What comes to mind when I hear the words radicalization and religion is radical Islam. I was talking to my extremely conservative Mormon grandma the other day and she went off on one of her rants about how evil muslims are, explaining that they want everyone to convert to Islam. I couldn't help but laugh and ask, "isn't that what the Mormon church wants too?" She just responded with, "well the Mormon church isn't evil!!" She also brought up how outrageous she thinks it is that President Obama and Hillary Clinton won't say the "Islamic terrorism" or "radical Islam." I had heard people mention the controversy of using these terms (or similar ones), but this conversation with my grams got me curious about what the big deal was. After research, I understand more about the problems and damaging effects it has on our society's view on Muslims.
ISIS is an extreme group of Muslims. Like many religious texts, such as the bible, the Quran can be interpreted in different ways. ISIS bases their actions on the literal reading of the Quran. The Islamic State refers to the attackers as martyrs for the sake of Islam, identifying them as young men who “divorced the worldly life” to die in the path of Allah and for his cause. It would be similar a christian reading Saul’s genocidal destruction of the Amalekites in the first book of Samuel and believing killing people was what God wanted. Just because someone does something in the name of religion does not mean the religion or others in the religion are to blame.
Islam has 1.6 billion adherents, Muslims make up 23% of the world. About .006625% of the Muslim population are "extremist". This is such a minuscule amount, yet so many people are afraid of Muslims, or think anyone wearing a hijab or a turban is a terrorist. The term "Radical Islam" is problematic because it has created many people to have negative feelings towards Muslims in general. The large majority of Muslims disagree with what the extremists are doing and they realize it is harmful to the name of their religion. Referring to the terrorists as 'radical Islam' is legitimizing their beliefs that what they are doing is in the name of religion.
President Obama has refused to say 'Islamic Terrorism' and has received a lot of criticism, mostly from conservatives, about his decision. In an interview with CNN, Obama gave his reasoning for not using that term to discuss terrorist attacks, "[t]here is no doubt, and I've said repeatedly, where we see terrorist organizations like al Qaeda or ISIL -- They have perverted and distorted and tried to claim the mantle of Islam for an excuse for basically barbarism and death. These are people who've killed children, killed Muslims, take sex slaves, there's no religious rationale that would justify in any way any of the things that they do. But what I have been careful about when I describe these issues is to make sure that we do not lump these murderers into the billion Muslims that exist around the world, including in this country, who are peaceful, who are responsible, who, in this country, are fellow troops and police officers and fire fighters and teachers and neighbors and friends."
In this day in age, social media is normalizing everything. A terrorist attack is always sad but, unfortunately, it's not too shocking these days. Social media tends to mention all the bad things that happen but only a few of the good things going on. This makes it hard to make people understand the small percentage of muslim terrorists compared to muslims. Based on social media, it is easy to believe that most muslims are terrorists because they show all the negative stories about muslims. We must remember that social media does not show the full perspective, they just magnify a small portion and make it seem big.
Stereotyping has always really bothered me. It's not fair for someone to be judged based on their skin color, religion, sexuality, gender, etc. yet people do it all the time. People need to look at the statistics and realize that the large majority of muslims are not terrorists, they are just normal people who don't deserve to get treated a differently because a few people, relatively, in their religion have made bad decisions.
President Obama has refused to say 'Islamic Terrorism' and has received a lot of criticism, mostly from conservatives, about his decision. In an interview with CNN, Obama gave his reasoning for not using that term to discuss terrorist attacks, "[t]here is no doubt, and I've said repeatedly, where we see terrorist organizations like al Qaeda or ISIL -- They have perverted and distorted and tried to claim the mantle of Islam for an excuse for basically barbarism and death. These are people who've killed children, killed Muslims, take sex slaves, there's no religious rationale that would justify in any way any of the things that they do. But what I have been careful about when I describe these issues is to make sure that we do not lump these murderers into the billion Muslims that exist around the world, including in this country, who are peaceful, who are responsible, who, in this country, are fellow troops and police officers and fire fighters and teachers and neighbors and friends."
In this day in age, social media is normalizing everything. A terrorist attack is always sad but, unfortunately, it's not too shocking these days. Social media tends to mention all the bad things that happen but only a few of the good things going on. This makes it hard to make people understand the small percentage of muslim terrorists compared to muslims. Based on social media, it is easy to believe that most muslims are terrorists because they show all the negative stories about muslims. We must remember that social media does not show the full perspective, they just magnify a small portion and make it seem big.
Stereotyping has always really bothered me. It's not fair for someone to be judged based on their skin color, religion, sexuality, gender, etc. yet people do it all the time. People need to look at the statistics and realize that the large majority of muslims are not terrorists, they are just normal people who don't deserve to get treated a differently because a few people, relatively, in their religion have made bad decisions.
Links to articles related to this topic:
World’s Muslim Population More Widespread Than You Might Think - Pew Research
It's Not the Religion That Creates Terrorists, It's the Politics- The Guardian
The Problem With Calling It 'Radical Islam'- CNN
Why We're Debating the Term 'Radical Islam' in the Wake of Orlando- Huffington Post
4 Ways Grounds It's Actions in Religion, and Why It Should Matter- Religion News
Mehdi Hasan: How Islamic is Islamic State? - News Statesman
Teaching Islam in the age of ISIS- Religion News
Muslims Are Not Terrorists: A Factual Look at Terrorism and Islam- Huffington Post
Obama: Why I Wont Say 'Islamic Terrorism' - CNN
Great post. Thank you.
ReplyDelete