ETHNIC GROUPS

Ethnic Groups and Discrimination

Ethnic Groups and Discrimination

Introduction

Despite the prejudices and the wave of racism and xenophobia in the United States waged against Arabs and Muslims following the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York, Islam is the fastest growing religion in this country has had in the years to become the second highest number of practitioners, moving from that place to the Jews. Islam has in the U.S. with about eight million followers, a figure that exceeds the number of Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Mormons (Hasan, 2002). This mass following represents an amount greater than the faithful as a whole involving practitioners of other religious faiths, as Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mennonites, Unitarians and Christian Scientists, among others.

Discussion

Muslims gain more ground every day in the U.S. and although traditionally it has been criminalized, discriminated against and placed under suspicion just because their religious beliefs, ethnic or national origin. During the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, after the first attack on the Twin Towers in 1993 (Curtis, 2010), and even after the Oklahoma bombing, initially attributed to terrorist Muslims, American Muslims have withstood all attacks of society, suffering from threatening calls at their homes and unjustified layoffs to physical attacks and other acts of racist and xenophobic, such as refusal to allow religious practices in workplaces, schools or prisons, airports discrimination by their names or dress and a ban on entry in hotels and restaurants.

After the September 11 acts of xenophobia and discrimination against Arab and Muslim community in the U.S. is dangerously shot mainly in the months immediately following the 11-S. Organizations defending human rights and American Muslim organizations accounted for more than 1,500 violent incidents against Arabs racist, including 6 deaths (Bayor, 2011). Also, there were numerous cases of discrimination in airlines and hundreds of cases of ...