How have racial stereotypes about the Arab-Americans and Muslims Essay

How have racial stereotypes about the Arab-Americans and Muslims affected them, and what can be done to improve relationships in America - Essay Example While trying to adapt to situations when they were confronted with hatred and racism, Muslim Americans felt a significant increase in the negative stereotypes demonstrated by the larger American society, and Muslim immigrants faced extremely negative attitudes, much more than those faced by other new comers to the country. An upsurge in racial and religious animosity rendered Arabs, Middle Easterners, Muslims, and all those who bore stereotyped physical similarity to belonging of these groups, extremely vulnerable to hatred and hostility from people of other cultures in America (Amiri, 2012). While ‘Muslim’ is a religious label and has no pertinence to race, the line between racism and religious prejudice is frequently blurred. Muslim Americans are looked upon as a monolithic group, perceived as a religious minority who act, think, and behave in the same way within their religious community, despite the fact that even among themselves, there exist differences of ethnicity. Despite media reports of the negative stereotypes of Muslims, there has been scant psychological research to support the attitudes of non-Muslims towards Muslim Americans. Various studies have been performed for exploring the negative approach towards Arabs but it is also noted that no such activity has been formed for exploring behaviors of Muslimes. In Europe a research has been done, on the area of ‘Islamophobia’ which means dread or hatred of Islam. A survey was conducted in the United Kingdom which pointed to the fact that prejudice against Muslims has surged upward in re cent years (Ridouani, 2011). Owing to the fact that many Muslim American stand out as culturally rather distinct, it is worthwhile to speculate and discover whether the attitudes of non-Muslims toward Muslim Americans reflect those demonstrated by European non-Muslims towards the members of these minority groups.