The value of Muslim People: Race, Culture, and Religion in the Face of Euro-Americans after 9/11
The Islamic religion has elicited mixed reactions in the face of Euro-Americans who have embraced all Muslims like terrorists. This comes after several terrorist attacks on the U.S soil which has made them become victims of circumstances. Hardly do they enjoy their rights as being minority ethnic groups in the European countries because they are all stereotyped as being terrorists. This is mainly connected to the cultural concept of neologism which has led to constant prejudice, hatred and much fear towards Muslims or any other ethnic grouping that associates with Islamic religious believe. This prejudiced view and subsequent victimization of Muslims is called Islamophobia (Pynting and Mason, 2007). According to some people, the term means hate, dread, fear and dislike for Muslims. In some circumstances it refers to the practice of discriminating and excluding Muslim ethnic groups from social, economic and cultural life of the people in Euro-American countries. Such practices have been excused on their being a minority group in Western countries and stereotyped attitude that has engulfed people in non-Muslim countries. As a result, this paper seeks to use case studies and research findings to state the value of Muslim people in terms of their race, culture and religion in the face of Euro-Americans after 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
The Runnymede Trust based in Britain described the ideals, religion and cultural practices among Muslims as being inferior to their cultural practice which then makes the Muslims the inferior group in Britain. The research adds that Islamic ideologies are more political than religious which makes their religion violent. Even as Britain was still collecting evidences to support the increasing Islamophobia in European countries, the 2001 was marked with grief as the world mourned the innocent deaths after the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States (MacFarquhar, 2006). Apparently this marked a new phase for all Muslims in Euro-American countries and states. The attitude of the majority groups drifted drastically into embracing hatred and fearful attitudes. Specifically European Union through the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia abbreviated as EUMC made a publication talking about the increasing number of Muslim immigrants into the western countries. The publication released in the wake of May 2002 further presented a summarized report regarding the increasing Islamophobia among inhabitants in the wider European region after 9/11.
In yet another research, findings presented by Sarah Sharma in the journal ‘Taxi cab publics and the production of brown space after 9/11’ supports the resurgence of racism in Euro-American countries. In the journal Sharma, (2010) conceptualizes spatial political ideologies which have been termed as the brown so as to alienate them from the rest of the ethnic groupings. This biased term was crafted soon after the 9/11 as a way of separating minority Arabian cultures from majority Western cultures. The author uses the term brown space as a metaphor representing the Muslims so as to avoid creating a negative impression that has already been in existence after the terror attack. With the help of the term, Sharma creates a brown space which is a political divide where the real American politics are weighted against the novel ideas presented by micro-political views exhibited among the minority cultures in the brown space. Sharma observes that the taxi driver is pushed to the dark corners of the brown space by the virtue that the majority cultural groups in Euro-America believe that his ancestry is cursed and likely to be a security scare.
On the other hand, the American political terrain is exhibited as being a victim of the bad conduct created by the minority cultural groupings. The American public sphere is therefore termed as being possessed with a liberal line of thought whose target has been focused on eradicating the Muslim minority groups. This journal presents the diminishing value of the Muslim people in Euro-American countries because their major role in these countries has been reduced into being taxi drivers and nothing more. Sharma further presents a case where a taxi driver needs to be eradicated and by so doing the value of Muslims will be diminished to zero. Sadly in another incidence again, the Muslims are portrayed as being absent minded because they are constantly discriminated against by the majority communities because of the stereotype associating them with terrorism (Brock, 2009). In between the absent minded and unlearned browns and the deviant terror oriented browns exists another post terror space devoid of the brown space. This is a figurative statement insinuating that with the diminishing value of Muslims in Euro-America then it will be prudent to eliminate the dangerous minority for the safety of the majority to be realized.
Sharma, (2010) posts statements presented by political leaders stigmatizing the existence of Muslims. She quotes a prominent American politician, Senator Conrad Burns who in August 2006 said ‘We need to thank god for those people that do it, that do it every day to fight those enemies who drive taxis during the day and kill at night’. The senator representing the Republican Party did not make any apology for his dilatory, defamatory and dehumanizing statement made against the Muslims during a fundraiser in Montana. In awe Laura Bush the wife to the former American President, George Bush seconded the senator’s statements by stating that Senator Burns was a wonderful leader leading the people of Montana. In the face of the rational media and activists fighting against racism, Conrad Burns stands out as a perpetuator of hatred, classical racist ideas aimed at devaluing Muslims. As much as many people accused him of foolishly selecting his words, he continued with his safety campaigns where he made it clear that Euro-America needed a safer posterity devoid of terrorism. Conrad Burns further alleged that ‘…we need a safe and secure world where our kids can go to bed at night and not worry about a guy that drives a taxicab in the daytime and kills at night…terrorists live amongst us; not only here, but in Britain and the entire world’ (Sharma, 2010).
Taxi drivers who are mostly Muslims have had to endure the attacks posed to their religion, culture and race by the fact that they are victimized for causing terror around the world. The post-9/11 effect has long revealed itself as a traumatic experience for Muslims in New York City, Toronto, San Antonio, Toronto, Melbourne, London and in Washington (Mainsah, 2011). The allegations made by the senator is more devaluing given the current circumstances faced by the Muslim minority who are being subjected to long working hours with meager salaries, they are facing the pain of being constantly marginalized and alienated, their health’s have been deteriorating due to depression and their unmanageable income. This is because majority of the taxi drivers are from Middle East, South Asia, North Africa and others from Russia. These diverse minority populations make up for the brown space as it was described by Sharma. The situation being experienced by the Muslims has at times gone to the extent of them being called Osama and more worse being pulled from their taxis and stoned by angry Islamophobia mobs. Such scenarios have been experienced not only in America but also in London where few days after 9/11, three youths dragged a taxi driver from his cab, kicked him and hit him so hard with a bottle that he became paralyzed.
Witnesses at the scene reported that the victim of the attack was ridiculed and implicated for 9/11 before he was beaten on racial grounds. In another similar incidence, two Sikh taxi drivers were shot dead at a bay in San Francisco three months after 9/11. It was reported that their cultural practice of wearing turbans had made the public think of them as being terrorists. In the face of such atrocities relating to being a cultural minority, the Muslims are treated unfairly in Euro-American regions. Based on this realization and the fact that the US economy is partially depended on the economic value added by immigrants and the fact that 78% of cab drivers are Muslims, the state of Melbourne whose taxi drivers are composed of 60% Muslims initiated the Victoria Taxi Directorate to protect the Muslims against racial attacks. With the directorate in place, the Ministry of Labor supported the enactment of new policies that allowed drivers to hide name tags in the event that they felt threatened by their fares. With the rising publicity of Islamophobia, there has been the emergence of blogs and watch groups aimed at eradicating terrorists such as the Muslim Monitor, Dhimmi Watch and Jihad Watch (Semati, 2010). Additionally politicians are actively involved in eliminating the brown space with the thought of pushing Muslim minority groups out of Euro-America because they are deemed as being valueless.
With these examples cited, the lives of the Muslim people residing in Euro-American states are facing harsh realities that come with being a marginalized minority group living among a greater and a more superior culture. With these examples comes evidence that implies that Muslims who have been described as brown space are becoming less valuable to these economies. Their religion has become a source of pain and suffering because it has impeached their rights and freedom. With the fact that the Muslim religion is facing massive opposition and rebellion from America and Europe, the human value which is often connected to their mobility, employability and equal distribution of resources by the government has undermined their value (Semati, 2010). Most of the Muslims have been pushed into refugee camps, farms, detainment centers, border interrogation rooms and prisons where they are made to face endless trials relating to terrorism. Imposing Muslim races, cultural practices and ethnicity to lateral surveillance has sanctioned their behavior and in return they have become over defensive because of the fear of racial attacks. a country that its citizens are made to live like convicted criminals seeking for asylum are never productive because they spend more facing depression and handling post-traumatic stress than they spend creating new productive ideas. Again Sharma add that the reason why the value of Muslim people has been reducing is the fact that they cannot be employed in organizations because their religious believes support the wearing of turbans and keeping of beards.
In another qualitative research conducted by Mehdi Semati, the author seems to be positioned on illustrating the value of Muslims and Islamic religion in Europe and America. Semati, (2010) uses his Journal titled ‘Islamophobia, culture and race in the age of empire’ to elaborate the place of Muslims in Western countries. In his journal papers, Semati cites incidences of genealogical sketches that have been relevant in explaining the post-cold war effect that has impacted on the value of Muslims to date. The aspect of political imaginary is further exhibited bringing to books the realization that politics plays a pertinent role in promulgating differential racism. Unlike other writers who view Islamophobia as a political ideology, Semati posits that the term is a conflated negation of concepts regarding histories, societies, cultures and politics which attempts to generalize Muslims into a single marginalized group so as to alienate them from Euro-American states. In this context, there are bids to jeopardize the lives of Muslim immigrants seeking asylum in Europe and America. The deepening of Islamophobia is meant to initiate a transformation that will segregate the browns from the rest of the Westerners.
The ideology behind Islamophobia and the spreading negativity regarding Islamism is aimed at instigating an identity crisis which will make the Muslims feel like cultural outcasts. Efforts to undermine the value of Muslims have led to the cropping up of assaultive Euro-Americans as evidenced by the incidence where six Imams were removed from a Phoenix bound flight by flight attendants at the Minneapolis Airport in November 2006 (Semati, 2010). The passengers as well as the flight crew attested to the Imams having exhibited suspicious behavior. The public had different views of the story whereas others associated the incidence with mere victimization while the others saw it as a security threat that was saved in the nick of time. When the six imams who were removed from the airplane filed lawsuits against the airport and the passengers on the grounds of mistreatment, the American congress changed the rules so that it shielded the passengers against being taken to court. This move was defended by the American Government which stated that it needed to protect the passengers so as to win their loyalty in the community policing programs. Apparently, many innocent Muslims have been victimized for their indulgence in suspicious behavior even when they were not planning to break the law.
Semati further illustrates the impact of the genealogical sketch on the value of Muslim people inhabiting Euro-American states. He states that literal works of imagery, storytelling and narrations suggest that Islamic religion has embedded itself into orientalism visions endowed to them by Western countries. The gist of this statement is supported by Kamiya, (2007) who supports that the orientation process has been disfigured by the media which constantly highlights episodes and experiences to implicate Muslims with terrorism and lose of dignity. The media has perfected the art of cover ups while covering sensitive information that will make the Muslims feel valued hence they are continuously undermined and their rights taken away without the media reporting or being biased about their coverage. It thus becomes hard for the public to know the truth and in such an instance, they start associating any bad happening to the Muslim minorities in their midst. It is because of these reasons that the need for integration as a preferred acculturation option has failed to take place in Euro-America. From the narrations, it becomes rife that innocent Muslims have faced numerous atrocities in the hands of Euro-Americans who are keen to take revenge on them because of their alleged involvement with terrorism.
The journal takes a liberal twist when the author states that all Muslims are portrayed as perpetrators of terror but in the real sense, most of them are loyal to the countries that host and feed them day after day. The truth is that terrorism is propagated by wealthy Islamic mafia who want to use the divide and rule ideology to destabilize peace in the Euro-America regions. He then fast-forwards into the events of the September, 2001 when US experienced a major terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. There have been many conspiracies facing the bombing which among them are stories of ‘…West fighting its own demons’ (Kamiya, 2007). Or better put, he suggests that it’s the Westerners fighting their own wars against themselves. This statement seems true in the light of events that marked the bombing. The international community has continuously debunked these conspiracies and made the minority browns among the majority Euro-Americans to suffer in silence because the whole world seems to be oblivious of the truth. An example is when a xeno-racist media commentator working for the CNN Headline News warned of the possibility of the Muslims taking over America and Europe. Subjecting these comments to an intelligence audit makes them void and null.
When a retired CIA officer by the name of Michael Scheuer was interrogated as a special guest on the Glenn Beck Show, the counterterrorism officer said that Europe was a dying nation because the government had not taken any measures to contain their demography. He further added that Europe could be an Islamic continent by the year 2050. Another prominent lawyer and a professor of law at the Harvard University, Alan Dershowitz while being interrogated on the Beck Show showed his disappointment in Muslims citing that the Muslims wanted to take over the United States. He also seconded the statements made by Michael Scheuer regarding the European take over by the Muslim religion which was becoming stronger (Kamiya, 2007). The credibility of these defamatory statements is yet to be proved but the fact is that they have been fundamental in undermining the value of Muslims in Euro-America. From these statements made by statesmen, it is observable that the Euro-American states are afraid of the Muslim cultures and religion which makes the United States rebellious. Through these statements also, it is noticeable that Islamophobia is transmitted into citizens who begin attacks on innocent Muslims.
In a European Journal of cultural studies written by Henry Mainsah under the title of ‘I could well have said I was Norwegian but nobody would believe me’. The author presents cases where the plight of Muslims has come under question because of their being ethnic minority in both America and in Europe. Mainsah, (2011) seems to be concerned with conducting an empirical research to elaborate the suffering of Muslims in the hands of Euro-Americans more so after the occurrence of 9/11. Being that the research is focused on extracting information from Website users, anonymity was of essence in revealing the true emotions and feelings of the people towards the value of Muslims residing among them. Moreover the journal revealed that immigrants in Norway used social networking sites as a form of stress release because they could only speak anonymously behind video screens. This imagery represents the suffering of Muslims in European countries because losing freedom is one way of losing core life values. Lacking freedom equates to slavery of colonialism where a minority tribe is enslaved by the majority tribes because the media has portrayed all Muslims as terrorists.
Among the empirical data and information collected is from profiles belonging to youths between the age brackets of 16 and 20 years. Mainsah, (2011) discovered that in the process of self-presentation, certain elements such as that of images and texts are explored to reveal the true feeling and cultural identities of these youths. From this journal it is plausible that after the 9/11, the Muslim youths living in Euro-American countries have a liking for social media and networking sites because they help them construct their identities within a multi-cultured society that is too afraid to interact with them. The other fact that stands out from the paper is that despite Norway being new to multi-culturalism as compared to counties like the United Kingdom, Canada, United States and France which for a long time have embraced multi-cultural societies, has no proper guide that can help handle the political differences, racial diversity and ethnic divides that come with immigrants. Norway has been the most liberal European country while dealing with Muslims and this has given them a sense of worthiness and belonging but given the increasing fear of Islamophobia especially after 9/11, Muslims value is bound to reduce as more stringent policies are being tailored to contain them.
The ideas presented in the preceding chapters are also supported by the ‘Terrorism and the politics of fear’ journal as written by David, Altheide of the Arizona State University. Althaide, (2006) documents how Islamophobia has impacted the value of Muslim people across Europe and America. He writes about the insurgence of Islamic cultural practices and religion by Euro-Americans after the 9/11 because they have constantly victimized Muslims as being terrorists. The author father argues that politicians have used past terrorist attacks as building blocks towards making campaign promises and making the citizens feel insecure in the eyes of the Muslim minority groups. Because of the politics of fear theory, Muslims have been undervalued as their contribution towards national building has been confined by their victimization. He also supports that the media has played a negative role in killing the self esteem of Muslims who are being viewed as valueless and that they should all go back to their mother counties either dead or alive.
References
Altheide, D. (2006). Terrorism and the politics of fear. Arizona State University: Sage Publications.
Brock, A. (2009). Who do you think you are? Race, Representation, and Cultural Rhetoric in Online Spaces. University of Iowa: Poroi 6, Iss. 1 (2009): p.15-35.
Kamiya, G. (2007). Iraq: Why the media failed, Salon.com, [online] Available at: http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/04/10/media_failure/
MacFarquhar, N. (2006). Pakistanis find U.S. an easier fit than Britain. The New York Times, 21 August, p. 1.
Mainsah, H. (2011). I could well have said I was Norwegian but nobody would believe me: ethnic minority youths’ self-representation on social network sites. European Journal of Cultural Studies 14(2) 179–193
Pynting, S. & Mason, V. (2007). The resistible rise of Islamophobia: Anti-Muslim racism in the UK and Australia before 11 September 2001. Journal of Sociology: the Australian Sociological Association. 43(1): 61-86.
Semati, M. (2010). Islamophobia, culture and race in the age of empire. Cultural Studies Vol. 24, No. 2 March 2010, pp. 256-275
Sharma, S. (2010). Taxi cab publics and the production of brown space after 9/11. Cultural Studies Vol. 24, No. 2 March 2010, pp. 183-199
