The Sky is Falling
American’s have been bred to fear terrorism, and more recently, to fear Muslims entirely. It has been engrained in our heads that being Muslim means that you’re related to terrorism in some way, when in fact, this couldn’t be more wrong. In reality, “most Muslims oppose violence,” a point that Kurzman stresses within his writing. Kurzman additionally states that “even if only 10 percent of the world’s billion Muslims supported terrorism, we would still expect to see far more terrorists than we do,” further implying the amplification of terrorism (Kurzman 63). The presence of terrorism is exaggerated within American society, for example, within Overblown, John Mueller even states that “international terrorism generally kills a few hundred people a year worldwide—not much more, usually, than the number who drown yearly in bathtubs in the Unites States,” thus further invalidating the irrational fear of terrorism in our daily lives (Mueller 2). Both Kurzman and Mueller’s ideas through these readings illustrate the sense of a moral panic surrounding the presence of terrorism and suggest the fear held toward it is “overblown” and exaggerated.
Similarly, the presence of a moral panic is prevalent in the beloved children’s movie, Chicken Little. Chicken Little claims the sky is falling and is seen as an outcast in society. He utilizes media to promote mass hysteria and creates chaos in the society he’s in. Terrorism is placed in a similar light in today’s world, seeing as Muslims are often looked down upon or even feared, simply for being Muslim. However, the fear of terrorism isn’t completely irrational, as Pearl Harbor and September 11th are major turning points in American history. In Kurzman’s words, “Islamist terrorists really are out to get you,” but are unlikely to do so on a scale even comparable to 9/11 ever again (Kurzman 64). In short, the sky isn’t falling, concerning the presence of terrorism, and furthermore, “no one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices” (Murrow 6).
