Islamophobia in U.S. Society and Schools, Recognizing and Countering

Confusion and Misinformation about Islam and the Muslim Community

The U.S. public has recently acknowledged that government officials and the media have communicated mixed messages about the Muslim community in the United States and the Islamic nations abroad, particularly in claiming that the “war on [Page 1282]terrorism” is not against the Muslim religion. U.S. political leaders reiterate that we need the support of Muslims everywhere to help root out terrorism. However, after 9/11, the U.S. Congress enacted the USA PATRIOT Act of 2002, which militates against Muslims in almost every sphere of their lives—their businesses, families, efforts to travel, and education. Some sociologists have pointed out that the threat of communism has now been replaced with the threat of Islam. In numerous media sources, Muslim and Arab communities in the United States and abroad are depicted as suspect and threatening. The use of words like terrorist, extremist, radical, and fundamentalist creates rhetoric that could serve to alienate the U.S. public. U.S. educators are grappling with the question of whether they should portray Muslims as a monolithic, static, and authoritarian population or as a diverse and dynamic people, sharing a common humanity and concern for worldwide peace. In schools and elsewhere in U.S. society, Islamophobia has engendered prejudicial and racist practices toward Muslims and toward people who merely appear to be Muslim, Arabic, or of Middle Eastern origin. Women who wear the hijab, or head covering, are often taunted and harassed. Parents of school-age boys with names such as Osama, Saddam, or Abdulazziz—names of long historical significance and honor in Muslim heritage and religion, but often little known in the United States—have felt it necessary to change their sons' names to “American-sounding” names like Sam or Jim. As a target of racial discrimination, Islamophobia also invokes self-deprecation, self-hatred, and a disparagement of Muslim identity that envelops Islamic families and their schoolchildren. However, students in some U.S. schools are offered information, exhibits, resource persons, films, and videos about the Islamic and Arabic heritages, languages, and traditions, although they are cautioned and advised to be wary of Arabs and Muslims.

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