Psychologists report that it only takes 3 seconds for people to form an impression when

they see someone for the first time. Soon after we walk into a room we are quickly labeled based
off our clothes, race, height, mood, and sometimes even our hair color, and even though we may
not know it we are labeling everyone else based on their various traits as well. Its not like this
has become something we do just because everyone is doing it its instinctive. Its something
that has developed over time that helps us understand where we do and do not fit in. For the
longest time this trait/instinct that we all had kept us safe and told us where not to go and what
not to do just based off our assessment of the situation, but in the past fifty years our instinct has
been pushed aside and weve been told what to like and not like based off what weve seen from
a biased media. We now base our opinions off of what weve been told through television, radio,
magazines, social media, and other media influenced mediums, and the result of all this?
Stereotypes, and currently with all media the attention on war, terrorist attacks, and epidemics all
the attention is on those who follow the Islamic religion. Like many Americans Im not muslim
but 2.11% of Americas 316 million people are, in the entire world with an approximate
population of 7 billion people and out of that only 28.26% is muslim. But with a population of
almost 2 billion people only 10-15% of muslims support extremism. Im here to separate myth
and media messages from the reality of Islam, in an effort to help everyone here including myself
to get a clear perspective and not just take these people at the face value given to them through
media. I will cover this in three areas, the first being and explanation of what islam is, second the
very real threat from those who chose to practice a different interpretation of the muslim beliefs,
and finally Ill cover the majority of muslims, and how they live.
First things first, what is Islam? Islam is a religion that began approximately 1400 years
ago,with the prophet Muhammad that follows the words of the Quran and a goal to uphold the

five pillars. Those who follow this religion are referred to as muslims.The birth story of Islam
begins with the prophet Muhammad who was a very spiritual man who would travel to the
mountains close to his town of Mecca in Arabia to meditate. During his times of meditation over
it is said that he was visited by angel who gave him words from allah- the muslim name for godand from these words he created the Quran. The muslims then believe that to get to paradise you
must obey the five pillars of faith. The fist being ones testimony to god, second is prayer
muslims are supposed to pray five times a day, the third is to give and in this case a certain
percentage is given to charity, the fourth is fasting during the month of ramadan which means
muslims may not eat or drink from dawn till sunset during the month , and finally pilgrimage
which is if one is physically and financially able they should travel to Mecca (considered to be
the birth place of Islam). In Islam there are also 6 principal beliefs, and they are a belief in Allah,
Angels, The Quran, Prophets and messengers, judgement day, and predestination. While there
are many beliefs in the islamic religion these six are the most essential, while others just help to
bring muslims closer to Allah. One of these beliefs that is one of the most controversial is jihad.
While jihad has been translated numerous time into "holy war" the literal meaning of the word is
struggle or effort according to an article from national geographic there are two types of jihad the
higher and lower jihad. Higher jihad is often ignored but is that of self-improvement and putting
effort forward to better connect with ones religion.Lower jihad is the most controversial subject
between muslims and non-believers. This is because lower jihad is where the term holy war
comes in the most, because this is where in the Qur'an it says that there can be military war. With
this lower jihad there are many restrictions, for starters you're only supposed to wage war if the
opposing side begins the fight, second only a significant religious leader is aloud to declare this
military war, and third no innocent civilian is supposed to be harmed.While this is only a short

list of the restriction to lower jihad you can see that a lot of what has been claimed as jihad or
holy war is not that at all.So who are those who claim that they are following the islamic beliefs?
After the events of 9/11 islamic terrorism took center stage, and while for a second the
spotlight began to fade, due to recent events with ISIS or the Islamic state the spotlight is again
shining bright on the muslim people. But those who practice in such ways are not practicing
islam at all and instead are taking the words and manipulating them. Those that go to these
measures are known as extremists and they have taken islamic beliefs and rules and manipulated
them to justify the acts that they carry out. To many extremists it is their job to enforce and carry
out islamic law or sharia law and because this is said to be law from allah they believe its their
duty to Allah. The problem with this is they enforce it in all the wrong ways. Some of the ways
they have chosen to enforce this include terrorism,abuse of human rights, discrimination against
non muslims and in particular hatred towards the west. So how are they manipulating the words
given to them in the Qur'an? Many terrorists claim to that there acts are part of jihad and the holy
war against non-believers. This is where the restrictions I mentioned before come into play. In
many cases of terrorist acts innocent people have been harmed. For example in the PakastanIsreal conflict hundreds of innocent civilians were harmed due to the acts of the terrorist group
Hamas. The Qur'an specifically states ""......, we decreed for the Children of Israel that anyone
who murders any person who had not committed murder or horrendous crimes, it shall be as if he
murdered all the people. " 5:32" In other words those if they have not committed anything awful
and are still killed it is as if you have killed everyone including yourself. Another area where
they have gone wrong and ignored only words that disagree with the acts that they are
committing is when kill those because they are a different belief system. Again the Qur'an clearly
states that it isn't permitted for them to kill anyone for this reason. one passage where this is

stated is "Tell those who believe to forgive those who do not long for the days of (meeting) God.
He will fully pay everyone for whatever they have earned." 45:14. This passage is stating that
those who do believe in the muslim religion must forgive those who do not because while allah
knows what is to come for them and only he can control that. These are only two examples of
how they've decided to take on a confirmation bias and only listen to the verses in which
violence is necessary. So instead of taking the religion as a whole they've taken bits and pieces.
They've taken the belief of jihad and only focused on the lower jihad and how they must enforce
their religion, yet still they begin to go against jihad in the acts they've chosen to enforce their
religion with. Now we've covered what the muslim religion is, and what an extremist is, how
does the stereotype apply?
Erma Bombeck once said Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your
intentions. You may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg. In other words
actions speak louder than words and for muslims this is the case. Due to the actions of
extremists media has been able to create a stereotype in which Islam is portrayed as a religion of
hate and terror. But as I have shown the religion of Islam is a religion of peace that has been
twisted by some into a terrible threat. But according to a poll done by Gallup in ten countries
with an Islamic majority population only 7% agreed with the ideas of Radical Muslims while
93% did not and felt it did not portray their religion. In many cases there are even muslims who
have chosen to speak out against the extremists that have taken control There are many activist
group who are speaking out against ISIS as well as other radical muslims.. An event that is
recent is the story of student activists who in reply to the IS abducting Lebanese soldiers burnt
the IS flag and posted it online where it soon went viral.There is also another activist group that
has a goal to spread the true meaning of jihad to people rather than the manipulated version. This

is another version of peaceful protest that has occurred recently against these extremist groups.
While there are still violent protests a lot of the times those do not start off violent. Yet we still
see this as a religion of terror.
In conclusion the truth of the matter is that the actions of extremist groups have been
louder and in the media more than the words of those who practice Islam in the way its meant to
be practiced. Due to the media bias in the coverage of these events, a stereotype has come to
light. But i hope to have shown you that, One Islam is a religion of peace, mercy, and
compassion, Two those who do carry out theses acts are not practicing Islam as it is given and
written but rather a manipulated form, and Third that muslims are in fact trying to show the
world that their religion is peaceful but as it is so often said actions speak louder than words.
I leave today asking and hoping that you trust your instincts and listen to the voices that are often
silenced by a stereotype or label, and take people for more than their face value.

Sources
Intro
http://www.danielpipes.org/12847/islam-vs-islamism -Pipes
http://www.muslimpopulation.com/World/ -Muslim Population
What is Islam
http://www.ldolphin.org/islam.shtml -Dolphin
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/10/1023_031023_jihad.html

What is an Extremism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jHQkfZT4Qw
http://www.clarionproject.org/understanding-islamism/islamic-extremism)
http://www.quran-islam.org/articles/part_3/the_concept_of_jihad_(P1360).html
How do they compare
http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/.premium-1.619078
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/10/malala-faith-islam-nextgeneration_n_4072645.html
http://www.gallup.com/press/110521/Moderate-vs-Extremist-Views-Muslim-World.aspx