Research Guides: World Religions: Islam: Misconceptions

Debunking Misconceptions

Stereotypes are beliefs about an entire group that may be based on information about an individual or a small number of people within that group. Here are four common stereotypes about Islam—each followed by an explanation of why the stereotype is incorrect and wrong.

Islam promotes violence and terrorism. “Islam totally prohibits terrorism—there is no text that endorses that,” says Ameena Jandali of the Islamic Networks Group, a California-based nonprofit, which provides education about Islam and promotes respect for all faiths. “Killing an innocent person is considered to be the greatest crime after worshiping another God.”
Islam oppress women. Historically, Islam has promoted women’s rights. For example, the Qur´an grants women the right to inherit property, conduct business and have access to equal education/knowledge. “Men and women have the same responsibility before God,” says Jandali. “Arranged marriages are more of a cultural practice—and women do have the right to divorce.” The oppression many women face in Muslim countries is caused by cultural tradition, not Islamic law.
Women are forced by men to wear the hijab/modest clothing. Rules about modesty are open to a wide range of interpretations. That is why women in Saudi Arabia must cover everything but their eyes, hands and feet, while many women in Turkey observe no special rules about dress. “It’s really because of a desire to please God,” Jandali says of using head or body coverings.
Muslims’ God is Allah. The word Allah simply means God in Arabic, and Islam springs from the same monotheistic tradition as Judaism and Christianity.

Islamophobia

Common Misconceptions about Muslims
Most Muslims (one billion) live in Asia, predominately in south and southeast Asia. More than 300 million Muslims live in Sub-Saharan Africa as well.
Decades after 9/11, Muslims battle Islamophobia in US
The September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States ushered in a new era of hate crimes, racism, and xenophobia against Muslims.
Islamophobia
Psychologists are studying the impact of anti-Muslim sentiment and exploring ways to prevent it
Islamophobia: Understanding Anti-Muslim Sentiment in the West
Gallup developed a specific set of analyses, based on measurement of public opinions of majority and minority groups in multiple countries, to guide policymakers in their efforts to address the global issue of Islamophobia.
MONITORING AND COMBATING ISLAMOPHOBIA
A Project of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
What Is Islamophobia?
Islamophobia is an extreme fear of and hostility toward Islam and Muslims. It often leads to hate speech and hate crimes, social and political discrimination, can be used to rationalize policies such as mass surveillance, incarceration, and disenfranchisement, and can influence domestic and foreign policy.

Islam and Muslims in the Media

Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11
This book demonstrates how more diverse representations do not in themselves solve the problem of racial stereotyping and how even seemingly positive images can produce meanings that can justify exclusion and inequality.
COVERING AMERICAN MUSLIMS OBJECTIVELY + CREATIVELY
The role of the media in informing the public has never been more important, especially when it comes to marginalized communities. At the same time, journalists are constantly asked to cover more and more, with fewer resources. We created this guide to help.
The Media Matters: Muslim American Portrayals and the Effects on Mass Attitudes
Muslim Americans are increasingly stigmatized and may be experiencing a backlash in the American news media and by the public. No study to date, however, has empirically assessed the sentiment of Muslim American cable news coverage over an extended period of time and evaluated its effects on mass attitudes. I address the following questions: How has the US news media portrayed Muslim Americans in its coverage? And, to what extent do these media portrayals affect American public opinion?
Media Portrayals of Religion: Islam
Media coverage of Islam-related issues has changed dramatically since the beginning of the new millennium, both in quantity and quality. The events of September 11, 2001, thrust Islam into the global media forefront: not only did coverage of Islam drastically increase, particularly in news and entertainment media, but the way in which Islam was framed by the media changed as well.
Muslims
Critically reviewed selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.
WATCH: How American Muslims have been represented in popular culture post-9/11
At the 20th anniversary of 9/11, American Muslims are considering what the last two decades have meant for them and their communities. As part of that ongoing conversation, PBS NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz spoke with Kashif Shaikh, co-founder and president of Pillars Fund, on Sept. 14 about the ways Muslims have been depicted in stories and on screen in the years since 9/11. The fund aims to build up American Muslim civic institutions, and amplify Muslim narratives and leadership.
Yes, Muslims are portrayed negatively in American media — 2 political scientists reviewed over 250,000 articles to find conclusive evidence
The warm welcome Americans and Europeans have given Ukrainians in 2022 contrasts sharply with the uneven — and frequently hostile — policies toward Syrian refugees in the mid-2010s.

Being a Hijabi

"Hijab" and American Muslim Women: Creating the Space for Autonomous Selves
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Second-generation Muslim women are negotiating social and religious identities in contrast both to non-Muslim Americans and to their immigrant families. "Hijab" has multiple meanings as a religious and social symbol; it provides a clear identity marker at a life-course transitional time, and it provides culturally legitimate space for young women who are formulating Muslim-American identities
American Muslim Women Explain Why They Do — Or Don't — Cover
For Muslim women, a headscarf — or hijab — is a visible sign of their faith and identity, and whether to wear one is a big decision. The recent decision by a Christian college professor to don a headscarf out of solidarity with her Muslim sisters highlighted the hijab question, at least for non-Muslims. For Muslim women themselves, especially in the United States, it was an old story.
Debunking Misconceptions About Muslims and Islam
Stereotypes about Muslims range from insults about terrorism to misunderstandings about the meaning of Allah. Here are four common stereotypes about Islam—each followed by an explanation of why the stereotype is incorrect and wrong.
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST MUSLIM WOMEN - FACT SHEET
Muslim women should be free to express their religious beliefs— including choosing whether or not to wear headcoverings—free from discrimination and prejudice.
Muslim women in hijab get the brunt of discrimination. I asked them what that’s like.
In the past few years, in schools across the country, girls wearing hijab have been targeted by fellow classmates and teachers
The Problem With America's Hijab Fixation
A piece of cloth that you wear on your head is not shackling, even though it's constantly being framed that way by people who do not wear one. There is an unhealthy obsession with the hijab in North America, and at the center of it are young women who are just trying to live their lives.
Wearing a Hijab Is Complicated. So Is Deciding to Take One Off.
When you see a woman wearing a hijab, what goes through your head? You might wonder if she’s conservative, or if she has no choice but to wear it. Lately, it might seem political, like in the infamous Pepsi ad or this Allure cover.
What It's Like To Wear A Hijab In America Right Now
When the United States elected as president a man who promised to ban Muslims from entering the country, millions of Americans had cause to worry about their style of dress. Passports, driver’s licenses, and social security cards do not list a person’s religion. However, other signifiers, like a hijab, identify Muslim women as such.
What it means to be a hijabi in America
Over the last few years, Islamophobia in the US has increased at an alarming rate and being a hijabi woman, amongst growing prejudice, has made it a scary place to live in. There have been an influx of incidents and hate crimes against Muslim women who have been attacked both physically and verbally, simply for wearing the hijab.

How To Help

5 things your congregation can do to stop Islamophobia
Spend some time with your Quaker community learning more about Islam, the impacts of Islamophobia, and the movement to stop it.
Countering and Dismantling Islamophobia (ISPU)
Islamophobia manifests in many different anti-Muslim activities. Khaled Beydoun, a scholar of Islamophobia, identifies three types of Islamophobia: structural, individual, and dialectic.
Countering Islamophobia
Use these resources to take action and challenge discrimination against our Muslim friends and neighbors.
Countering Islamophobia
This lesson helps students explore, confront and deconstruct stereotypes targeted at Muslims. Students will learn about the impact of Islamophobia and create an anti-Islamophobia campaign to display in school.
Fight Islamophobia! Reading List
As racist undercurrents in many western societies become manifestly entrenched, the prevalence of Islamophobia – and the need to understand what fuels it – has never been greater. This selection of books explores how Islamophobia has manifested itself in state machinery, culture, the media and activism on the Left and Right, and what we can do to fight back.
Fourteen ways you can fight Islamophobia
Islamophobia is real. You may have personally experienced it or know a family member, friend or acquaintance who has. This new racism must be made known and fought against. Here are a couple of ways to combat this phenomenon:
How can we fight Islamophobia in America?
It’s clear that there has been a troubling rise in xenophobic political rhetoric, hate speech, and brazen incidents of violence against American Muslim, South Asian, and Arab communities in the United States. In the months following the peak of the Syrian refugee crisis, hate crimes against American Muslims tripled. In recent days, police in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been investigating the execution-style murders of three young American Muslims.
How to tackle Islamophobia – the best strategies from around Europe
A growing body of research points to the proliferation of Islamophobia across Europe in recent years. In the UK, record numbers of Islamophobic hate crimes were recorded in 2017, and across the continent, there have been similar findings on the growth of explicit Islamophobia.
Islamophobia (Human Rights First)
Bias, discrimination, and violence against individuals who practice or who are assumed to practice the Muslim faith is growing in Western countries, including the United States. We have seen this most clearly in the rise of hate crimes, domestic and foreign policies.