(Thumbnail Image: The New York Times)

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

 

A grassroots coalition of Muslim organizations are launching a public service announcement they hope will combat a “rising tide of fear-mongering” against Muslims.

“In recent weeks, a lot of people have been telling you what to think about Muslims. They say you should fear me, suspect me, hate me, but the truth is I don’t want to impose my faith on you. I don’t want to take over this country, and I don’t support terrorism of any form.” (Hawa DC)

The ad, and others like it, are stoking a continuing debate over whether Americans are growing increasingly Islamophobic — on the heels of a nationwide public debate over the building of a proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero. 

A reporter for Sacramento’s KTXL suggests there are competing messages of hate targeting Muslims across the country.

REPORTER: “A plastic pig protest, recalling 9/11 that Muslims say showed up at a local mosque.”

MAN: “The atmosphere of Islamophobia right now, I would say it’s worse than 9/11. We have this orchestrated campaign against the community.”

A segment for The Young Turks suggests Muslims as a whole are being unfairly blamed for acts of terrorism.

“As if there’s this one monolithic Muslim. The same guy who had a conquest in 800 A.D. also did the same thing 1400 A.D. and then he came over and did 9/11 and he’s linked to the Muslim Americans that live in New York City, also by the way some of whom got killed on 9/11.”

But do the allegations of Islamophobia have any merit? A recent Pew Research Center poll says American attitudes toward Islam have grown less favorable in the last five years, but not by much.

“Currently, 30 percent say they have a favorable opinion of Islam while slightly more (38 percent) have an unfavorable view ... In 2005, slightly more expressed a favorable opinion of Islam than an unfavorable opinion (by 41 percent to 36 percent).”

Appearing in the Kansas City Star, McClatchy’s Margaret Talev says there are understandable — though misguided — explanations for any expressed fear toward Islam.

“While most Muslims aren't terrorists, most terrorist attacks on U.S. targets or allies over the past 40 years were committed by aggressors who were Muslim or Middle Eastern. ... While many hijackings, hostage-takings and killings of the 1970s and 1980s were by secular Palestinians ... most Americans don't make such distinctions.”



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