Making Dialogue to Counter Stereotypes of Islam Oleh: M. Latif Fauzi
 The tragedy of 9/11 that occurred nine years ago influenced the way how Western people regard the existence of Islam and Muslims. An expert of Islam, John L. Esposito, said that the incident has destroyed constructive relation between Muslim and other religious adherents. Due to the concept of jihad, many people in the West then regard Islam as a religion that teaches violence and produces extremists, or even terrorists. The problem rather lies on their preconception and ignorance on what actually Islamic doctrines are. Their understanding has its basis from some stereotypes figured in media. The first stereotype is that Muslims are terrorists. This stereotype came up after the bombing attack at the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11 2001. The US government accused a Laden’s group, al-Qaeda, as the actor behind this incident. Terrorist is used to label them. This label now seems very common to be addressed to Muslim generally. |
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