Rhizome Experiment, Fall 2015

Depiction of Muslims as Terrorists

This case is also about 2 groups of people that take different opinions on a current situation. European Syrian refugee crisis is the main topic in Europe last couple of months. Thousands of refugees are fleeing their homes in order to find better life in Europe. A lot of countries and people are in support of this but on the other hand, there are plenty of people that are against it. People fear that these refugees might bring violence and crime to their countries, primarily because of ISIS and it’s close tie to Syria. This becomes a problem because people start depicting Islam members as terrorist, especially on social media. Not every Muslim is a terrorist; it just happens that most of the terrorists are Muslim. On social media, again because of the freedom to say whatever you want, people publicly talk about this problem and not everyone has the same opinion on this topic. A country like Germany accepted over 800,000 refugees in last couple of months, and German citizens have been really helpful in this process. On the other hand, I can promise you that there are Germans, and not only Germans but also Europeans in general, that think that accepting these refugees is absolutely absurd.
 
 In U.S., people are not so worried about refugees entering the country like the European countries, but the depiction of Islam members as terrorists is way worse. Obviously, Americans have a reason to be xenophobic because of 9/11, but no one has the right to accuse someone of being a terrorist just based on their religion.
Some of these depictions on social media are primarily created as improper jokes that were created by someone anonymous, but the idea of this depiction actually exists among Americans and a lot of them are serious about it. As a tool, social media is extremely powerful, but it can be used positively and negatively at the same time. Even tough someone made it as a joke, this tweet where Islamic members are being depicted as terrorist; it is promoting the idea and affecting the real life. This is also an example of social media activism because it is a topic that people openly talk about on their social media accounts and use their opinions to protest against what they think is wrong. 
 

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