Lesson 4.4 — Studying Islamophobia and Religious Nationalism
I didn’t realize how long Islamophobia dates back to even before 9/11. Attacking someone base on their religion seems to be apart of American culture. It even relates to one of our earlier reading assignments that mentioned the US wouldn’t recognize Islam’s nation as a religious movement but a terrorist group.
Growing up, I was oblivious to seeing both parties participate in Islamophobia even after years of seeing the damage it does to its citizens. As a community, if we want to make sure America is a safe place for everyone and not just the group we are affiliated with, we have to call out the hatred talks from both sides of the spectrum and leave bias mindset behind. Connecting a whole race or religion to every terrorist attack committed by the group is ignorant and unfair, also misleading that can result in lives lost.
Learning about the history of Islamophobia and its impact on people can help understand how having this mindset does worse than good, turning ordinary citizens into committing terrorist attacks into another American citizen.
