Without a doubt, the issue of the representation of Muslim in public space is covered with the number of stereotypes. Even though it’s proved that 98 % of American Muslims constrain a law-abiding part of the population, it is still the point for controversy and prejudices revolving around the particular religious community. Thus, the sociology and the recent studies are to evidence the transits and shits in the public opinion are still strongly bound with some stereotypes, related no the creation of a bad image around Muslims.
The attitude towards Muslims in America evidences the fact that history matters. The image and the perception of Muslims in the US in a large part is dependent on understanding on the media representation of the tragedy that took place on 9/11, 2001. Ever since, not only the attitude towards Muslims has changed, but prejudices domestic policies were in place, too. As most of the Americans tend to absorb the upcoming information from the media and make a value of it, the fact of misinterpreting of Muslim identity played a large role in that case. However, as a counterpart to Islamophobia, there were some publications that centered the issue of misunderstanding the Muslim identity as well as to conquer the existing myths (Gallup).
In order to get a better comprehension of the issue, the survey among five female and five male Americans was conducted. To get a better overview of peer’s thoughts, there were four questions composed that were related to the search for understanding of a Muslim community. First of all, it is unquestionable that Muslims is primarily a religious marker for comprehending the identity and the attitude. Thus, one of the questions stated as follows: “Would you visit the country with the dominant Muslim religion”. In fact, two female respondents were rather unsure of the safety in the Muslim countries and responded no. The three other respondents wished to attend a country upon the insured safety. Thus, one may conclude that safety was the primary reason for questioning the reasoning to visit the county based on the religious values. In contrast, the male respondents seemed rather sure and more confident about the idea of visiting a Muslim country. Only one person stated the negative opinion to that regard. Thus, one may not that precipitation of the conflict and negative stereotypes was still prevalent among Americans.
Further, while conducting the research, no less important question was asked. In particular, it sounded as follows: “When thinking of Muslim Americans, what is the first thing (person, event), etc. that comes to your mind. To answer this question, religion and terrorism were among the most common answers among female respondents. Only one out of five answered that her association was related to student’s met at a university. Also, it’s worth noting that this responded also was ready to travel to a Muslim country. Religion and terrorism were the two repetitive factors heard from a male perspective. Also, the ethnicity and the food were mentioned, too. So, taking into account above-mentioned answers one may note that the factors that reflect on Muslim identity are strongly interconnected. Yet, it is certainly correct that religion is the factor that defines Muslim community (The Daily Beast). However, the terrorism and the religious identity of terrorists evidence that a negative imprint has been laying since 9/11. So, the act conducted by the very minority influenced on the part of the Muslim population that had no connection to the existing issue.
The other question included in the survey comprised of the comparison. In particular, respondents had to define their attitude towards the issue while imagining the scale. The question was defined as “Would you visit Muslim Americans live”, meaning that a people-to-people contact was taking into consideration to analyze the issue. The answers to this question were rather incomparable to all the previous ones as all females were ready to visit their Muslim and American friends. Similarly, males were open for a visit too. One may conclude that Americans distinguish the identity of Muslims living in America who share similar values with them and Muslims living in Asia who is supposedly likely to commit a terrorist attack (Etanawy).
The final question of the survey concerned the attitude towards coexistence with Muslim Americans in today’s society. The answers to this question were not totally hostile. However, one many not some questioning in the possible cultural coexistence. Thus, the cultural conflict defined the measures and extents to which one would have to adjust. It would therefore also concern communities who cohabitated in the same area.
To conclude, one may note that the attitude towards Muslim has not drastically changed since 9/11. In their minds, people still associate Muslims with terrorists without any analysis or background (Sunbull Ali-Karamali). However, one has certainly changed since that time is the fact that American hospitability would welcome people coming different Muslim countries, in theory. Thus, the view on Muslims has been transformed but the Media discourse and public opinion left some negative imprints up to this time.
