Islamophobia in the United States
[4] CAP defines the megaphone analogy as "a tight network of anti-Muslim, anti-Islam foundations, misinformation experts, validators, grass root organizations, religious rights groups and their allies in the media and in politics" who work together to misrepresent Islam and Muslims in the United States.
"[15] A Council on American-Islamic Relations staffer who collected the data that ProPublica verified noted that the organization saw spike both "during election years and after news coverage of major terrorist attacks."
[17] In a legal dispute that ended in 2014 when the U.S. Supreme Court declining to hear the case, lawyers attempting to stop the mosque from opening asserted that Islam is not a religion and thus not protected by the First Amendment.
[20] It became a national controversy during the 2010 mid-term election, with some public figures defending the project as religious freedom and other insisting its proximity to the site of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack was a provocation.
These arguments and other ones like it have been used to justify anti-Muslim rhetoric among politicians or commentators and efforts by local communities to block the construction or expansion of Muslim religious spaces.
[30] Such a title, "Under My Hijab" written by Khan was banned in school or public libraries in a few Republican states under laws barring the teaching of or promotion of topics surrounding diversity or equity.
[36] In regards to religious accommodation, a Muslim woman named Halla Banafa filed a discrimination claim after she didn't receive a job stocking merchandise at an Abercrombie Kids store in Milpitas, California because she wore the hijab.
[44] In 2017, the government of New York City charged Pax Assist with discrimination after refusing requests by Muslims employees to change the times of their breaks to coincide with iftar.
[47] Scholars assert that media, Islamophobic organizations, and politicians have played a tremendous role in depicting Muslim women as consistently endangered and subjugated by the alleged patriarchal nature of Islam.
[57] According to a 2016 study, anti-Muslim rhetoric in the media and politics contributes to the marginalization and stigmatization of Muslim communities, which in turn can lead to negative health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and reduced access to healthcare services.
To address these issues, the author of the study recommended a multi-faceted approach that includes raising awareness, challenging stereotypes, and promoting cultural sensitivity among healthcare professionals.
[61] Most gyms, fitness clubs, and other workout facilities in the United States are mixed-sex, so the performance of exercises without a hijab or a burqa can be difficult for some religiously observant Muslim girls and women.
Maria Omar, director of media relations for the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA), has advised Muslim women to entirely avoid these complexes.
[64] The San Francisco Bay Area office said that the federal and state laws were violated when an Air Canada gate agent forced Fatima Abdelrahman to remove her hijab.
In spite of the money dedicated to the new homeland security paradigm after 9/11,[72] some have argued that these stricter immigration policies and expanded executive powers have not helped apprehend terrorists.
[79] Of over 83,000 men who were registered, only about 13,000 of them were deemed dangerous enough to enter deportation proceedings,[79] and President Bush's Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner James Ziglar stated that no one in the registry was ever charged and convicted of crimes associated with terrorism.
[88][87] The Trump administration also contained multiple figures that made and spread anti-Muslim remarks, notably Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Sebastion Gorka and many others.
[85] The travel ban enacted by the Trump administration that limited refugees from entering the United States from several counties with significant or majority Muslim populations was seen as being rooted in Islamophobia by several researchers.
[89] Trump has also praised anti-Muslim figures and politicians from around the world and once claimed that Muslim migrants were raising the crime level in Europe and that they have "strongly and violently changed" the cultures of European countries.
[106] Despite the notable prejudice towards Arabs and Muslims after the terrorist attack, outlets like the New York Times printed opinion pieces discouraging the indiscriminate attribution of blame to one or more groups by the way of curtailing civil liberties and social freedoms.
[106] They cite that because news media outlets selected Muslims and Arabs for interviews and discussions instead of their traditional authoritative sources, these minority groups became more visible to the American public.
[106] As time passed the immediate months post-9/11, the news media outlets reflected a notable shift away from positive, supportive, and empathetic sentiments towards Muslim Americans and Arabs.
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was identified as American born but held a Muslim background, shot and killed thirteen soldiers and wounded thirty more.
The congressional testimony which was delivered by the Southern Poverty Law Centre in 2011 illustrated that "Mosques were burned or destroyed and death threats and harassment followed many Muslims in the weeks following the attacks".
[121] According to Hatem Bazian, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, and leader of the college's Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project, the result of asking questions related to the insecurity of Muslims was that "almost 80% said they feel at least somewhat worried about the safety of their family in the U.S."[120] In February 2008, the Islamic Center of Columbia was firebombed with Molotov cocktails by adherents of the right-wing extremist Christian Identity religion.
[128] In 2011, the Center for American Progress published a report titled Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobic Network in America, which asserted that an elite, wealthy group of conservative foundations and donors were the engine behind the continuation of Islamophobia in law, private spheres, and general public sentiment.
[4] Much of this money goes to what the report called "misinformation experts":[4] people who spread the message that Islam is an inherently sinister and hostile religion that seeks to convert or destroy all non-Muslims, especially those residing in the United States.
[4] He contributes content to 'Jihad Watch', a blog which is heavily funded by the David Horowitz Freedom Center Initiative and the extremist Stop Islamization of America hate group.
[129] Smearcasting, an organization which is dedicated to accurate reporting, accused Spencer of demonizing Muslims by claiming that he only focuses on the violent verses and texts which are contained within the Islamic scriptures in order to deem them representative of the faith as a whole.
"[137][138] Two educators at universities in Utah have claimed that these American atheist activists invoke Samuel Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' theory to explain the current political contestation, and that this forms part of a trend toward "Islamophobia [...] in the study of Muslim societies".
