When did Islam become the marker of evil in society?

Question

It seems that nowadays many people believe that Islam is simply evil. Personally I know that Islam is a peaceful religion and not really very far off from Christianity, however nowadays it seems that every ignorant North American teen hates Islam. When I was a kid I don't remember this being the case, nowadays it seems that Muslim = terrorist = evil in every case. So my question is, when did this happen? If you believe this, why?

xyz, did you actually read the question...?

Answer 1

I'd say that Islam became the marker of evil with a combination of two things:
1. The USSR collapsed & China started allowing the free market, so "the commies" were no longer our sworn enemy.
2. 9/11

I don't believe Islam is evil. I do believe evil has been committed using Islam as an excuse, but, as that's true for other religions as well, I don't make the extension to say it's the faith which is evil, just some of its followers.

Answer 2

It was never the case as far back as i can remember either. I was not a Muslim as a child and was not brought up in a Muslim family but growing up in a multicultural city there where Muslims everywhere. They where my neighbors, family friends, class mates etc and no one ever vilified them or called there religion a religion of hate. I reverted to Islam two and a half years ago and the only reason i can see is Bush. True people are going to bring up 9/11 but Islam is not responsible for that and if people want to think it is then they have to use the same logic for Bush being a christian and therefor all Christians being responsible for 36,000 Iraqi civilians dead men, women and CHILDREN. I have lived in the UK all my life and when the IRA where committing terrorist acts left right and centre for over a decade no one blamed Catholicism even as a child i was smart enough to separate the two. And now there are grown supposedly educated people hating a faith without knowing it at all, hating and blaming it for an act that is questionable if it was an inside job or not (and plenty of non Muslim American citizens do). You and i and all other Muslims know that this peaceful faith is not about terror and intolerance quite the opposite and most importantly Allah knows. Peace to you.

Answer 3

I think that I would have to place the most current marker sometime around September 11, 2001.

Prior to that, you have the (ongoing) Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

Or the Iranian Hostage Crisis...

You called it right though when you used the word "ignorant" to describe those who adhere to the stereotype, given by the media. You don't often hear about Muslim charities, only the suicide bombers.

Personally, I understand that many people view Islam as a peaceful faith, just as christians do. Remember though that the small percentage that get the headlines are the ones who give all a bad name.

Answer 4

It might have had something to do with that little incident on September 11. It also doesn't help that the Palestinians seem unable to keep themselves from blowing up the Israelis via suicide bomb every so often.

It's claimed that Islam is a peaceful religion, but when we look at the Islamic nations in the Middle East, we see very little peace being practiced, and very little tolerance. We see abuse and mistreatment of women, fanatical speeches from men like Ahmedinejad in Iran, Sunnis and Shiites at each others' throats - where is the tolerance and peace in all this?

I should also tell you here that I have no special love for Christianity for the exact same reason.

So you tell me: why is it that both Islam and Christianity preach peace and love, and never practice it?

Answer 5

Kim B,
Maybe it happened when we started to see that most terrorists were fanatic Muslims. At least the terrorists that we hear the most about seem to be Muslims/Islamic.

That could have been said of political terrorists several hundred years ago,..... except those terrorists seemed to often be "Christians," at least in name if not in practice.

Kev

Answer 6

i am friends with many middle easterns (im jewish) and i think their culture is much warmer than lots of christians and catholics that i know. many more values.

look at americans...being a **** is ok....in iran if your hair is not covered you're looked down upon. yes, its extreme but what does america do to permit trash? mtv trains all the youth that hasnt even hit puberty yet.

muslim does not = terrorist

you're facts are messed up. you watch too much media and dont know much about the culture.

have you seen ANYTHING positive reported about the middle east?

watch cnn tonight...see how many happy stories are shown in general. everything is about people dying, sued, storms, bombs...i remember i counted once. the happiest thing they showed was an amish chick gave birth to a kid...except she came from the place where a guy came and killed a girl at school while holding some hostage.

read books, dont watch tv

Answer 7

After 9/11 the idea of terrorism and Islam was engraved in people's heads mostly from the media and the images people saw, aided of course by the god loving bush administration.
It's an unfortunate truth that Will only worsen the current problems we're facing.

Answer 8

Due to Ignorance and partially, bias media and better television rating of course the case of the "whipping boy" theory for the leader's incapability to restructure the economy and scapegoat tradition plays a part too.

Answer 9

Probably the fact that many islamic countries are situated in oil-rich areas?

Answer 10

It's a propaganda...to discredit Islam in general.