The USA represent a unique cultural phenomenon. On the one hand, it is a country of many cultures, nationalities, and religions co-existing in the same area. On the other hand, any culture that comes from outside the United States falls into the melting pot where it is assimilated and becomes part of the general American cultural background (Yeager). It is evident that people of other nationalities preserve their ethnic characteristics but they are, above all, the citizens of America. Despite the fact that the United States is a country with a diverse background, after certain events, the Muslim community and the US government have faced the problem of further co-existence, which remains acute at present.
American Dream and Religions
The expression of the American Dream involves general social ideology that unites all people living in the United States. This worldview implies a life in search of happiness and well-being. At the heart of the American dream is the belief that every person living in the country can live successfully, harmoniously, and happily if he or she works hard and puts energy. In addition, the variety of nationalities and races that inhabit the American continent have caused an urgent need to formulate a single ideology that could unite people from different countries into a single nation. The domain of the American dream, which has been cultivated for decades and gave every person the faith in the possibility to achieve success staggered after the events of September 11 (Yeager). Moreover, after the terrible accident, the life of many people (both natives and immigrants) has changed dramatically.
After September 11, US Muslims have been considered a potentially dangerous category of the population and many people believed that any Muslim living in the US could be subject to recruitment by radical Islamist groups. The government has taken measures to tighten the immigration law so as to allow arresting, interrogating, and deporting thousands of immigrant Muslims who did not even have the right to an attorney (Yeager). People began to persecute anyone who could be related to the Muslim society based on religious and ethnic criteria in spite of the ideology of the American Dream, which sought to unite all people and make them equal.
Before September 11, the Muslim religious organizations carried out crucial work promoting American values in their environment. However, religious, cultural, and social differences created serious barriers to their successful integration. After the attacks of 2001, the American Muslims have appeared in the media spotlight, and American traditionalists fueled the hatred and distrust of this population. The Christians took part in boosting the hate crimes, and it was questioned by many people whether the Muslim religion could be related to the American society and its view of life (Jacobs and Theiss-Morse 18). However, the constant fear of Islam was accompanied by stereotypes, which spawned Islamophobia in the broad American public, political, and academic circles. The discrepancy between the religious and socio-cultural attitudes have created new barriers to the formation of the American-Muslim identity.
Sikhism
Despite the fact that all the negative incidents and flow was associated with the Muslim population and the delineation of Christians and members of other religions, the Sikhs were the main guilty of everything that the radical Islamists committed (Jacobs and Theiss-Morse 18). It is worth noting that the facial features did not guarantee that a person belonged to the Islamic religion; however, the Sikhs with their turbans and beards immediately stood out from the general mass of people. As stated in the movie A Dream in Doubt, the members of the society were not able to separate the Sikhism from the radical Islam that, in fact, had nothing in common (Yeager). Despite the idea that the Sikhs are those who work a lot, call for equality, and preach the good, their presumed external similarity with the Islamists had persuaded many American people of the evil nature of this religious group. It is worth noting that Sikhism is one of the most open religions that propagates the virtue, equality, and kindliness (Oxtoby and Segal 416). Natives of Punjab in northern India, the Sikhs intertwined in their rituals Hinduism and Islam and developed a Protestant ethic. The main value for the Sikhs is the honest work, family values, and equality of all the people irrespective of caste, gender or religion while the turban is an integral part of Sikh culture (Sidhu and Gohil 14). Thus, the absence of real threats from Sikhs but only the visual proximity to the terrorists led to the conclusion of the terrorist propensity of this population. Due to the fact that the beard, dagger, and a turban are integral parts of the clothing of Sikh men they were often confused with Muslims (Sidhu and Gohil 19).
It is important to note that the political, social, and legal pressure on the Muslim community justified the objective necessity of national security, but it made possible to create a system of legal exclusivity. It resulted in a situation when the civil rights of Muslim US citizens and immigrants from the Middle East were significantly infringed. As a consequence, the stake of the Democratic majority in the multiculturalism policy was to solve the numerous problems, which intensified after the terrorist attacks of September 11 (Yeager). However, the anti-Islamic discourse was back in the spotlight afterward. The conditions require that the Muslim immigrants are integrated into the new social environment and that they would develop acceptable behaviors and a harmonious combination of elements of the native culture and the host environment. For the American society, it is also essential to overcome the fear of Islam and to provide conditions for the secure and conflict-free entry of Muslim immigrants in the midst.
At present, Islam and Sikhism, in particular, are unable to demonstrate the cultural characteristics of their ancient religious traditions and introduce a different side of the religion. Islam, especially, is often not able to do so, and the media actively promotes stories demonstrating the barbarity of the Islamic countries. Thus, the events of the September 11 have given rise to the Islamophobic trend in the contemporary American culture, separated the Christians as truly Americans from other religions, and made many innocent people suffer for no reason (Jacobs and Theiss-Morse 18).
Conclusion
At present, fundamentalism is gaining momentum. The increasing attention drawn to Islam is a dangerous trend. People do not understand the fundamentalization of the society while being considerate about the terrorist attacks and increased radicalization. In connection with it, the members of society do not see the signs of Christian terrorism in those who commit violence against other religious representatives, but people see a group of Sikhs or Muslims gathering to pray as a cell of the terrorist organization. It is a matter of both the lack of education and the problem of revaluation of the religion’s importance. Religion is changing its position and role in the society, but the media are unable to talk about it and only contribute to the deterioration of the situation.
Works Cited
Jacobs, Carly, and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse. “The Struggle for Group Membership: Religion and American Identity.” Annual Meeting Paper (2011): 1-31. Print.
Oxtoby, Willard, and Alan Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. 2nd. ed. 2011. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Print.
Sidhu, Dawinder, and Neha Singh Gohil. “The Sikh Turban: Post-9/11 Challenges to this Article of Faith.” Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion 9.2 (2008): i-60. Print.
Yeager, Tami. “A Dream in Doubt.” PBS, 2012. Web.