Islam Religion in America

Michael Blue

For centuries Islam has been the most feared and misunderstood religion in America. “For many years after 9/11 the villain in action movies were Islamic terrorists. The film and television industry capitalize on popular opinion when selecting the archetypal “bad guy” for the silver screen.” (Meade, 2018).  There is a conception around the world that radical Islam is a direct result of the Quran and that has lead people with the indication that violence is an inherent part of Islamic society. This negative connotation that people have of the Islamic religion is only fueled when incidents like the murder of 22- year old Raudha Athif occur. Recently in Bangladesh 22-year-old Raudha Athif, a stunning cover model known all over the world as “The girl with the blue eyes” was discovered dead in a hostel dormitory and her death was murdered but foul play was involved. Raudha’s murder has also bought to light that there has been a series of murders in Bangladesh (of females), which have been staged to look like suicides and Islamic extremist have been suspected to be behind these atrocities. It is being said that, “Islamic extremist are targeting women due to the way they dress, for them being immodest,” (Godden,2017).  People of the Islamic religion are feeling they are all collectively being ostracized, judged, and grouped together for the actions of Islamic extremist, however, the world doesn’t keep that same standard for the Christian religion as they should. According to an article entitle, “If Islam Is a Religion of Violence, So is Christianity”, the author makes a bold statement proclaiming the way the world views the two religions. She boldly states, “Christianity is tolerant and Islam intolerant” (Ioffe, 2018). The world’s oldest religions have disturbing histories of bloodshed, yet the world singles out Islam and this is just hypocrisy.

 There is the world-renowned incident that happened in recent years, where Dylan Roof walked into the middle of bible study in Charleston, S.C. recently and killed 9 people. Before his rampage, he wrote a manifesto declaring his allegiance to the white supremacist cause and pointing to the council of conservative citizens, which claims to adhere to “Christian beliefs and values,” as a major source of information and inspiration. Dylan came from a Christian church-going family and attended Christian summer camp. However, people are not calling this an act of religious violence but instead him being a sociopath. Why is it that the Islamic religion is seen as a religion of terrorist, but Christianity is not?

Throughout the rest of this paper there will be a scenario featuring two friends from opposite ends of the religion spectrum bonding together and a debate forming between the two. One is an Islamic girl named Alima Ali and the other friend is a girl named Atarah Lockett. Both girls were bought up in extremely religious households, however, there upbringing was completely different.  Alima being an American Muslim didn’t change much about her strict upbringing. She was bought up reading the Quran, going to the mosque for religious services with her family regularly, ate halal which is essential to the Muslim culture, fasted during Ramadan, she was always taught that she was supposed to respect the men of her household and cater to their needs, and always wore her hijab to school although she didn’t wear the Abaya which is the long dress the women wore.  She held a great amount of pride in being a Muslim woman and always questioned why her religious culture was seen as the enemy of many.