"The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.  That's not what Islam is all about.  Islam is peace.  These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war (Bush)." President George W. Bush experienced one of the most catastrophic events of terror during his presidency. For Americans, 9/11 was a turning point in the United States. It shaped American history and the public view on Muslims. Many Americans feared Muslims. As a result of the 9/11 attacks, Islamophobia grew, even despite President Bush's claim of "Islam is peace (Bush).” Islamophobia is defined as; irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against Islam people or those who practice Islam (Merriam-Webster). In the post-9/11 world, American Islamophobia continues to plague society and politics through discrimination of innocent religious followers as potential terror threats. Americans have founded their knowledge of Muslims based off Islamic terror; rather than basic Islamic practices and beliefs. Without factual knowledge of Islam, average Americans base their knowledge through negative media portrayals of Islam, which associates Islam to terror. The fundamental knowledge of Islam portrayed by American society, clouds the judgement of Americans, leading to irrational actions. The false portrayal of Muslims increases terror, discrimination, and stereotypes, in the everyday lives of American Muslims. The United States of America's association of Islam to terror, cripples the foundation of American ideals of freedom for Muslims residing in the United States of America. Islamic terrorism is a valid threat to the United States. The United States of America weakens their very own security and values through the practices of Islamophobia on a political and societal level; it is necessary for America understand the true values and motives of Islam. Once the United States of America understands the motives of Islam, the country can focus on the American ideals of freedom and concentrate on actual terrorism.  

Recently, the United States experienced an interesting election cycle. The election came down to Donald Trump, a political outsider, and Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State. According to most polls, Hillary Clinton was projected to win by a landslide. Even with Donald Trump's politically incorrect statements and radical policies, he came out on top and won the presidency. Throughout President Trump's campaign, Trump made very outlandish and xenophobic statements toward Muslims and Arabs. Jenna Johnson and Abigail Hauslohner from the Washington Post, kept track of President Trump's radical statements throughout Trump's campaign in their article, I Think Islam Hates Us': A Timeline of Trump’s Comments about Islam and Muslims. Trump's campaign team issued a statement regarding Trump's take on extreme terrorism stating, “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”

(Johnson, Hauslohner). Trump went to the extreme on the morning show Fox and Friends and said, "The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don't kid yourself” (Johnson, Hauslohner). President Trump's extreme ideas in regards, to radical Islamic Terrorism, resonated with the American voter and delivered Trump the presidency.  The fact that the American voter voted for such policies, makes the existence of Islamophobia in the United States of America evident. Although Trump's statement, "You have to take out their families," is not Trump’s policy, President Trump does have travel ban in effect. President Trump executed his travel ban through an executive order. Executive Order 13769 temporarily denies entry into the United States of America from seven countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The executive order temporarily denies entry into the United States from the seven countries, due to heightened instances of terrorism in the countries (The White House). Executive Order claims it did not provide a basis for discriminating for or against members of any particular religion (The White House), although the countries that are banned contain large Muslim populations. Trump even said on the campaign trail that he wanted to place a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the United States. President Trump's travel ban does indeed discriminate by religion. Executive order 13769 expresses the need for the travel ban as a measure of safety, but discriminates upon those who want to escape terror and live the American dream. The United States of America also experiences Islamophobia on a scale smaller than national government, such as, local and state government. In his scholarly article, Shariah and Citizenship—How Islamophobia Is Creating a Second-Class Citizenry in America, Ali Yaser, explains how Oklahoma's "Save Our State Amendment" institutionalized racism and discrimination. Yaser provides background information on Islamophobia in the United States after 9/11 to further explain the impact Islamophobia has on the Oklahoma laws. Yaser summarizes the Oklahoma law bans Shariah law in Oklahoma. Although in the article the State Senator of Oklahoma, Anthony Sykes said, "It's not a problem and we prefer to keep it that way," referring to Shariah law (Yaser 1062). The fact that the implementation of Shariah law is not a problem in Oklahoma, why would Shariah law be banned? Some of the state senators that proposed the law have Islamophobic ideals. Rex Duncan, a state representative and author of the amendment, claimed, “Muslims plan to take away liberties and freedom from our children (Yaser 1062)." Rex Duncan claimed that Shariah “not an imminent threat in Oklahoma yet”, but authored a bill to ban Shariah law. There is no "imminent threat" of Shariah law in Oklahoma, but Islamophobic politicians passed the amendment because of the fear they have of Islam. In his claim against the amendment, Yaser states, ''The first is that it is a legal mechanism to further conceptualize Muslims as non-citizens on the record. The proposals thus demonstrate that this group is not entitled to the rights of citizenship, i.e., the right to freely practice their religion, even in instances that do not conflict with secular law (Yaser 1067)." The practice of Islamophobia in politics, justifies legal discrimination against a minority group. Discrimination limits the freedoms and degrades morale amongst those discriminated against. The United States government contradicts itself when the government grants freedom to all, but in reality, the government provides it for few when The United States government discriminates.   

According to Pew Research Center 75 percent of Muslims believe there is a lot of discrimination towards them in the United States (Lipka). With Islamophobia prevalent in politics this statistic comes no surprise. Surprisingly, nine out of ten Muslim-Americans, despite the obvious Islamophobia, claim that they are proud to be Americans (Lipka). After 9/11 discrimination and hate crimes increased towards the Muslim population which makes the statistic that 90 percent of Muslim- Americans are proud to be American astonishing. From 2000 to 2001 hate crimes towards Muslims increased at by 1,600 percent according to the FBI in Disha Ilir's article, Historical Events and Spaces of Hate: Hate Crimes against Arabs and Muslims in Post-9/11 America (Ilir 22). Ilir describes in his article the increase of hate crimes and discrimination upon Muslims statistically. Ilir further explains through his research, "Although the numbers of such anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes have declined since 2001, several years later the numbers of anti-Muslim hate crimes remained five times what they were in 2000 (Ilir 23)." This statistic validates Islamophobia's growth after 9/11. While the statistics are just a number, Derek Seward and Shaza Khan describe experiences of Islamophobia in schools. The experiences of the children involved in Derek Seward’s and Shaza Khan's research in Towards an Understanding of Muslim American Adolescent High School Experiences, puts stories behind the statistics in Ilir's research. Seward’s and Khan's research summarizes the experiences of discrimination in adolescent Muslims that have left emotional scars and limited their expression of faith. In one account from Seward’s and Khan's research, a seventh-grade female experienced discrimination when her peer said, "Go back to your country, you f-ing Afghan"(Seward and Khan). This experience from the seventh-grade female demonstrates the existence of Islamophobia, and the unconscious actions that transpire from it. The account from the seventh-grade female demonstrates the ignorance established in young developing minds when adolescents are not taught about the Islam faith through facts, and rather Islamophobia. The United States of America allows anyone who resides in the United States to practice their religion openly. Another example of the deteriorating effects of societal discrimination towards Islam, is an account of an adolescent female student, holding a carwash for the Muslim Student Association. The adolescent student needed to raise money for the school organization, the Muslim Student Association. The young girl presented the event for the Minority Student Association, rather than, the Muslim Student Association due to the negative stigma towards Muslims (Seward and Khan). Both accounts show how young adolescents are fearful to openly express their faith, due to the consequential factor of discrimination embedded in Islamophobia. Even though Muslims have the right to express and freely follow their religion through the first amendment; Islamophobia minimizes their first amendment right. If terror is an act of harm against others then the hate crimes from Islamophobia, increase terrorism.

Stereotypes, are a generalization of a specific race, but most people do not realize the consequences of stereotyping; it often humiliates its victims and overall presents a false perspective upon a group. All humans generate judgements about others, but when people generalize race or religion as a threat, a dangerous problem arises. In modern society, Muslims typically receive the generalization of being a terrorist or a terror threat. Generalizing an innocent follower of a religion with terror, while radical Islamic terror exists, creates a world of problems for the victims of Islamophobia. Islamic terrorism poses a significant threat to the security of the United States. Terrorist intend to cause harm to people, but true Muslims follow Allah. In a speech, President Bush stated, “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.  That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace.  They represent evil and war (Bush).” President Bush told American people that cause such terror do not represent Islam, but terror. However, Americans in the post 9/11 world, continue to generalize Muslims and those of Arab descent. A study by Amanda Smith and Susan Mason, demonstrates the bias of race and religion in the selection of potential terror threats. The study involved 270 participants of all races, ages, and genders, however, most of the participants were Caucasian. The study required each participant to select pictures and answer who they believed to be a terror threat or not. All of the pictures presented to the participants contained terrorists. Amanda Smith and Susan Mason scored the participants on, “number of times a participant identified an individual with stereotypical Middle-Eastern physical characteristics as the likely terrorist was compared to the number of times a participant chose a Caucasian (Smith and Mason 78).” One major piece of the study was the terrorist, Timothy Mcveigh. Mcveigh was the Caucasian terrorist that bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City (Smith and Mason). Mcveigh's attack was well-known. Younger participants may disapprove of the application of profiling in crime, but the young participants were more likely not to label Mcveigh as a terrorist. Younger participants were more likely to discriminate from the results, but the study demonstrated that each age group discriminated by race (Smith and Mason 79). The experiment exhibits more than facts, but the influence of Islamophobia in American judgements. The study validates the relation of Islam to terrorism, which cripples the unity of the country.  

Islamophobia, is an issue itself based off of terrorist attacks committed by radical Islams. Joel Brinkley   argues, “the rise of Islamic extremism the issue of our time.” He also explains that these crimes are committed, “by those that oppose every religion, but Islam (Brinkley).” Brinkley describes the gruesome acts, and schemes of terror that Islamic extremism commits. The severity of danger extreme Islam poses, can result in the loss of American lives, so average people, and politicians rely on Islamophobia for safety. Recently, the President of the United States Donald Trump entered office with a plan to combat modern terrorism. President Trump’s agenda towards terrorism provides emphasis on Muslims in order to protect Americans from the potential threat of Islamic extremism. Although President Trump’s policies intend to keep Americans safe, but very few Muslims pose a terror threats. Trump's policies towards failed in circumstances of domestic terrorism, which has been prevalent throughout President Trump's term in office. Domestic terrorism can potentially cause the same terror as a terrorism from abroad. Terrorists can come from any background; they are not found in one particular race or religion.     

Islamophobia, may continue to grow, but there is a way to combat Islamophobia growth; it is through education. James R. Moore provides context that teaching about Islam provides, “Tolerant attitudes based not on stereotypes, myths, and rumors, but historically accurate information (Moore 2).” If all students learn about Islamic practices such as the Five Pillars (like the Ten Commandments in Christianity), more Americans would develop a factual knowledge of the faith, which would weaken Islamophobia. James Moore also emphasizes Muslim achievements in and impacts on society. Moore's emphasis on Muslim contribution in society shatters the negative stigma of Muslims impact on American Society. Moore trusts that the education of Islam in the context of history and principles, can further prevent the issue of Islamophobia. Education creates open-mindedness and knowledge, while Islamophobia causes close-mindedness and discrimination. If every American procured a factual background on the faith of Islam, there would be no association between Muslims and terrorists. Islamophobia would be eradicated along with the political discrimination, societal discrimination (including hate crimes), and stereotypes that cripple the American view on a religious faith. Without Islamophobia, American Muslims can live the way American founding fathers intended for all Americans to live. 
