Islamophobia in the USA

Who and what is behind the rise of anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States?

The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 was a watershed moment in America's relationship with the Arab world. Amid the grief and US military response that followed, American fear of the threat of international "terrorism" grew.

George W Bush's so-called "crusade" against what he labelled the "axis of evil" fuelled suspicion of the Middle East as a whole, and as US military action increased and led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, this fear turned into one of Arabs generally and Muslims in particular.

With the rise of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, and the way the mainstream US media reports on it, fear of Islam further increased, tending to demonise Muslims and portray them and their faith as dangerous and violent.