Prejudice and Discrimination
By Zubiya
Prejudice
What Is Prejudice?
"preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience."
Prejudice occurs when people believe stereotypes to be the truth and hold these beliefs against people they do not know. The most common form of prejudice is racism in which people judge people based solely on the colour of their skin. This creates divides within a community as people become distrusting of each other and are not willing to cooperate and get along because of these false perceptions they have of people. It impedes on the message and purpose of Islam to have peace within humanity, as it breeds hatred and unfair treatment.
Discrimination
What Is Discrimination?
"the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex."
Discrimination occurs even when the offender knows the person. Discrimination happens because people believe they are superior because of their race, gender, age etc. This leads to people treating each other unfairly and with no respect, as they do not believe we are all equal. Discrimination is an active process as it involves constantly opressing people/one person because of something they have no control over.
Discrimination can be encouraged by the media and news as people start to believe that certain people are less than others.
Solutions
There is no real solution to prejudice and discrimination, as it is all about peoples thinking and preconcieved notions, which is very difficult to change. In order to tackle these things there needs to be a grand change in the perception of certain races, genders, ages etc. because putting certain people in a bad light is what causes these things.
Religious Prejudice and Discrimination
Religious discrimination is unequal treatment of an individual or group based on their beliefs.
While Americans are protected under the First Amendment to practice religion freely, hundreds of countries are not protected by their government and instead harassed for their beliefs. In a four-year study of religious discrimination around the world (2006-2010), Christians were the most-discriminated against group, experiencing harassment by the government and society in 168 countries.
Muslims make up the second largest religious population in the world and were discriminated against in 121 countries worldwide between 2006 and 2010.
Religious Discrimination can take place anywhere in the world that there are different religions interacting with each other or living/residing in the same area. This can be due to a difference in beliefs and a clash in traditions.