Americans and Islam

Introduction

This paper would offer the demographic data of Muslims as Americans in the United States. The discussion would include the cultural values and norms of Muslims. Light would be given on the historical and present biased behavior; the Muslims faced in the U.S. Cultural aspects of deliverance of human services to the respective group will also be researched.

Discussion

Islam is the most rapid growing religion in America and the world. The prediction of many scholars seems to be true that Islam will become the largest minority religion in United States of America. Muslims in America are mainly middle class and normal living people. There are about 1.5 million Muslims (adults) and 850,000 (under the age of eighteen) in the America. They are educated and most of them are attending college and earning good enough as compare to other minorities in United States of America. Gallup reports that most of the Muslim women in America are highly educated, thus making them one of the most highly educated female religious group in the United States. The annual income reported for American Muslims is within 2 percentage points of the population at large. $ 100,000 or more is made by 16 percent of Muslims (Pew Research Center).

The cultural norms of Muslims are not very different from the religious groups living in America. The difference exists in the practice of religion. Most of the Muslims practice their religion and have firm believe on it. When we talk about other religions in United States, Christianity is the most common religion. There are many similarities between the religions but practices differ and thus create cultural differences. Muslim men and women covers their head which makes them look different. The beard for men also distinguishes them from others. Most of the Muslim women cover all of their body parts. They do not drink alcohol as it is prohibited in their religion (Kirkpatrick, 2009, 503, 513-14).

The differences in the culture are wide and thus making the group different and prominent. Racism has not entirely detached from its perpetrators. From the history till present day, the behavior remained biased for Muslims in America. The reasons for this biasness can be various but the affect remains one. Biasness varies from cultural racism to religious racism (McMaster, 2003, 288-313). The reasons may include nationality issues, language problems, ethnicity etc. Yet, current practices of racial profiling in the War on Terror perpetuate a logic that demands the ability to define what a Muslim looks like from appearance and visual cues.

Rapid increase in Discrimination

The tragic events of 9/11 had a substantial affect on the position of Muslims in America. The bearings of that day do not seem to end as what is going on today. These were the events which bring a subsequent wave of prejudice and discrimination against Muslims or people of Arabic background. For Example, a New York Times article (Susan Sachs, 2002) reported that there was 43% increase of discrimination cases against Muslims. The discrimination was followed with attacks, ...