President Barack Obama's Visit To Islamophobia

Islamophobia has been an ever-growing phenomenon in the United States for as long as one can remember. From the hate speech from our very own American politicians behind podiums to hate crimes against Muslims on our streets, the time came for an influential public figure to speak out and denounce this ignorance. On February 3rd of 2016, President Barack Obama made a historic and controversial visit to a mosque in Baltimore, Maryland to deliver a speech on freedom of religion, islamophobia, and the need for positive media images of Muslims. Through this speech, President Obama hoped to shed a light on the “inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans that has no place in our country” (Hasan). In the article Thank you Obama for your mosque speech by Mehdi Hasan, Hasan covers this event, which relates to sociological concepts such as stereotyping …show more content…
When you ask a non-American what comes to mind when they think of America, they think of a melting pot. They think of a place where all types of people live amongst each other with no unease. In reality, this is not the case that non-white Americans live in the United States. In President Obama’s speech at the Baltimore mosque, he highlights one minority group that doesn’t live in harmony amongst others. Obama emphasizes that Muslim people residing in the United States are often subject to cruel discrimination due to "conflating the horrific acts of terrorism with the beliefs of an entire faith” (Hasan). This can be explained by numerous sociological concepts and theories, but one I would like to highlight is stereotyping. Stereotyping can be defined as having prejudice towards a certain person or group due to a predetermined idea of what they are like. Every day, thousands of Muslim Americans are subject to stereotyping due to dishonest portrayals in entertainment and fear-mongering politicians. Obama notes the real-life situation Muslims go through in this country and discusses that