Alison Morretta - Islamophobia: Religious Intolerance Against Muslims Today

New York Citys iconic Washington Square Arch is lit in the colors of the French flag after the November 15, 2015, terrorist attacks in Paris.

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Rising Rhetoric

T errorist attacks at home and abroad plus the continued atrocities committed in the Middle East and around the world have made for fertile ground in growing Islamophobia. They may have even impacted the 2016 presidential campaign.

Republican candidate Donald Trump took advantage of a series of terrorist attacks that began in 2015 to gain support from the electorate. Trumpism has four characteristics as defined by The Hill, a politics blog. These include celebrity, nativism, populism, and being a Washington outsider. Nativism brings with it intense xenophobia, white nationalism , and racism. Trumps personal attacks on members of the media and other statements opened him up to charges of misogyny. Being an outsider portrayed Trump as the savior of the disenfranchised, wrote David Edward Tabachnick on the blog.

Nativism has been present in American politics in other election cycles. In the late 1840s, the arrival of many immigrants from Ireland and Germany sparked anti-Catholic sentiment and fears over job loss to the new arrivals. These fears grew into a political party.

The American Party grew in the 1850s and it became known as the Know Nothing Party. The name is based on the fact that early supporters were told to say they know nothing when they were asked about nativist organizations to which they belonged. As the organizations gained support, its members could be more open about their beliefs, and the party grew in popularity. It called for immigration restrictions, a twenty-one-year wait for immigrants to become citizens (the current wait is five years), and a ban on voting or on holding a public office for anyone not born in the United States.

At its peak in 1855, the American Party held forty-three seats in Congress. However, in the 1856 election, Millard Fillmore, the partys nominee for president, won only the state of Maryland. The party then split over the issue of slavery and fell apart.

Immigration also was an issue in American politics at the turn of the twentieth century, when nativists wanted to restrict or exclude Asians from the United States. Political pressure after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor led to the internment of more than one hundred thousand people of Japanese descent who were living on the West Coast. Many of these people were American citizens. The loss of civil rights by Japanese Americans is a dark stain in our countrys history.

Tensions between various cultural groups are on the rise as the face of America becomes more racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse. US involvement in the Middle East and North Africa and the increased terrorist activity of ISIS are of great concern to the American people. Statements by Trump such as Islam hates us have incited fear, prejudice, and violence in the United States. Islamophobia in America is worse than ever.

Paris Attacks

On November 13, 2015, a group of nine ISIS terrorists carried out a series of coordinated attacks across Paris, France. These gunmen and suicide bombers targeted various high-traffic areas around the city: a stadium during a soccer game, the Bataclan Theater during a concert, and restaurants and bars packed with Friday night crowds. The attacks, which left 130 dead and hundreds injured, were the deadliest on French soil since World War II. All of the ISIS terrorists were citizens of the European Union who had been radicalized in Syria. They were on the terrorist watch list, but they took advantage of the Syrian refugee crisis to get back into the EU. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were retaliation for France bombing ISIS locations in Syria and Iraq.

There was an international outpouring of support. Much like after 9/11, the global community came together in support of France. Iconic buildings and landmarks across the world lit up in the colors of the French flag, people held vigils outside of French embassies around the world, and world leaders pledged their solidarity with France. As so often happens, along with the grief and sympathy came a backlash against Muslims both abroad and at home. A new wave of Islamophobia in America began in earnest after the Paris attacks despite the fact that, as they always do, the nations major Islamic groups all condemned ISIS and the attacks. Regardless, there was a wave of violent attacks on mosques and individuals perceived as Muslim, and an increase of anti-Muslim bias and rhetoric in the media and on the internet. Politicians used the opportunity to push their anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agendas.

The evening of the attacks, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX)then a Republican presidential candidateproposed that the United States immediately halt the immigration of any Syrian war refugees. He also stated: We must immediately recognize that our enemy is not violent extremism. It is the radical Islamism that has declared jihad against the West. It will not be appeased by outreach or declarations of tolerance. A few days later, Cruz revised his remarks, saying that he would allow Christian Syrians into America because there is no meaningful risk of Christians committing acts of terror. If there were a group of radical Christians pledging to murder anyone who had a different religious view than they, we would have a different national security situation.

Canadians rally in Toronto on November 22, 2015, in support of Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus pledge to admit twenty-five thousand Syrian refugees into Canada by the end of 2015.

Such statements ignore the fact that, according to FBI statistics, non-Muslims are responsible for the majority of terrorist violence in the United States. Not only that, but Christian terrorists exist in America and they have for a very long time. The history of the Ku Klux Klan alone is enough to demonstrate that terrorist violence is not solely an Islamic problem. Just as not all Protestant Christians are members of the KKK, not all Muslims are members of ISIS. Throughout history, extremists of every major world religion have twisted their religious writings and used their faith to justify acts of violence.

Homegrown Extremists

Things went from bad to worse in America on December 2, 2015, when a husband and wifeSyed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malikcarried out a premeditated terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. Farook was born in America to Pakistani immigrant parents; Malik was born in Pakistan and legally immigrated to the United States. The couple targeted a staff meeting/holiday party of the San Bernardino County health department where Farook worked. The couple used AR-15 automatic rifles (their homemade bombs did not explode) to kill fourteen people and injure twenty-one others. Both were killed in a shootout with the police after the attacks. Investigators later discovered that the couple had been radicalized and were planning the attacks for some time. On December 5, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks and referred to Farook and Malik as followers of the Islamic State. While the couple may have been ISIS-inspired, there is no direct link between the homegrown extremists and ISIS nor any evidence that they belonged to any terrorist cell in the United States.