This past week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) decided to establish a branch to deal with Islamophobia (the fear of Islam and Muslims).
There is no denying that many Americans have had a negative attitude toward Islam and Muslims since September 11, 2001, when about two dozen Muslim men were responsible for crashing four airplanes, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 innocent people.
The barbarous acts of 9/11 also resulted in the loss of respect for Muslims and the Islamic religion by a plethora of Americans. Precautions were implemented very soon after 9/11 to prevent similar senseless tragedies from reoccurring.
For example, the U.S. government required all large airplanes to have a solid locked door leading to the plane's cockpit to prevent passengers from entering the pilot's area. Moreover, plainclothes armed U.S. marshals were added to many airline flights as an additional precaution.
Screening passengers very closely before they can enter a flight and scrutinizing and limiting luggage by airline security officials are precautions that have continued to the present time.
These are just a few of the precautions that the U.S. government has implemented in order to prevent another 9/11-type of tragedy -- a tragedy that was planned and carried out by Muslim terrorists.
The fact is that Americans are correct in fearing terrorism by Muslims, or Islamophobia, as this phenomenon has come to be called. Indeed, it would be foolish for Americans to feel otherwise, not only because of 9/11, but also because of the savage terrorist activities that Muslims still practice throughout the world today.
Terrorism by Muslims, then, has not had a significant impact on the United States since September 11, 2001, because of the extensive precautions that the U.S. has put into place since that time. Terrorism is still prevalent today in nations that do not have the ingenuity or the intelligence resources to prevent it.
Consequently, Islamophobia in the United States will end only after there will have been no Muslim terrorist activities throughout the world for several years. For Americans to believe that Islamophobia in the U.S. will end any sooner, is a complacent denial that can only lead to additional terrorist-driven disasters.