Islamaphobia in the United States

It's a problem. But I heard that someone on the plane understood Arabic and claimed that the person was saying threatening things.

It is super easy to jump to an irrational inclusion. Do you honestly believe a man would be removed from a flight simply for speaking his native tongue? Like Alpheus said, the only way he would have actually been removed was if he was saying threating things, regardless of the language used. The media loves to leave out things like this and hate monger for a good story.

To say things like this don't actually happen would be inaccurate, but more often than not, IMO, their is more to the story.

the only way he would have actually been removed was if he was saying threating things, regardless of the language used. The media loves to leave out things like this and hate monger for a good story.

Or would they?

Don't get me wrong, it's a good story for them without it, but with it you get a 'see! we told you! he said !' justification too which plays in to people's view points.

If the story is 'man speaks Arabic; woman gets freaked out; he is removed' it makes people look like dicks.
If the story is 'man speaks Arabic; someone who under stands it hears threatening things; he is removed' then you can bang the 'Islam is clearly bad! look at what this man said!' drum all you like.

The 'media leave it out' thing is a cop out frankly... as is "well, I heard that someone on the plane..." - citation or it is just hearsay and you are no better than the rumour and fear mongers of the press.

News stories are interesting things.

Normally headlines are designed to grab your attention and get you to read the story. In these days of analytics and view-based revenue, they'll say whatever they can to get you to click the link.

A common example that has been suggested for decades is to think about news articles written about your own field. News reporters are not in that field, unless the news report happens to be about the news media itself.

Whatever the field an individual is in, when they see a news story about their chosen industry most people can realize that the news stories had problems, missed details, or even completely missed the point. Yet when discussing something not in their field, most people consider news stories as true.

Also remember the nature of news is not to publish the commonplace and everyday events. If something is commonplace it is NOT reported.

Is there some Islamaphobia? Yes, some. Is it running rampant? No, most people are level headed. There are always idiots out there doing stupid things, but they are the exception to the rule which makes them newsworthy.

the only way he would have actually been removed was if he was saying threating things, regardless of the language used. The media loves to leave out things like this and hate monger for a good story.

Or would they?

Don't get me wrong, it's a good story for them without it, but with it you get a 'see! we told you! he said !' justification too which plays in to people's view points.

If the story is 'man speaks Arabic; woman gets freaked out; he is removed' it makes people look like dicks.
If the story is 'man speaks Arabic; someone who under stands it hears threatening things; he is removed' then you can bang the 'Islam is clearly bad! look at what this man said!' drum all you like.

The 'media leave it out' thing is a cop out frankly... as is "well, I heard that someone on the plane..." - citation or it is just hearsay and you are no better than the rumour and fear mongers of the press.

Oh jeez, we could dive really deep into media bias if you want to. It is not hear-say, nor is it a cop out, it is reality. If I started going through it with you a flame war would start so I will refrain, but don't kid yourself.

But I heard that someone on the plane understood Arabic and claimed that the person was saying threatening things.

Those words are all indications that a source is needed. I'm not saying it isn't true, but when you say "I heard that someone".... well some research is in order.

As for islamophobia, It's definitely happening.

http://www.kmov.com/story/31286882/news-4-investigates-muslim-family-allegedly-threatened-by-south-county-man

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/02/18/woman-sentenced-for-threatening-muslim-couple

http://www.npr.org/2015/12/25/461046585/rural-wyoming-towns-first-mosque-sparks-anti-muslim-rhetoric?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/22/us-british-citizens-holiday-muslim-families

http://5newsonline.com/2015/12/21/muslim-couple-speaks-out-escorted-from-mall/

(this one also has +1 "ignoring white people conducting terrorism")

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/12/20/tip-leads-bomb-squad-to-man-suspected-of-making-bombs-in-richmond-home-to-harm-muslims/

Also, people are morons

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wwjtd/2015/12/new-polling-data-30-of-republicans-support-bombing-agrabah-the-fictional-city-from-aladdin/

But I heard that someone on the plane understood Arabic and claimed that the person was saying threatening things.

Those words are all indications that a source is needed. I'm not saying it isn't true, but when you say "I heard that someone".... well some research is in order.

As for islamophobia, It's definitely happening.

http://www.kmov.com/story/31286882/news-4-investigates-muslim-family-allegedly-threatened-by-south-county-man

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/02/18/woman-sentenced-for-threatening-muslim-couple

http://www.npr.org/2015/12/25/461046585/rural-wyoming-towns-first-mosque-sparks-anti-muslim-rhetoric?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/22/us-british-citizens-holiday-muslim-families

http://5newsonline.com/2015/12/21/muslim-couple-speaks-out-escorted-from-mall/

(this one also has +1 "ignoring white people conducting terrorism")

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/12/20/tip-leads-bomb-squad-to-man-suspected-of-making-bombs-in-richmond-home-to-harm-muslims/

Also, people are morons

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wwjtd/2015/12/new-polling-data-30-of-republicans-support-bombing-agrabah-the-fictional-city-from-aladdin/

PublicPolicyPolling ?@ppppolls

What kills me is so many Christians seem perfectly happen attacking Muslim's freedom of religion. If they actually want to give power to the government to discriminate based on religion then surely the day will come when, as our society continues to move away from God, that same power is used against them.

So I recently read this article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/student-speaking-arabic-removed-southwest-airlines-plane.html

of which the tl;dr version is that some woman heard a guy speaking Arabic on a plane and reported the guy to the authorities and they removed him from the flight. I feel personally that these incidents seem to be happening more often, but that might be just me. In light of the politics we've seen this year in the US, it seems a little unnerving. Is Islamaphobia an increasing problem?

Yes. Even without the politics that have been fanning/exploiting Islamophobia it would be a problem. As to whether or not it's happening more often lately I can't say; it could easily be the case that it's just getting more prominent press stories lately. The same thing happened with airplane crashes when that flight vanished a few years ago.

It's a problem. But I heard that someone on the plane understood Arabic and claimed that the person was saying threatening things.

From what I read, he said "ISIS" and "inshallah". That's perhaps marginally more suspicious than Arabic alone, but it seems like a stretch to me that the eavesdropping passenger heard and understood an articulated threat against the flight and/or its passengers. Unless man that was removed is telling a very detailed and easily falsifiable lie, the passenger that reported him 1. didn't hear a whole lot of what the man said and 2. almost certainly reacted to hearing a man speak Arabic say two isolated words that he or she associates with terrorism. Understanding Arabic would seem to make the panic worse, not better, because he or she had the ability to gather more than zero context.

Also, is selective quote ever coming back?

What kills me is so many Christians seem perfectly happen attacking Muslim's freedom of religion. If they actually want to give power to the government to discriminate based on religion then surely the day will come when, as our society continues to move away from God, that same power is used against them.

Where are Christians as a majority, attempting to quell a Muslims freedom of religion? Even as a minority? I have not heard any news about this. And "they" cannot give any power to the government on restricting religion thanks to the first amendment.

There is so little the government can do when it comes to religion, that even in the military, service members of tribal decent are allowed to go on a spirit journey with there tribe once a year. This involves PEYOTE, where the military(a federal organization) has a zero tolerance stance on drugs. Yes, this is a real thing.

But I heard that someone on the plane understood Arabic and claimed that the person was saying threatening things.

Those words are all indications that a source is needed. I'm not saying it isn't true, but when you say "I heard that someone".... well some research is in order.

I should have said "But I read ...". But anyway, here's the link: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/19/southwest_says_controversial_passenger_also_speaks_arabic.html

Also, is selective quote ever coming back?

Inshallah.

What kills me is so many Christians seem perfectly happen attacking Muslim's freedom of religion. If they actually want to give power to the government to discriminate based on religion then surely the day will come when, as our society continues to move away from God, that same power is used against them.

Where are Christians as a majority, attempting to quell a Muslims freedom of religion? Even as a minority? I have not heard any news about this. And "they" cannot give any power to the government on restricting religion thanks to the first amendment.

There is so little the government can do when it comes to religion, that even in the military, service members of tribal decent are allowed to go on a spirit journey with there tribe once a year. This involves PEYOTE, where the military(a federal organization) has a zero tolerance stance on drugs. Yes, this is a real thing.

I never said Christians as a majority want that. Just that there were many that did. Of course, I don't really know how many. Just that there are enough of them to have their voice heard In reality they could be few and there are probably many non Christians calling for the same religious restrictions. I realize that they have essentially no chance at having the government discriminate based on religion agaisnt Mulsims. It just saddens me that they would even suggest religious discrimination be enforced.

What kills me is so many Christians seem perfectly happen attacking Muslim's freedom of religion. If they actually want to give power to the government to discriminate based on religion then surely the day will come when, as our society continues to move away from God, that same power is used against them.

Where are Christians as a majority, attempting to quell a Muslims freedom of religion? Even as a minority? I have not heard any news about this. And "they" cannot give any power to the government on restricting religion thanks to the first amendment.

There is so little the government can do when it comes to religion, that even in the military, service members of tribal decent are allowed to go on a spirit journey with there tribe once a year. This involves PEYOTE, where the military(a federal organization) has a zero tolerance stance on drugs. Yes, this is a real thing.

I never said Christians as a majority want that. Just that there were many that did. Of course, I don't really know how many. Just that there are enough of them to have their voice heard In reality they could be few and there are probably many non Christians calling for the same religious restrictions. I realize that they have essentially no chance at having the government discriminate based on religion agaisnt Mulsims. It just saddens me that they would even suggest religious discrimination be enforced.

Does it sadden you that Muslims, even if you don't really know how many, object too and want to destroy non-Muslims all around the world, not just Americans or Christians? I apologize if I am coming off as unpleasant, but honestly your comment is among millions of other peoples comments that all they do is race/ethnic/pious/hate bait. Subjective opinions are a part of what is causing a great divide in the world, on many other topics than just islamaphobia. Peoples feelings having taken precedence over facts.

Where are Christians as a majority, attempting to quell a Muslims freedom of religion? Even as a minority? I have not heard any news about this. And "they" cannot give any power to the government on restricting religion thanks to the first amendment.

In case you haven't been following the US presidential campaigns, that's right here in the USA. It may not be an actual, by-the-numbers, unified, "Christian majority" but there's a significant-enough and loud-enough contingent of them behind the current GOP front-runner, who's floated the idea that Muslims should face scrutiny to the level of guilty-until-proven-innocent, should carry special papers, and that mosques should be spied on as a matter of routine. These same supporters of his, and the GOP more broadly, often say we need to put (their) God back in government and back in schools where they can indoctrinate others' children, float all kinds of legislation with no rational/scientific/social basis other than their literal reading of cherry-picked Bible-verse, while at the same time getting upset about other religious displays and/or feeling persecuted because their own religious displays no longer enjoy the uncontested privilege they never had a right to in the first place. Freedom of speech and religion are indeed important tenants of this country, but they aren't necessarily held in the same standard or esteem by those I've described. They don't mean the same to them as they do to you and I. They would force their religion on you if only given the power to do so. Its not much of a stretch that some have started calling these people "American Taliban" -- they want to restore a religious Christian caliphate here, much the same as ISIS/ISIL/Daesh want a religious Muslim caliphate in the middle east.

Also, people are morons
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wwjtd/2015/12/new-polling-data-30-of-republicans-support-bombing-agrabah-the-fictional-city-from-aladdin/

More bias and assumptions. There were 43 people polled, the article says THE GOP, are you kidding? The article is trying to represent the entirety of the republican party. Notice the article headline leaves out the "fact" that out of the dems polled, nearly the same percent agreed? 65% democrats and 69% republicans.

I am not aligning myself as I prefer to keep that anonymous, but everyone is bias and love to fight for their side.

Hence why I said "people" are morons and not "republicans".

But I heard that someone on the plane understood Arabic and claimed that the person was saying threatening things.

Those words are all indications that a source is needed. I'm not saying it isn't true, but when you say "I heard that someone".... well some research is in order.

I should have said "But I read ...". But anyway, here's the link: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/19/southwest_says_controversial_passenger_also_speaks_arabic.html

Right so here's the source that I read: http://fortune.com/2016/04/17/southwest-muslim-passenger-arabic/

So apparently someone thought he said shahid, which means martyr in Arabic. Now if that's really true, I can name many contexts for which that can appear in a conversation not in English, including discussing an actor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahid_Kapoor. The word can also be somebody's name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahid_(name). Now obviously this case wasn't the actor, but my point is that it's not beyond the realm of possibility that someone is not a fluent Arabic speaker but jumped to conclusions instead. I agree that a lot of facts are missing about this particular story.

I do want to note something interesting/relevant: most monolingual English speakers in my experience have a hard time distinguishing Arabic from other languages, especially South Asian languages.

In any case, I'm trying to talk about Islamaphobia in general.

Where are Christians as a majority, attempting to quell a Muslims freedom of religion? Even as a minority? I have not heard any news about this. And "they" cannot give any power to the government on restricting religion thanks to the first amendment.

In case you haven't been following the US presidential campaigns, that's right here in the USA. It may not be an actual, by-the-numbers, unified, "Christian majority" but there's a significant-enough and loud-enough contingent of them behind the current GOP front-runner, who's floated the idea that Muslims should face scrutiny to the level of guilty-until-proven-innocent, should carry special papers, and that mosques should be spied on as a matter of routine. These same supporters of his, and the GOP more broadly, often say we need to put (their) God back in government and back in schools where they can indoctrinate others' children, float all kinds of legislation with no rational/scientific/social basis other than their literal reading of cherry-picked Bible-verse, while at the same time getting upset about other religious displays and/or feeling persecuted because their own religious displays no longer enjoy the uncontested privilege they never had a right to in the first place. Freedom of speech and religion are indeed important tenants of this country, but they aren't necessarily held in the same standard or esteem by those I've described. They don't mean the same to them as they do to you and I. They would force their religion on you if only given the power to do so. Its not much of a stretch that some have started calling these people "American Taliban" -- they want to restore a religious Christian caliphate here, much the same as ISIS/ISIL/Daesh want a religious Muslim caliphate in the middle east.

See it's really the right here in the US that really does lead to an increasing sense of Islamaphobia being on the rise. The thing is that for all their claims for being for liberty, for America, etc., this violates the most basic principle of America. And yes some of these people aren't too far off from being a Christian Taliban.

Where are Christians as a majority, attempting to quell a Muslims freedom of religion? Even as a minority? I have not heard any news about this. And "they" cannot give any power to the government on restricting religion thanks to the first amendment.

In case you haven't been following the US presidential campaigns, that's right here in the USA. It may not be an actual, by-the-numbers, unified, "Christian majority" but there's a significant-enough and loud-enough contingent of them behind the current GOP front-runner, who's floated the idea that Muslims should face scrutiny to the level of guilty-until-proven-innocent, should carry special papers, and that mosques should be spied on as a matter of routine. These same supporters of his, and the GOP more broadly, often say we need to put (their) God back in government and back in schools where they can indoctrinate others' children, float all kinds of legislation with no rational/scientific/social basis other than their literal reading of cherry-picked Bible-verse, while at the same time getting upset about other religious displays and/or feeling persecuted because their own religious displays no longer enjoy the uncontested privilege they never had a right to in the first place. Freedom of speech and religion are indeed important tenants of this country, but they aren't necessarily held in the same standard or esteem by those I've described. They don't mean the same to them as they do to you and I. They would force their religion on you if only given the power to do so. Its not much of a stretch that some have started calling these people "American Taliban" -- they want to restore a religious Christian caliphate here, much the same as ISIS/ISIL/Daesh want a religious Muslim caliphate in the middle east.

*tldr at the bottom

I believe points could be made on both sides of the table here and that you make a completely coherent argument. I would then say that your opinion, and what many others are missing, is nationalism and patriotism(This doesn't mean you have to subscribe to a specific category aka Christianity or that this is exclusive to America). One could justify one side of the argument such as you have, but when does love for ones country and fellow countryman come in to play and coerce an opinion to the left or right?

In America, it is my opinion(whether that matters or not), that a disturbing trend is occurring. People are beginning to define themselves based on the color of their skin, or what their religious preference is, or if they are a man or women INSTEAD of their character. Character should be the strongest defining factor of ANY human being regardless of anything else. Character is your set of values, ethics and morale. These three traits are easily distinguishable between a good or bad person.

tldr

ON TO THE POINT: =(

The American culture is being invaded by a generally well defined religion of hate. Islam is not a religion of peace. Lets be honest, Christianity can be considered the same. Both the Quran and Bible preach very terrible things in them, they both also preach great things. The only difference is that in today's more tolerant and accepting world, you don't hear about the latter of the two committing be-headings and stoning women to death. Of course not ALL Muslims are extremists, but America is not the only one feeling the angst against the Islamic community. France and Germany easily come to mind. So when does your alignment as an American override your guilt and finally pick a side?

The American culture is being invaded by a generally well defined religion of hate.

Yep. Christianity, or more specifically, the right wing capitalist version of it.

Islam is not a religion of peace. Lets be honest, Christianity can be considered the same. Both the Quran and Bible preach very terrible things in them, they both also preach great things. The only difference is that in today's more tolerant and accepting world, you don't hear about the latter of the two committing be-headings and stoning women to death.

true, but you do hear about them bombing abortion clinics and invading other countries under false pretenses,

Of course not ALL Muslims are extremists

You're kidding, right? It's not that "not ALL" Muslims are extremists, it's that virtually none of them are. The same way most christians aren't members of the WBC.

but America is not the only one feeling the angst against the Islamic community. France and Germany easily come to mind. So when does your alignment as an American override your guilt and finally pick a side?

There's no side to pick, other than the one against religious extremism. The Islamic community isn't the bad guy and treating them as such will only create more extremists.

How come no one ever talked about "Catholic extremism" during the IRAs bombing campaign? Or even protestant extremism? Plenty of examples of that in history.