Leading While Muslim by Debbie Almontaser

Author:Debbie Almontaser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Political Climate

With the backdrop of political spectacle in mind, the first major theme found through the research, political climate, will be discussed. Political climate serves as a significant influence on the experience of Muslims in America, especially following the events of 9/11. A climate that is ripe with fear and hysteria generates notions of anxiety and, as will be discussed, can have a severe impact on an individual’s mental health and well-being. Over the past 15 years, the world has experienced a political climate filled with spectacle that has been orchestrated by Al-Qaeda, ISIS, neoconservatives, white supremacists, Republican political candidates, and the media.

This began with the coverage of 9/11, which was captured in a 24-hour news cycle on CNN and other cable networks. The participants of this study raised concern about the political climate from the time immediately after

9/11 to the present time of the study. All 14 participants clearly indicated that political spectacle played a role in perpetuating political discourse and amplifying global events, and that the political climate played a pivotal role in the way that Islam and Muslims are portrayed.

Participants recounted their experiences in the moments after 9/11 and discussed how the global perspective dramatically changed for Muslims around the world and for themselves. Due in part to the war on terror, safety became a huge concern for individuals and institutions across the United States. During the Bush administration in 2002, the Department of Homeland Security developed the “Homeland Security Advisory System” to alert Americans of potential risks of terrorism.

The system consisted of five color-coded levels, from green to blue to yellow to orange to red, with each successive color indicating a higher threat of terrorism (Robinson, 2011). Such a system created a heightened sense of awareness of the presence of American Muslims, especially while traveling and essentially posing a “threat” to American safety.

All 14 participants drew attention to the 2016 presidential candidates, namely, Donald Trump and Ben Carson, who they believed used the Republican platform to fearmonger Islam and Muslims. Each one of the participants was chilled by Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims and by the endorsement that he received from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). In response to Trump’s comments about Muslims, the KKK distributed flyers in the South to cleanse the United States of Muslims (Lauten, 2015). One participant, Aziz, stated that as a result of Trump’s rhetoric, he had a desire to seek dual citizenship for reasons of safety:

I think that if Trump becomes the president it might be time to get dual citizenship somewhere because America’s going down the deep end, a dark road, because we’re fascinated with personalities as opposed to morals and values and specific issues. And that’s a problem. And it makes our job a little bit more difficult just being a principal, getting our children to think critically, because they’re exposed to so much pop culture which feeds them the worst part of themselves, which is problematic.

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