The impact of September 11 terrorist attacks on the Western perception of Muslims?

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the Western perception towards Muslims after the Sept 11 attacks. Nowadays, terrorism is increasingly understood as a political act meant to inflict dramatic and deadly injury on civilians and to create an atmosphere of acute fear and despair, but the term is notoriously difficult to define. They basically use violence to create fear, often through the targeting of third parties and with the elements of surprise and the undermining of very personal security, is a tool used by a variety of historical and contemporary actors. After September 11, the historic cultural difference between the US and the Muslim world reemerged as one of the principal aspects of cultural suspicion. While terrorism even in the form of suicide attacks is not by definition an Islamic phenomenon, it cannot be ignored that the lion's share of terrorist acts, particularly the most devastating, in recent years have been perpetrated in the name of Islam. This fact has sparked a fundamental debate both in the West and within the Muslim world regarding the link between these acts and the teachings of Islam. However Edward Said's premise in Orientalism is that the West has a long history of purposefully misunderstanding the Middle East. The Western imagination of the Middle East bears little resemblance to the reality, and this inaccuracy is used to justify our political and economic course. If we are to truly assist in achieving a resolution to the current crisis, we must examine not only the "Orientals" but also ourselves.