Islamophobia Description Essay

Racism occurs all over the world. To believe that there would be a point where racism wouldn’t exist is too idealistic. Racism has occurred in the past and racism continues to occur today. When people say that racism doesn’t exist as much as it used to or when they used the words â€Å"improved† or â€Å"better† to describe it, they are either speaking from their opinion or they are to an extent true. Yes, it is true that there is no more slavery; it is true that people aren’t as discriminatory to African Americans as they used to be, but as a matter of fact, something doesn’t end when it shifts. Racism and discrimination have shifted towards a Muslims. Racism towards Islam increased after 9/11. Society understands that being prejudice is wrong, however, they still have negative opinions about Muslims. For example, we are all humans, and just because some of us are criminals, that doesn’t make all of us criminals. Because some are insa ne doesn’t mean all are. Because some are extremists doesn’t mean all of us are. If a person agrees, that one man’s actions shouldn’t define the personality of another man, then why do people tend to discriminate? Racism’s effects are really harmful; they keep the society from progressing and cause corruption within. Security has increased at the airport; a person has to go through multiple bag checks and metal detectors, in order exit or enter this country. What ceases to amaze me is that the Declaration of Independence, states that â€Å"all men are created equal† but people can still have intolerance towards others. What really aggravated me was when I had to travel this summer to the Middle East with my family, my brothers, who are only 9 and 13 years old, were thoroughly checked: they stood in a glass cubicle, they had to take off their shoes, and they had to go through further metal detection all because of their names. My question is what did these children know? How to play football or video games? They didn’t even watch the news, they rather yelled at my Dad to change the channel, every once in a while he decided to watch TV because they wanted to watch cartoons. I felt like yelling at the security guard, but I chose not to, because that would’ve been either used aga inst me, or because of the glare that my mother was giving me. Also, there have been many terms that I found  derogatory. Terms like â€Å"Islamophobia† or â€Å"xenophobia† are used to describe an irrational fear or dislike of outsiders and â€Å"Muslims† or rather Terrorists. What people fail to realize is that there will always be extremes. Another thing that aggravates me, are false and misleading websites that teach other people to hate Muslims. These websites say quotes like, â€Å"Are you burning with the peace of Islam† in a sarcastic way, while showing pictures of violence. The sad thing is that people have come to trust these websites, with false and misleading statistics and information. I don’t see extremists and murderers as people of faith, I see these people for who they are: murderers, murderers of human life, of equality, of freedom and of faith. In my opinion, Extremists use faith as a way to rationalize their actions and that’s exactly what these websites deny. The websites falsely accuse all Muslims to be violent and barbaric. This causes peo ple to become hostile towards all of my kind. Once, I went to a program at a Precinct in Manhattan. The program was â€Å"trying† to promote peace and â€Å"helping† Muslims feel comfortable with Cops or other authoritative officials. A woman Muslim/ Cop made a speech at the podium about, how she was treated as an equal among her fellow workers. She was from Yemen, but even if she was Muslim, she didn’t wear the head scarf which separated her from her audiences. A woman that I can never forget stood up during her speech, she was wearing a head scarf, she had most of her face covered and she said loudly, â€Å"You don’t wear the head scarf, How would you feel, If a Cop came to your doorstep, and started yelling at you to remove your scarf when you did nothing? I am a Black Muslim woman and I am proud of it, and No one has the right to tell me to take off my scarf!† The speaker didn’t have a proper response towards the woman. It is indecent, inappropriate, immoral, and unjust to use author ity in a wrong way that would violate another human being’s boundaries. What happened to her freedom and equality when she was forced to do so? How can we trust our officials? How can we trust society if we know that nothing has changed? In conclusion, the effects of racism diminish the chances of an equal, free and prosperous life. Things have only escalated over the course of these years, I don’t know when things will change, I don’t know how they  will change. But what I do know is that I hope and I try to make a difference to change things and so do other people, maybe change is right around the corner or maybe we have to fall before we can stand back up again. Change will come, Discrimination will end and when it does it will hopefully be everlasting.