Why do people feel threatened by Muslims?

Answer 1

This is certainly a sensitive topic and is open to many different answers from different WikiAnswers contributors. Here are some of those answers:

Answer 1: The Problem Lies with political Islam, not Muslims

One of the major problems with even putting forward a question like this today is the presence of the term "Islamophobia" which has really no definition and can be so easily applied. Any criticism of Islam or of Muslim practices just gets branded with this label, even if the words are spoken by Muslims. Therefore, I propose (in this answer) three separate words to discuss the varied feelings of Non-Muslims towards Islam:

• Anti-Mohammedan(ism) = The belief that Muslims as people are wicked or problematic. This is the Muslim rough equivalent to Anti-Semitism for Jews. The term actually existed historically, but has been "outmoded" because Muslims are no longer called Mohammedans in recognition of the fact that they do not follow Mohammed because he is their Lord and Savior, but only as a Prophet.
• Anti-Islamic(ism) = The belief that the ideology and beliefs of Islam as a religious construction and lifestyle manifesto promotes wrong-doing or are seriously problematic to a multicultural society.
• Anti-Islam(ism) = The belief that Islam as politically manifest and capable of determining actual laws promotes inequality, injustice, and moral incorrectness.

Put most simply: Muslim people are lovable, Islamic religion is salvageable, Islamic politics are insufferable.

Anti-Mohammedanism

Most Non-Muslims (contrary to Muslim assertions) are not actually Anti-Mohammedan. While there are certainly a minority of individuals who say that Muslims themselves are a cancer on society, this is a very limited opinion. Muslims of all backgrounds, like Arabs, Indians, Southeast Asians, etc. are typically warm, hospitable, and loving people. They work diligently at their jobs, aspire for their children to have better lives, and are every bit as caring and nurturing as any other citizen. The TV show "Muslims in America" was cancelled after one season because the participants in the show were "too normal". The only difference between them and non-Muslims were that some of the women wore hijabs and everyone prayed on Fridays instead of Sundays. Their ideologies and views were quintessentially American. Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan famously joined the celebrations when Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan, because they opposed the terror and fear that he represented.

If there may be one thing worth noting here, it is that Non-Muslims hope that Muslims can take a critical look at their past in a way that, up to this point, few of them have dared to do.

Anti-Islamicism

Many more non-Muslims are Anti-Islamic and point to a number of issues with Islamic legal practice and belief. Some of these Islamic "ideas" are incredibly frightening to many non-Muslims. The discussions about declaring Holy Wars on Unbelievers, are very frightening and scary to many who treasure the idea of Freedom of Conscience. Furthermore, Islam as a religion may promote tolerance of other religions, but certainly does not promote equality between religions. Qur'an verse 9:29 which formed the backbone Islamic legal treatment of Non-Muslims historically, says:

Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah [tax] willingly while they are humbled.

This has led persistently negative treatment of Non-Muslims in Muslim countries. Admittedly, in the Middle Ages, it was superior to European treatment, but today the situation is reversed. Muslims in Europe live without fear that their Mosques could be destroyed or that violence will be used against them. However, Egyptian churches continue to be bombed and Egyptian Christians have no recourse. Lebanese Christians fled Lebanon in the 1920s and 1930s to escape Muslim pogroms. Jews departed from nearly every Muslim-majority country to go to Israeli internment camps because living there was better than their historical ties for centuries to the countries in which they lived. Islam has not learned from this and continues to tell Muslims that they did nothing wrong.

Additionally, Islamic Penal Law makes Non-Muslims very scared. Some particularly problematic issues include: claiming that the rape victim is criminally liable for "getting raped", chopping off a thief's hands as punishment for theft, the execution of homosexuals, blasphemy laws in general, permission given to enslave people, and execution of apostates.

If Islamic views modernizes and its adherents show that they are willing to compete in the marketplace of ideas instead of just yell, scream, and perform violent acts until everybody listens, Islam may get a fairer shake. Until then, many see Islam as undesirable and regressive. If voices like Tawfik Hamid ring louder than those of Ayatollah Khamanei, Islam may garner many more Non-Muslim advocates or at least alienate far fewer. A link to Tawfik Hamid's "Mr. Tolerance" PDF has also been provided to get a flavor of the type of Islam that he advocates.

Anti-Islamism

The overwhelming majority of Non-Muslims oppose (either strongly or weakly) Muslim attempts to impose Islamic Laws on a country's citizens and people. Given that many Non-Muslims find the Islamic Penal Law outdated and horrendous and see that Islam seeks to repress religious minorities, they are not interested in a government that seeks to rule by exactly these mechanisms. This is not opposition to Muslim politicians like Keith Ellison, since he is not an Islamist, but merely a politician informed by values. An Islamist actively seeks the implementation of part or the whole of Shari'a Law, with the intent of creating an Islamic State. Many Non-Muslims in the West hold dearly to the idea that religion should stay out of politics in order to allow every religion the freedom to operate and discuss its views. An Islamist State would also be very restrictive to Muslims, forcing them to live in a Puritanical Way that would prevent differing local customs from informing the cultural richness that can be found in Islamic countries. Islamist regimes (like Iran) are notoriously violent to their own citizens and Non-Muslim compassion for Muslims (Anti-Anti-Mohammedanism) is greatly saddened when such regimes come to power.

Answer 2: Jealousy About Islam's Growth

Islam is the fast growing religion in the world and the best known and ancient religion. people are jealous. [See Comments in the Discussion Section about this answer under "Comment on Answer 2"]

Answer 3: Only the Ignorant Hate

I wonder of the question. How can one hate all followers of one religion. Was she/he in touch with all Muslims to judge that they are all hated by all people?. Then another one says he/she hates the religion itself. Did he/she read about the religion fundamentals, history, contributions to humanity and civilization? Did she/he read about the Islam religion holy book to have this opinion? Did he/she read about the prophet of this religion to be sure of this opinion? I advise those to be kindly not blindly following the biased media and the biased politicians that aim to fulfilling their own political and social agendas in Muslim countries. Remember that:

• not Muslims who made the WW1 and WW2 that resulted in death of millions of innocents
• not Muslims who killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people by bombarding them with atomic bombs
• not Muslims who made the Muslim massacres in Bosnia and in Ghaza
• Muslims controlled India and Spain for around 1000 years and never committed any massacre there against non Muslims and never pushed them to convert to Islam. The clear evidence is that, after 1000 years, when they got out of these two countries both countries are still having their own religion with majority followers.

You are invited to refer to related questions and links below.

Answer 4: Muslims are Framed for Bad Conduct

Hi! I know you may think that Islam is a bad religion, but it really is not. Islam is about peace and love. You may disagree but I know! Muslims are always getting blamed for something they do not do. I love Islam and Muslims too. I do not care if you do not agree that is your fault but there is no bad religion or good religion we are all equal and if you think that I am crazy or stupid I am not so if you agree or disagree then put your answer below! [See Comments on this Answer in the Discussion Section under "Comment on Answer 4"]

Answer 5: Failure to Understand Muslims by Non-Muslims

Muslim's are hated by other religions because they don't understand us i 'm a Muslim myself so don't flame me, because i 'm explaining my side of the story. we are a powerful religion and people are jealous that we are very popular religion and so the Christan's or another religion were flaming us as terrorist.

but we are not terrorist we are to non-violent for that some people are calling them self a Muslim but they are under cover so other religions do the explosions and leave us Muslims as victims i say its not fair because i do not flame other religions treat everyone equally and that's how it should stay

I'm not saying that Christians are jealous of Islam or not. Many people show disrespect/hatred toward Islam because deep down they are afraid of it. They fear the power of Islam, which just drives them to become close-minded and not listen to what the great religion of Islam has to offer. [Additional discussion of the Hijaab excerpted and placed in the Discussion Section under "Comment on Answer 5"]

Answer 6: Al-Qaeda Gives Muslims a Bad Name

People don't hate Muslims they are very good people. Though there are is a very small group of them called Al-Qaeda and weirdos keep thinking that all Muslims are terrorist and their not. (Hint: Al-Qaeda had been established by the Americans and trained by the Americans)

Answered by a Christian

Answer 7: Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Because they stereotype with Pakistanis who work for bin Laden who is stupid. Plus most of them can't speak English, but quite happily move to England. (Hint: The Pakistanis don't work for Bin Laden or Al-Qaeda. It is the opposite. They are fighting against Al-Qaeda.)

Answer 2

Add your comment. Don't remove others.

-Only some people are being racist to Muslims, and it is probably because some Muslims are being racist themselves. Like blowing up people who don't agree with them.

That's about as racist as you can get. Unfortunately everyone suffers for what these some people are doing.

No one is racist to Muslims, since Islam is not a RACE, but a religion followed by Black, Caucasian, Asian, and Hispanic persons.

Radical Wahaabi Muslims do not murder and bomb becasue of targets' race. Terrorism is meant to terrorize populations and destabilize governments. Muslim terrorists target all races and religions.

Everyone does not suffer becasue of Islamic terrorists.

Answer 3

Answer 1

People are not racist toward Muslims since Islam is not a race. However, some people are racist against Middle Eastern persons, who may or may not be Muslims. They might believe stereotypes against them, blame them for terror attacks, or dislike their religion.

Answer 2

As Answer 1 notes, hatred of Islam cannot be called "racism" since a race is not being targeted. Muslims come in a vast variety of colors from Eastern European White to African Black, to Southeast Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern. However, many people default to the word "racist" because it is easier to remember and use than proper terms for hatred associated with Islam. Therefore, I propose (in this answer) three separate words to discuss the varied feelings of Non-Muslims towards Islam:

• Anti-Mohammedan(ism) = The belief that Muslims as people are wicked or problematic. This is the Muslim rough equivalent to Anti-Semitism for Jews. The term actually existed historically, but has been "outmoded" because Muslims are no longer called Mohammedans in recognition of the fact that they do not follow Mohammed because he is their Lord and Savior, but only as a Prophet.
• Anti-Islamic(ism) = The belief that the ideology and beliefs of Islam as a religious construction and lifestyle manifesto promotes wrong-doing or are seriously problematic to a multicultural society.
• Anti-Islam(ism) = The belief that Islam as politically manifest and capable of determining actual laws promotes inequality, injustice, and moral incorrectness.

Anti-Mohammedanism

Of the three, Anti-Mohammedanism is by far the rarest. In fact, most people who either Anti-Islamicist or Anti-Islamist are motivated out of love for Muslims who they see as genuinely good people under the sway of a very problematic religion and political ideology. Muslims of all backgrounds, like Arabs, Indians, Southeast Asians, etc. are typically warm, hospitable, and loving people. They work diligently at their jobs, aspire for their children to have better lives, and are every bit as caring and nurturing as any other citizen.

This does not mean that Anti-Mohammedanism does not exist, so its reasons should still be made explicit. Typically, Anti-Mohammedan feelings come from one of the following three reasons:

1) Personal Grievances: Some people have been maliciously treated by Muslims, a poignant example being the South Sudanese Christian population of whom many were enslaved, raped, or forcibly exiled from their homes by Muslims. As a result, some fault the religion (which will be discussed later), but others fault the Muslims as people, seeing them as without a conscience or soul. While it is certainly legitimate to hate the individuals and groups responsible for horrendous activities, it is unfair to extrapolate that onto an entire worldwide population.

2) Tacit or Explicit Supporters of Islamism:Some Non-Muslims see Muslims as a vanguard to implement Islamist laws their countries or states. Due to their opposition to Islamist Laws, they see the Muslims themselves as being darkly motivated to achieve this undesirable aim. Of course, the failure here is that many Muslims in the West came to the West as refugees, explicitly seeking to not have to deal with Islamism.

3) Lack of Criticism on Intra-Muslim Issues:Non-Muslims have noticed that Muslims as a community, and their leaders specifically, rarely comment on issues affecting the Muslim communities which are clearly negative. These include the rise of Shari'a Thugs in parts of London, the increases of acts of Anti-Semitism perpetrated by Muslims in Europe, the increasing crime rate in places where Muslims live, and numerous others. They see the lack of criticism as acceptance or even support for these problematic developments and see the people who would give such sanction as reprehensible.

Anti-Islamicism

Many more non-Muslims are Anti-Islamic and point to a number of issues with Islamic legal practice and belief. Some of these Islamic "ideas" are incredibly frightening to many non-Muslims. The discussions about declaring Holy Wars on Unbelievers, are very frightening and scary to many who treasure the idea of Freedom of Conscience. Furthermore, Islam as a religion may promote tolerance of other religions, but certainly does not promote equality between religions. Qur'an verse 9:29 which formed the backbone Islamic legal treatment of Non-Muslims historically, says:

Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah [tax] willingly while they are humbled.

This has led persistently negative treatment of Non-Muslims in Muslim countries. Admittedly, in the Middle Ages, it was superior to European treatment, but today the situation is reversed. Muslims in Europe live without fear that their Mosques could be destroyed or that violence will be used against them. However, Egyptian churches continue to be bombed and Egyptian Christians have no recourse. Lebanese Christians fled Lebanon in the 1920s and 1930s to escape Muslim pogroms. Jews departed from nearly every Muslim-majority country to go to Israeli internment camps because living there was better than their historical ties for centuries to the countries in which they lived. Islam has not learned from this and continues to tell Muslims that they did nothing wrong. Anyone who says otherwise is part of a [choose: Zionist, Masonic, Western, Imperialist, Colonialist, etc.] conspiracy.

Additionally, Islamic Penal Law makes Non-Muslims very scared. Some particularly problematic issues include: claiming that the rape victim is criminally liable for "getting raped", chopping off a thief's hands as punishment for theft, the execution of homosexuals, blasphemy laws in general, permission given to enslave people, and execution of apostates.

If Islamic views modernizes and its more extreme adherents show that they are willing to compete in the marketplace of ideas instead of just yell, scream, and perform violent acts until everybody listens, Islam may get a fairer shake. Until then, many see Islam as undesirable and regressive. If voices like Tawfik Hamid ring louder than those of Ayatollah Khamanei, Islam may garner many more Non-Muslim advocates or at least alienate far fewer. A link to Tawfik Hamid's "Mr. Tolerance" PDF has also been provided to get a flavor of the type of Islam that he advocates.

Anti-Islamism

The overwhelming majority of Non-Muslims oppose (either strongly or weakly) Muslim attempts to impose Islamic Laws on a country's citizens and people. Given that many Non-Muslims find the Islamic Penal Law outdated and horrendous and see that Islam seeks to repress religious minorities, they are not interested in a government that seeks to rule by exactly these mechanisms. This is not opposition to Muslim politicians like Keith Ellison, since he is not an Islamist, but merely a politician informed by values. An Islamist actively seeks the implementation of part or the whole of Shari'a Law, with the intent of creating an Islamic State. Many Non-Muslims in the West hold dearly to the idea that religion should stay out of politics in order to allow every religion the freedom to operate and discuss its views. An Islamist State would also be very restrictive to Muslims, forcing them to live in a Puritanical Way that would prevent differing local customs from informing the cultural richness that can be found in Islamic countries. Islamist regimes (like Iran) are notoriously violent to their own citizens and Non-Muslim compassion for Muslims is greatly saddened when such regimes come to power.

Answer 4

This is a very touchy question that requires a delicate answer. Most people don't feel threatened by Islamic people as long as they stay in predominantly Islamic nations. What they do fear is being colonized by Islamic peoples and having their local customs and cultures subverted, regardless of whether these fears are rational. They fear that if and when Islamic people take over their nation, women and LGBT persons will lose hard-earned rights.

Often, those who are xenophobic in general and fear Immigration are afraid that women of their own race and culture will be sexually harassed or raped by foreign immigrants, particularly undocumented ones. And yes, it seems like foreign men from any nation who are living in any other nation, are more likely to commit such acts than other men who were born in wherever area. To be clear, this is not a racial phenomenon, but a phenomenon related to feeling displaced. When people feel like outsiders to an area, they may see their stay there as temporary and care less about the consequences of their actions. It is very similar to being online. Many people are trolls online but don't act similarly in their own lives. So if they are not complaining about Muslims, it would be Hispanics, Asians, or some other group that is immigrating heavily into their area.

Answer 5

People may feel threatened by Muslims due to misconceptions, stereotypes, and fear stemming from negative portrayals in media. It is important to recognize that these feelings are often based on ignorance and not representative of the entire Muslim community. Engaging in dialogue and building understanding can help dispel these misunderstandings.