Stereotypes breeds terrorism
September 11, we all know about it. It is a part of American history. Around 3000
citizens killed by 19 jihadist muslims. What we don’t know is that the following
year anti-Muslim hate crimes rose all around the world as an aftermath of 9 11,
from hundreds to thousands in the US, Canada saw a 16 fold increase, and a
similar situation was seen in the UK and Australia.
Balbir Singh Sodhib was a sikh, owned a small gas station. He wore a turban
which lead to him being mistaken for a muslim and shot dead 4 days after the
incident. The shooter had reportedly told his friends that he was "going to go out
and shoot some towel-heads".
This man’s stereotype of muslims lead to a death of an innocent man. What are
stereotypes? They are preconceptions about a particular race, or person derived
from an over-simplified understanding of an idea. They are developed by people
due to inadequate knowledge to explain certain events or behavior of other
people. Their primary purpose is to degrade others and elevate our own
humanity. Stereotype are what breed hate ideas into people’s minds.
There are two parts to our brains: conscious and subconscious. Subconscious is
what takes care of your essential and daily tasks, like heartbeat and having a
conversation. Conscious part is what does the thinking, like when you are trying
to understand a math concept. The subconscious is what manifests these
stereotypes. But, does this excuse the unjust killings? No. Our brain also evolves,
gives us the ability to think. We are different from animals due to our ability to
think.
Hate groups like white supremacists, taliban use stereotypes to brainwash young
recruits and alter their values on humanity and other races. In majority
Islamophobic crimes people are known to be less educated about muslims.
Stereotype are only effective when knowledge available is not enough, thus, us
muslims need to educate the world. We need to tell them we are just as human
as them and we are people with families and we are just as peaceful as them. We
need to educate them about our religion and how it is not just jihad. We too
should practice dynamic thinking and not judge people based on stereotypes but
their characters, and try to learn more about them before jumping to conclusions.
Hamza Umair AS A