Religious Intolerance: An Analysis on the Effects of Islamophobia Towards Muslim

Americans

Natalie R. Mieczkowski

First Colonial High School

Legal Studies Academy

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Abstract

In this paper, Islamophobia and the serious negative effects it has on Muslim Americans are

addressed through extensive research and study. Discussions on anti-Muslim hate and biases

against the Muslim community are conveyed and the importance of standing up for positive

change throughout the United States (U.S.) is emphasized. The author discusses several different

aspects of a Muslim American’s life where they might face Islamophobia in a school or work

setting, as well as public places such as a grocery store or a park. The paper includes several

court cases detailing incidents where Muslim Americans were exposed to and impacted by

Islamophobic remarks and actions as well as Islamophobic policies.

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Religious Intolerance: An Analysis on the Effects of Islamophobia Towards Muslim

Americans

America was severely struck on the day of September 11th, 2001 (9/11) when the militant

Islamist terrorist group Al Qaeda attacked the United States. It was the deadliest terrorist attack

on U.S. soil. Overnight, the country became a beaten nation struggling to find its feet and recover

from the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and Flight 93 that was diverted by

American heroes. It took months to recover from such devastating events; however, almost 20

years later one particular group has never fully recovered from the horrific events and

repercussions of that day. Muslim Americans face challenges every day due to the

misrepresentation of their religion, ethnicity, and race in American society. In a time where there

are national recognitions and new policies to support groups like the LGBTQ+ community and

people of color, Muslim Americans have yet to see or benefit from major public support and

acceptance of their religious beliefs and customs.

Evaluating the School System

Islam is a faith that has existed for thousands of years, beginning with traders, farmers,

and sailors who simply believed in a god different from the Catholic or Jewish faiths. Since the

people worship the God, Allah, they continuously receive hatred from society. One prime

example of anti-Muslim remarks and actions begins in the school system from teachers, faculty,

and students. Muslim American students face discrimination daily in a place that is considered to

be a safe space for all children. Students from diverse religious, national, and economic

backgrounds gather to be educated, and not judged for their background, faith, or color of their

skin. A survey by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) discovered that 42
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percent of Muslim families with children in a K-12 school reported bullying of their children due

to their faith. This is in comparison with reports from Jewish parents, who reported 23 percent,

and Protestant parents who reported 20 percent (Ochieng, 2017).

Anti-Muslim Laws

The militant Islam is too regularly equated with the true religion of Islam by non-Muslims,

partially because people are quick to assume one’s evil intent when they are scared. This can be

attributed to the ignorance of the American majority on the topic of Islam. A major reason for

this is that there is little to no education on the history of the religion or historical figures of the

Islamic faith in American schools. The hatred and bullying that Muslim Americans face appear

in several different aspects of their lives, it can be a teacher, classmate, parent, co-worker, the

cashier at the grocery store, or a neighbor. The Muslim American community is considered

young, with 47% of the population younger than 35 years of age and 61% under the age of 49.

This concludes that these young Muslims are growing up in a society that not only fears them but

despises them, forcing them to look over their shoulder when a police officer is nearby or a

group of white men (Reagan, 2020).

Court Cases

In Citizens for Quality Education San Diego v. San Diego Unified School District: the

lawsuit came in response to the district’s established “Anti-Islamophobia Initiative,” with the

plaintiff claiming that the initiative was giving special treatment towards Muslim American

students, and taking away from the students of other races. The lawsuit was filed in 2017 to

challenge the constitutionality of the initiative, even questioning whether there was a substantial
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bullying crisis targeted towards Muslim American students in the San Diego school system.

Another issue brought up was the partnering of San Diego Unified School District and The

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), arguing that the partnership would give the

private group governmental power. The settlement did not result in any monetary payments or

admission of liability on the school district’s part but did result in San Diego Unified School

District dropping its partnership with CAIR and joining forces with the Anti-Defamation League.

Judge Bashant rejected the families’ preliminary injunction efforts, saying that the district’s

actions and installment of the initiative would benefit all parties, not just Muslim American

Students (Schroeder, 2020). Muslim American students have disclosed they are constantly

harassed and bullied inside and outside of the classroom by fellow students and teachers with

often no action, on the school’s part, to help them. These children are attending a place of

learning where there may be no positive representation of Muslims in the history books;

however, the tragic attacks of 9/11 and other militant Islamist terrorist attacks are included in

these history books and most often unfairly associates the religion to the attacks. They attend

school to have equal opportunities for a first class education and often find themselves plunged

into an unsafe environment where they are constantly exposed to anti-Muslim speech and

lessons.

Islamophobia in the Workplace

After having to endure anti-Muslim speech and bullying in the classroom, Muslim American

children grow up to finish their education and hope to find a good job that will provide for them

and show respect for their culture. In return for their work and service to the company or

government, it is reasonable that their religious practices be respected and supported.

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Unfortunately, there are many cases every day that arise where an employee is denied the time

necessary for Ramadan, a month-long holy and sacred celebration filled with prayer, fasting, and

reflection for Muslims. There are many cases, as well, where Muslim women were even denied

the ability to wear their religious hijab at their place of work.

Court Cases

In a lawsuit against the City of San Jose and the San Jose Police Department, Officer

Nabil Haidar had filed a lawsuit against the San Jose Police Department claiming anti-Muslim

harassment from coworkers. The Lebanese-American officer sued the department in 2018,

claiming that his fellow officers targeted him by often repeating anti-Muslim comments. The

lawsuit is still in the Santa Clara County Superior Court but has just received more publicity after

a recent incident where retired and current officers posted anti-Muslim Facebook comments.

However, the same public leaders and police chief who are condemning the officers did not come

to Haidar’s defense when he raised such concerns a year prior to this incident. Haidar alleged one

specific occurrence was during a police briefing in November of 2017, when a Captain

recognized veterans and one of the sergeants stated, “Captain, you forgot to mention Nabil. He is

an ISIS veteran. He was with ISIS for two years.” This depicts that such harassment is regularly

present in the workplace and is not a singular event, as officers within the same department have

also been reported posting deplorable comments describing how ‘black lives don’t matter’ when

referring to the shootings in Chicago on the recent events of the Black Lives Matter movement

(Salonga, 2020).
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Support for Muslim American Workers

Previous Supreme Court Cases have gone to court over many similar disputes where an

employer denied a Muslim employee the opportunity to practice their faith correctly. In one

major Supreme Court case in October of 1999, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the

authorization of Muslim officers wearing their beards in accordance with the practices of their

Muslim faith. This case came after two New Jersey Muslim police officers were suspended for

declining to shave their beards. Around the same time, The Council on American Islamic

Relations (CAIR) published a booklet titled, “An Employer’s Guide to Islamic Religious

Practices” to help raise awareness of the struggles Muslim Americans face in the workforce. This

was also an effort to aid employers in their attempt to work with and support these companies’

Muslim workers. One major company that is recognized for its steps and efforts in supporting its

Muslim workers is Dunkin’ Donuts (Dunkin’), which has worked diligently in providing

accommodations when necessary for its Muslim employees who make up 40% of its workforce

(Durrani, 2001).

Outside/Public Occurrences

As stated above, anti-Muslim hate has forced its way into two environments that are

considered to be ‘safe spaces’ with equal opportunity policies set in place, yet Islamophobic

incidents occur regularly with Muslim Americans. Muslim children, being exposed from a young

age, learn while growing up how to keep a low profile and keep their head down as they endure

stares, comments, and gestures from neighbors, servers, and other onlookers. One major issue

that currently cycles through court is the issue of Muslim Americans on airline flights and staff

or other passengers becoming uncomfortable.

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In January of 2020, Delta was fined $50,000 by the U.S. Transportation Department for two

counts of allegedly discriminating against Muslim passengers. The specific situations in question

include denying three passengers boarding on the plane even after being cleared by TSA with

extra security checks. It was ultimately a failure to follow correct security protocol with both

instances, one being a couple flying back from their 10th wedding anniversary trip to Paris, and

another being a student kicked off the plane after speaking Arabic on his cell phone. In both

cases, the pilots refused to take off if the Muslim people were still on the plane and instructed the

flight crew to remove the passengers from the plane without any solid evidence or reason for

doing so. Delta’s spokesperson responded by admitting that their fair and equal customer service

was not demonstrated in these two cases, they stated that they had properly trained their staff and

the two occurrences did not reflect their company’s standards or policies (Coffey, 2020).

Another unfortunate, but very real issue is the treatment of Muslim Americans by

government officials, electives, and representatives. In November of 2018, State Senator Jason

Rapert of Arkansas posted on Facebook an article highlighting how 95% of Muslim voters had

participated in the recent midterm elections. The Senator’s comment attached to the article

posted read, “Do you want them ruling everything in America?” Later, a tweet, where the

Senator had “direct messaged" another user in confidence, was leaked. In the private message to

the individual, he said, “If you read this article and don’t see real political concerns then you

have a problem perceiving news.” (Anti-Muslim Activities, 2018) It is detestable that an elected

official, a state senator at that, would find it in his conscious mind appropriate and excusable to

write such a thing, let alone post it on social media further demonstrating the discrimination

Muslim Americans often face.

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Vandalism of Mosques and Communities

Although it is not always easy to spot active anti-Muslim incidents taking place in your

community and they can sometimes seem insignificant, the fact is those very serious threats and

acts of violence take place as well without being publicized. In May of 2018, an unidentified

man left multiple threatening voicemails over an entire week to a mosque in Florida. Many of the

messages he left contained phrases like, “I planted a bomb in your temple. I’m gonna blow your

[expletive] temple up. You guys wanna come here and cause mayhem to America, well I’m

gonna cause mayhem to your religion, cause your religion is nothing but lies. Lies, lies, lies from

the devil! Where’s Allah now!” The man was later identified and charged with making a bomb

threat by telephone. Unfortunately, not every incident, like that one, is as swift in finding justice

for the Muslim community mosque that was the victim of a hate crime. In July of 2018, the

North Shore Islamic Center had its doors set on fire by someone who also slashed the imam’s

(head of the Muslim community) tires as well, unfortunately, the case is ongoing and it has yet to

be qualified as a hate crime (Anti-Muslim Activities, 2018).

Physical Violence Against Muslim Americans

In a Ted Talk presented by Suzanne Barakat, she speaks out about the gruesome murders of

her brother Deah, his wife Yusor, and her sister Razan. All three victims were Muslim Americans

studying at The University of North Carolina (UNC) who were known as outstanding students

and volunteers in community service projects. In Deah and Yusor’s house in Chapel Hill, NC, all

three were murdered execution-style by their neighbor when he abruptly knocked on their door
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while they were eating dinner together. Within hours, the story became known throughout the

news as an incident that occurred over a parking dispute, painting the homicide as simply a

neighbor overcome with anger. It would later come out that there was never a parking dispute,

there was, however, online evidence of hate speech displayed by the neighbor on his social

media towards Muslims and minorities where he descriptively wrote of his bitter hostility

towards them. All three victims were confirmed dead on the scene after being shot several times

in the chests and heads, but the story was quickly swept under the rug and not to be publicized

nationally (S. Barakat, speech, 2016).

Suzanne continues to tell her family members’ horrendous story and deals with signs of hate

and Islamophobia on a daily basis; she recalls a story of how she was doing rounds in her

medical residency at a hospital in California where a patient told her that it was ‘her people

killing Americans.’ Suzanne received no backup or help in the situation from her colleagues in

the room and had to defend herself alone like always. Suzanne continues to tell Deah’s, Yusor’s,

and Razan’s story as they cannot and she speaks out against bigotry. She stresses the importance

of proactively working to seek out and recognize hate and raise a voice to stand against it (S.

Barakat, speech, 2016).

Laws Hindering the Muslim American Community

While there are new laws across several states being enacted that are in support of Muslim

Americans and established to help ensure equality for the community, there are still many laws

enacted that are both hurtful and harmful to the Muslim American community across the United

States. In law proposal HB 631, the law was supposedly drafted using the template of a

well-known anti-Muslim extremist, David Yerushalmi. The law was sponsored by Republican
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representative Rick L. Morris and the document consisted of providing that court decisions and

contracts under foreign law would be void as it would violate a person’s rights guaranteed by the

U.S. Constitution. CAIR, in their article, profoundly explained how this law exempts

corporations, but not individuals, as well as instigates fear of Sharia Law and violates Muslims’

civil rights (Council on American-Islamic Relations, 2012).

Conclusion

In conclusion, while American society and the U.S. Government have made major strides

towards creating a more holistic and safe nation where minority citizens can be unafraid of

violence or prejudice, there is still much more work to be done. America has created “the

American Dream” and opportunities for that dream to be achieved claiming inclusivity for

people of all races, color, religion, and nationality. Unfortunately, that picture of opportunity and

success does not always work in the best interest of the Muslim American community, and needs

to be constantly cultivated for long term gains for the country to see a day where that dream is

possible for all Muslim Americans.

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