That’s representative of
Saudi Arabia.” Despite Reza solid argument, the CNN anchor pushed the overly flattened out
question. “Does Islam promote violence?” to which Aslan explained, “Islam doesn’t promote
violence or peace. Islam is just a religion, and like every religion in the world, it depends on

what you bring to it. If you’re a violent person, your Islam, your Judaism, your Christianity, your
Hinduism, is going to be violent.” The CNN segment and Reza’s plausible arguments gained
great attention and the segment was viewed almost 1.3 million times on YouTube. (Aslan, Does
Islam Promote Violence?, 2014)
Gladly, Reza isn’t the only prominent figure in the media fighting Islamophobia, in fact,
there are several more widely recognized, popular figures in the media that are fighting back who
are not even Muslim. Take Ben Affleck for instance, he’s a world famous American actor and
director who has two Academy Awards and is set to star as the new Batman in an upcoming
film. Affleck appeared on Bill Maher’s televised talk show “Real Time with Bill Maher” in late
2014 when he got into a –now famous- heated argument with Maher, American author Sam
Harris and other panelists on Islam. The argument started with Maher claiming that Islam is
displayed as “the only religion that acts like the mafia…. [they would]…kill you if you say the
wrong thing, draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book…” Harris added by mentioning
Islamophobia: “We have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where criticism of the religion
gets conflated with bigotry towards Muslims as people. It’s ‘intellectually’ ridiculous.” To which
Affleck responded to both comments furiously saying, “Hold on – are you the person who
officially understands the codified doctrine of Islam? It’s gross and racist.” He further added,
“How about the more than a billion people who aren’t fanatical, who don’t punch women, who
just want to go to school, have some sandwiches, pray five times a day, and don’t do any of the
things you’re saying of all Muslims. It’s stereotyping.” But perhaps the strongest statement that
nor Maher nor Harris was able to shut down was: “We’ve killed more Muslims than they’ve
killed us by an awful lot, we’ve invaded more Muslim countries than they’ve invaded ours by an
awful lot. And yet, somehow we’re exempted from these things, because they’re not really
reflections of what we believe in.” (Affleck, 2014) (Child, 2014)
Affleck’s arguments and comments stunned many including Muslims and won him great praise.
He was labeled as a ‘real life Batman’ and a hero. Jada Pinkett-Smith who is also a famous
American actress and singer-songwriter tweeted out in support of Affleck saying, “Did anyone
enjoy watching an impassioned @BenAffleck on Bill Maher as much as I did?” The videos on
YouTube earned over 5 million views combined, endless posts on social media and hundreds of
articles written in support of Affleck. However, there will always be an opposition. In fact, the
opposition was so harsh that proved how Islamophobia is spread more significantly that meets
the eye. Editor of the conservative National Review magazine, Rich Lowry, wrote an article on
how the actor refuses to allegedly accept “frank truths about the Muslim world”. He was also
accused by America’s Newsroom contributor David Webb of living in a “unicorn-like world”
and called Islam an “intolerable religion”. Furthermore, Greg Gutfield of Fox News called
Affleck a “Caliphate crusader” and argued that “the inability to separate identification of evil
from platitudes on tolerance is what enables evil to thrive” suggesting that Islam is ‘evil’. With
all the backlash comments made, Affleck remained silent. (Child, Rightwing media attack
'Imam Ben Affleck' for defence of Islam, 2014)

While Hollywood is quite known for its left-wing politics however when it comes to pointing out
racist representations of Arabs and/or Muslims it has been very rare, almost never for both
liberals and conservatives. Therefore, when a considerably ‘big celebrity’ like Ben Affleck
passionately defends Islam on television it is considered a rare, monumental moment and big
step forward for the fight against Islamophobia.
But the most important celebrity fighting not just Islamic stereotypes but the hypocrisy of
the media as a whole is American comedian, former television host of the satirical news program
“The Daily Show”: Jon Stewart. For 16 years, Stewart’s “The Daily Show” has been highly
critical of media outlets including Fox News and almost every political figure, un-allowing the
powerful to run free. The show was highly acclaimed, earned him 22 Primetime Emmy Awards
and inspired generation of political satirists following his footsteps. Jon drew a large amount of
loyal audience’s including young people who say that “The Daily Show” is their ‘most
trustworthy news’ outlet with Rolling Stones calling him “Last Honest Newsman”, it’s no
surprise that Stewart was asked into attend secret meetings at the White House with President
Barack Obama. Jon was one of the first to point out Islamophobia in the media and had
numerous heated arguments with guests who promoted the negative image of Islam and was
labeled “Islam apologist” and a “Muslim Sympathizer”. He took Muslims’ side and denounced
the media outlets’ and Islamic criticizers’ comments for what he called ‘religious bigotry’ and
the conservatives who set the constitution-that claims “All Men are Equal” -as their decree but
disremember it when it comes to Islam and African Americans.
He also took on Tahera Ahmad’s incident by jokingly saying that the soda can could have been
deadly that’s if she had a “seagull and pack of Alka-Seltzer” she could create a bomb on an
airplane. To add further context, he was joined by his senior religious correspondent, Hasan
Minhaj, who also humorously added that if she was wearing her scarf ‘on her neck’ not ‘on her
head’ she would have looked ‘less scary’. Furthermore, together they discussed while America
“loves people of faith” they have to be on the list of the ‘right faith’ and Muslims fall last on that
list right behind ‘devil worshipping’ concluding (all with humor of course) that Muslims should
hide their faith by changing their names and their clothing to something more revealing to get an
unopen can of soda. (Stewart & Minaj, Halal Things Considered, 2015)
Furthermore, Stewart discussed the issue of the “Ground Zero Mosque”. In 2011, people were
outraged when it was reported that a mosque was being built on Ground Zero (where the twin
towers used to be). He made a segment where he fact checked the news outlets by saying that
technically they are building an Islamic Culture Center not a Mosque and it is not being built on
Ground Zero exactly but its blocks away from the area where a mosque was already built almost
40 years ago. (Stewart, Mosque-erade, 2010)

This May, he was criticized on his interview with author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the highly
controversial book “Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now”, due to him being very
defensive of Islam throughout the interview and seemed overly critical of her views. He started
the interview by bluntly asking her “Why does Islam need a reformation now?” to which her
answer was “Because unfortunately too many people are dying in the name of Islam, too many
women live under oppression…too many Christians are being killed in the name of Islam and I
think it needs a reformation now.” Jon also replied by claiming that he thinks that “People single
out Islam as if there is something inherently wrong with it as if there’s nothing wrong with other
religions…” She responded by saying that “…unlike the majority of Christians the majority of
Muslims are subjected to violence. Look at 70% of the global violence in world today Muslims
are responsible for…” “Or are suffering from it…” he rejoined. She also pointed out that
Muslims should accept that the Quran is written by man and the morality is different than it was
in the 7th century. He argued saying that people haven’t accepted that the Bible is written by man
either and having people accept that the morality is now different is a different point. He ended
the interview by jokingly telling her “You want people to buy your book.” (Ali, 2015)
A week later he interviewed religious scholar Reza Aslan, to discuss Islam and how the west
falsely views it. Jon explained that when it comes it religion there’s always extremists and
violence but Islam gets particularly pointed out to which Aslan flawlessly replied “There’s
obviously a serious problem with religious violence in the world and particularly in Islam and in
the Middle East, but if you’re going to blame religion for violence in the name religion you have
to credit religion for every act of compassion in the name of religion you have to credit religion
for every act of love in the name of religion and that’s not what people usually think…they focus
so much on the negatives.” He also added that “one third of Americans think that Muslim values
conflict with American values and that Muslim Americans should carry special IDs to identify
that their Muslims” which he compared to how Nazi Germany forced Jews in the 1940’s to carry
similar identification cards. He continued saying that “this fear [of Muslims] is so manufactured
by news channels that sounded to ratings gold and by politicians who used it to get votes…” Jon
joined by saying that it is the same tactic used by both sides that use their own people’s fear to
spin power like in the Middle East, leaders use anti-American sentiments to impose supremacy.
He further added that in America they’ve defined their largest fear as Islamic terrorism and “in
an American character whatever we are worrying about is the worry.” Similarly before Islam it
was the Soviet Union and Communists and before them it was the Nazis. (Aslan, The Daily
Show, 2015)
In the end, Jon Stewart never apologized nor corrected himself nor did his writers for their views
and beliefs and with that he educated and inspired a generation of young people, comedians and

celebrities to spread the expose discrimination for what it is as a cover imposed by the powerful
to exert control over their own people.
Positive View of Islam/Muslims:
Islamic misconception isn’t just spread in Hollywood but it’s also spread towards
Bollywood. The irony is that unlike Hollywood, Bollywood is manufactured in a country with a
vast number of Muslims (almost 138 million) in fact its prominent stars Shah Rukh Khan, Amir
Khan and Salman Khan are all of Muslim faith but unfortunately almost always have Hindu
characters in movies. The issue with Islamophobia or misconception of Islam has never brought
up till 2010, a movie called “My Name is Khan” was released starring Shah Rukh Khan as an
Indian Muslim man with Asperger’s syndrome who takes on a challenge of a cross-country
journey to speak to the United States president and clear his name by simply expressing “My
name is Khan, and I’m not a terrorist”. It was a quote that resonated with Muslims across the
globe, for it described how they felt towards how the world viewed them and just because they
may ‘look’ or have Muslim names it doesn’t mean that they are violent and/or have terroristic
intentions. The movie also show cased the character’s life before and after the 9/11 incidents and
how it changed his family, his life and that of many Muslims living in the West at the time. It
also displayed what other Muslim Americans faced after 9/11 from violence, theft,
discrimination, and even displayed the violence Muslim-Hijab wearing women endured during
that time. It was one of the first times a big budget movie portrayed Islam in the peaceful form it
really is and the effects of Islamophobia on Muslims. “It is almost impossible not to shed a tear
at the end of the movie.” said Sara Sheikh a Pakistani student living in Windsor, Ontario, “I
know how he feels. My whole family and our entire neighborhood know how he feels.” In
reality, Shah Rukh Khan himself was a victim of the same discrimination observed in the film;
he was detained at an airport in the United States, and held for questioning but released after the
Indian embassy in the US intervened. The movie opened to great reviews and broke box office
records, but most importantly it started conversations on the misconceptions of Islam across the
world. And as Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter said “A film that delves compellingly
into Americans’ anti-Muslim hysteria as it tackles a subject American movies have mostly
avoided that of racial profiling and the plight of Muslim-Americans.” (Honeycutt, 2010)
Hollywood soon followed similarly, by slightly pushing into writing positive Muslim and/or
Arab characters into their films and projects. For example, in the highly popular X-Men
franchise we can see the character Dust, an empowered Muslim woman who practices Islam
(wears a Hijab) while fighting alongside her fellow X-Men. Another positive presentation of
Islam can be seen on the long-running beloved animated comedy series “The Simpsons”. In an

episode the younger character, Bart, befriends a Jordanian boy while his father and main
character on the show, Homer, learns lessons on tolerance towards Islam/Muslims. Though, the
Muslim characters are not recurring however the central theme of that episode was fighting
Islamophobia. Also, on the crime procedural comedy-drama, “Bones” a recurring character by
the name of Arastoo Viziri is of Iranian decent and takes work breaks to offer his daily prayers.
And finally, on the comedy series “Community” one of the main characters is half-Palestinian,
half-Polish, Abed Nader, who is also Muslim from his father’s side. While he doesn’t practice
Islam on the show, he is shown to be loved by the other main characters and is a fan favorite.
Conclusion:
As a Palestinian-Canadian and a proud Muslim I have faced Islamophobia first-hand. My
family’s business in Canada fell apart after 9/11 because during that time Canadians were
avoiding Muslim/Arab owned businesses. Additionally, we were stopped for hours on end in
American and European airports and at check points by police officers who held us for
questioning for the sole reason that my father’s name is Ahmad and had beard while my mother
wore a hijab. Therefore, the discriminatory comments and movies/TV shows being made don’t
shock me anymore in fact they don’t shock any Muslim anymore. While sadly they have become
so common that we are now somehow accustomed to them however the silver lining here has
become a generation of Muslims and Arabs that learnt to defend and teach their own religion and
identities. We’ve become empowered and learned more about patience and tolerance. We’ve
learned that bigotry and hate is a disease. We learned how to heal it and healed the other side
with us. We learned that the biggest threat facing us is not who’s on the other side of the world
nor is it racism but it’s the blind hunger for power. We were taught how to sympathize with other
nations, groups and ethnicities. We’ve learnt how to always see the other side of the story. And
that is the greatest lesson of all. In other words we were again taught the lessons our beloved
Prophet (PBUH), his lessons of tolerance, patience and acceptance. During his last Hajj
pilgrimage Allah’s (SWT) messenger addressed his people stating: "O People! Your God is one;
your father is one; no preference of an Arab neither over non-Arab nor of a non-Arab over an
Arab or red over black or black over red except for the most righteous. Verily the most honored
of you is the most righteous.”

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