“Look at the terrorist”. Muslims kids growing up always have it difficult in America than, say Christians. All throughout middle school, people called me a terrorist. From Kindergarten, I wanted to fit in with all the seemingly “perfect kids” in school. Before, perfection for me meant being popular along with doing whatever you wanted without worrying about the consequences. Eating gelatin at school, letting my hair fall freely, and listening to music. It’s like my first ever school memory described myself feeling left out. No matter what I did, I felt ostracized by the rest of my classmates. Every day in Elementary school, I’d be doomed, I dealt with bullying and people judging my religion. In Middle School I felt consonant, I needed to adjust …show more content…
what I wore in order to fit in. I had a terrible influence on me when I did not even recognize it. Constantly, I dealt with bullying. Present day in High School still feels as though it’s a roller coaster. There’s peer pressure all around you from different students in forms of dating, drinking, smoking and the list goes on.“We must realize that Allah had created us imperfect, so he does not expect perfection from us. But he does expect us to try our best.” You would assume that when you’re at the age of 7, kids don’t know what they’re doing right?
Wrong. My elementary school experience was different than the majority of other kids my age. In first grade, I had my first heartbreaking experience as a child. It was the month of October and the weather was bleak, with the leaves turning orange and red. I was strolling towards the playground where all the kids were running around playing tag or four squares. At one point, while I sat down on the swings, Mackenzie a girl in my class with long blonde hair, waddled up to me and asked “What religion are you?”. I answered with “ I’m Muslim”. Right away the girl responded with “My parents told me not to talk to Muslims.” At first, I didn’t understand why her parents said that to her. So I decided to walk home and ask my parents. While hopping up my staircase one by one, I felt hesitant asking my parents. I didn’t completely understand why. I approached them and told them about the incident that took place. Their reply put me at ease, “ Not everyone around you will like who you are, your religion, or your culture.” In this case, it was my religion. As of present day, I’ve realized that practically everybody assumes that Islam is a violent and non-peaceful religion, but in reality Islam means peace. Muhammed Ali once said “I'm just hoping that people understand that Islam is peace and not violence.” Throughout the entire bus ride, in my mind the only element that kept reiterating like drops of water falling from a broken tap was “Muslims aren’t terrible though
right?”. As the school years passed by, I kept doubting my religion because I felt different than the other people around me. Second grade to Fourth grade was a blur, I was affected by comments here and there, but nothing too exclusive. I started growing use to it, until Fifth grade happened. I began wearing the hijab at the end of November during the school year. The first day I wore it, my teacher, Mrs. Casey, decided to ask me in an unprofessional matter, “Why have you decided to wear THAT on your head”. I could feel the eyes of everybody in class staring back at me, like daggers. My reply began with “Cause my cousin began wearing the scarf”. Yeah, I should have told you guys that that’s the reason behind me starting to wear the hijab. There was no reply afterwards, just a feeble smile. As the school year began to end, I began having a lot of hardships. Remember the girl Mackenzie from First Grade? Well, she decided it was perfectly fine to bully me because of what I wore on my head. After I did anything, she would feel the urge to blurt out an unintelligible remark about me or my religion. I’d be playing soccer during recess and I could hear her saying things like, “you suck” or “take that off”. At this point I had had enough. I wanted to change myself so I could fit in with the rest of my classmates. The first time, it was during a student vs faculty volleyball game. The entire team was in the bathroom getting ready for the match. All of a sudden, a group of girls approached me and asked if I could take off my scarf. The group of girls said this because it would be better if everyone on the team looked corresponding. I was hesitant at first, but succumbed to the peer pressure and took my hijab off. Afterwards, I did not think that what I did was so unsuitable since it was only temporary. I could not have been more wrong. As August swung by, it was time for my first day as a 6th grader. I interacted with all my friends from the previous year and like a ship lost at sea, I tried finding my classes.This was the day I found my best friend who stuck with me till 8th grade, Minahil. While all my friends left me behind in the dust, Minahil stayed with me through thick and thin. The bad part in all this? She wasn’t the best influence on me. I’d see her wearing tank tops and shorts and I would have the urge to do the same. The biggest mistake I made happened a few weeks later. Around the end of September when it had just begun getting chilly, Minahil would keep hinting at me to take my scarf off. At first, I wouldn’t listen but at one point she convinced me to take my hijab off for a quick picture with her. I’d say no but she insisted and I finally caved. I took my scarf off and soon after I realized that I wanted to take my scarf off permanently. I knew my parents wouldn't see eye to eye so I decided to make a plan. Everyday for almost a full year I would wear my hijab to the bus, take it off on the bus and put my scarf back on while going back home. This was my routine for the longest time. The worst part is, I stopped feeling guilty. Time passed by and slowly I began to realize my wrongs and started fixing who I was. 8th grade I began wearing the hijab again correctly, I didn’t care what kind of clothes I wore and I certainly did not care what others thought about me. I finally began to accept who I was becoming and started to gravitate towards my religion and culture. Finally, the school years that matter most had arrived. As High School began, I was nervous and excited to go to my new school. It was a huge step for me and I wasn’t sure if I was prepared for it. I was afraid that there would be more dangerous influences here and I wasn’t wrong. Every week I would hear about parties, drinking, smoking, dating, and it made me want to do majority of that. What made it harder was Muslims kids were smoking and dating. Which made me think this was okay. I’d have the urge to do the same but luckily my best friend kept me away from all of the negative influences. She made me realize that giving in to the negativity would drive me away from the person I want to be. Ninth Grade for me meant this will be the year I change into a completely different person, it was time for a fresh start. I wore my hijab properly and in general practiced my religion more. As time went by, I soon realized High School is not like Middle School at all. You realize that people are bad influences faster and know who to stay away from. Although you stayed away from the bad company, sometimes you missed one and they were now your friend. You hung out with them all the time and that leads you to think again, “Maybe it's okay to go to this party” or “maybe I should have a boyfriend.” Once again you begin wondering, why can't I be like everyone else? Why am I excluded? There were times during High School where I felt like I was in Middle School again. I’d realize a small flaw I would have and begin wondering why am I not perfect. In my eyes as a child it seemed as if everyone around me was perfect except myself. Then my Sophomore year comes around, it only took a few months till I made a friend who always, till this day, keeps me on track, lets me know what I have to let go and what I can hold on to, what the important things in my life are, what requires my attention, and what I need to be focusing on. With his help, I’ve come to the conclusion where it doesn’t matter what people think of you, you just be you. While time went by I became stronger mentally, realized I don’t need to change anything about myself just to satisfy others or impress them and stayed away from all of the things I thought I needed to do in order to fit in. I am now a sophomore in High School and I do not care of how I am. I've realized we are perfect in our own ways which leads to the world being imperfect. If everyone had the same personality, same ways of thinking, learning and so forth, this world would be perfect but extremely boring. Our differences between each other is what makes us perfect.
Hijacked planes were purposely flown into the twin towers in New York and killed about 3,000 innocent people. This was one of the most disastrous incident to ever occur during the era. After the release of who caused the attack, lots of people from the Islamic culture were the center of attention right after the event. They were falsely accused of being called terrorists without little to any evidence. It was mainly because of their appearance and beliefs. It was more like racism and stereotypes towards them. Society has painted them to be these terrorists because they were feared and immediately got the wrong idea when they approach them. The day the terrorist attack happened, it sparked a new beginning for their culture. They not only felt scared when they were around them, but they felt like they were going to become a part of a violent attack that they’re going to cause without them acknowledging it. It can be disrespectful and rude to assume they’re terrorist but they didn’t care. It was “[society] [who] feared what [they] don't understand. In a frenzied state of irrational behavior [they] will point fingers and name names and accuse the innocent because [they] are afraid” (Garcia). Society was terrified for their lives. They made them feel unwelcomed and unwanted. The fear exponentially rose and became a problem when they wanted to fly to a destination. Lots of “Americans became paranoid
In this article, Kasam explains her experience being a Muslim American on a college campus and the challenges she her and fellow Muslims face on campus. She explains how she is a club leader at Quinnipiac University for a Muslim group. She claims that there is not a lot of Muslims who attend that University. She also believes that many Muslims at the school are afraid of coming out and telling other people on campus that they are Muslims; keeping a low profile. She provides statistics on hate crimes against Muslims around the world, and she also expresses her concern to her Muslim friends on campus. This article was published in the College Xpress for mainly college students to view. Kasam is a staff writer for the Quinnipiac Chronicle who mainly writes stories about incidents on and around Quinnipiac University. This article will help me explain the various problems that Muslim students around college campuses face
The attitudes toward Muslims today have not changed significantly since September 11, 2001. Any Muslim person; man, woman, or child is automatically suspect to instigate pandemonium, based strictly on their appearance and faith. Regardless of any evidence, reasoning, or perspective to the contrary, Muslims are seen as an enemy to United States citizens. The events of 9/11 left Muslim Americans unceremoniously lacking any respect from U.S. citizens regardless of any affiliation with Al-Qaida. We assess Muslim people with a common image of terror. We see the turban or hijab and assume a terrorist is hidden within its folds. Our mentalities inevitably come to a paralyzing halt, and we can never see through the fabric of the religious garments. When we see any one of these people, one person comes to mind, and that is the person who attacked our country. Today, in our nations cities and towns these arrogances still exist forcefully. Muslim people are still profoundly victimized and discriminated against by the means of assumption and negative mental sets. In the novel Zeitoun, author Dave Eggers takes time to assess the spitefulness encountered by Kathy and Abdulrahman Zeitoun, along with narrating the family’s endeavors with hurricane Katrina. Zeitoun presents racial differences in America, primarily in New Orleans, by discussing how they are created and the ways in which they exist today.
On September 11, 2001, since the terrorist attacks, many American Muslims have been stereotyped negatively in the United States. Salma, a Muslim woman, says that the way Muslims have been recognized in the media has played a big role in the antagonism directed at her. “I don’t know how many times I heard my classmates accuse me of being al-Qaeda or a terrorist” (Mayton 2013). Salma, along with other Muslims, even after a decade, are still struggling with trying to find their “American” and “Islamic” identities, while facing verbal attacks for their ethnicity. Too often, the general Muslim population gets lumped in with the immoral acts of a few because of the lack of knowledge about their culture.
The way Muslims have been treated after the 9/11 incident is very different than before. Before 9/11 there was certainly some discrimination towards Muslim Americans, but after the attacks happened, between the years 2000 and 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported a 1,700 percent increase of hate crimes against Muslim Americans (Khan & Ecklund, 2012). “While trying to adapt to the outcome of 9/11, Muslim Americans dealt with an increase in negative stereotypes spoken by the common culture, and Muslim immigrants faced more negative attitudes than any other immigrant group” (Khan & Ecklund, 2012). Since the 9/11 attacks, people who dress with a substantial resemblance to Muslims worry about the upcoming hatred and unfriendliness from people of other ethnicities (Khan & Ecklund, 2012). While listening to the media, one can hear reports of negative stereotypes towards people who resemble the Muslim religion, which may be assumed that these people are violent. Negative attitudes that Muslim Americans experience may have detrimental effects on their success in America and their success of achieving the American Dream.
The author expressed, “Kathy had not wanted their family to become collateral damage in a war that had no discernible fronts, no real shape, and no rules” (252). Both Kathy, a converted Muslim, and Zeitoun, a born Muslim, knew what the future looked like in terms of discrimination and inequality. The idea of islamophobia is so open to different interpretations, and the fight against it has not yet accomplished all of the goals. The war against Islamophobia, as well as other discriminatory debates, has shown to be a dirty one. Many opinions are gathered and slurs are formed, which make immigrating as a Muslim very difficult. America is known as the land of the free, but for many families of the Muslim faith, it does not always feel that
In schools all across the country, students are taught to believe certain things or act certain ways. In American schools, America is teaching each student the new “Common Core Standards” in which teachers provide “A consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.” (Early Education). While this program still promotes writing, reading, and arithmetic; it exposes the world of social justice, abortion rights, population control, environmentalism, and gay marriage in a way that children may not be ready for it (Early Education). Also in American schools, the religion Islam is often taught to children. They are taught a broader understanding of Islam that will make it easier to rationalize acts of mass murder, such as 9/11. But the more likely goal is to make all religions morally equivalent, so that no specific religion is considered superior to any other (Islamic Indoctrination). The word "Islam" means "submission". All Mohammedans are commended to wage war against the those who don’t believe in Islam until they submit to Islam and the entire world is Islamic. The U.S. is at war with Islamic terrorists who are willing to fight to the death to destroy the American way of life (Islamic Indoctrination). The indoctrination in American schools and in 1984 are very similar in the way that they both try
...mbers have used the same words before they committed their suicidal actions. The connections between terrorism and Islam are pointed out clearly when the extremists say that they are waging a “holy war” against their enemies. Extremists have used Islam as a justification to attack churches, Hindu and Buddhist temples. Due to the fact that the terrorist who carried out such criminal and inhumane acts associate himself or herself with Muslim religion, the public comes to view Islam as a severe risk. In reality, only 15% of the 1 billion Muslims are extremists and out of that 15%, only a few engage in terrorist activities. However, most news stories do not focus on the places where things are going right, but on the places where things are going wrong. Due to all this, it is clear that the extremists play a large role in pinning the scarlet letter on Muslims in the US.
Islam in America has historically been misunderstood, and this is due to the misconception of culture and religion as well as lack of education and incorrect portrayal in the media, which gives a skewed idea of Islam. Especially in the United States, Islam has been seen as the “terrorist religion” or a religion for the extremists and a religion in which freedom is not an option. Among the countless misconceptions, the basis of stereotypes by Americans is due to the mix up between religion and culture. Furthermore, the media only fuels fire to these misunderstandings and lack of factual information about Islam causing Americans to lash out on American Muslims without reason.
Muslim children face high level of discrimination at their schools as they are welcomed with negative comments about their religion by the children of other religions. Though abnormal but normally Muslim students are labeled as Terrorists and they are often verbally coerced and mocked to migrate back to their native countries. The overall conclusion can be drawn as the study that United States suffered a lot during the attacks of 9/11 but the ones who are still facing the aftermath of that incident are the Muslims around the globe and especially those present in United States. Various reasons other than 9/11 attacks behind Muslim stigmatization around globe include stereotyping against Muslims in terms of non-flexibility, uncommon culture, simple life style and aggressive behavior.
Is Islam a violent religion? Well, the Islamic holy book, the Quran, states “…if anyone killed a person, it would be as if he killed the whole of mankind; and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole of mankind…” (Qureshi). The Islamic Messenger Muhammad also states, “You do not do evil to those who do evil to you but you treat them with kindness and forgiveness” (Prophet Muhammad). These are statements by Islam’s 2 most reliable sources and they clearly show that Islam does not preach for violence, but peace. Now the other stereotype is that Muslim’s themselves are violent people. One fact that we cannot ignore is that there are over 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today, if Muslims were violent a big part of the world’s population would be dead today. Also according to FBI, 94% of terrorist attacks carried out in the United States from 1980 to 2005 have been by non-Muslims. This means that an American terrorist suspect is over nine times more likely to be non-Muslim than a Muslim (Alnatour). Another point is that there have also been 140,000 terror attacks committed worldwide since 1970. Even if Muslims carried out all of these attacks, which they have not, those terrorists would represent less than 0.00009 percent of all Muslims. To put things into perspective, this means that you are more likely to be
Throughout my life, I had always received recognition for being very agile and quick. My first day of Middle School consisted of the track and field coach attempting to persuade me to join the school’s athletics program. I had previously never been apart of an athletics team, and was willing to take advantage of the opportunity. Throughout my three years of middle school, I was the one consistent member of the school’s track and field team and had an overall successful personal record. Coaches from opposing school would praise me leaving me feeling very confident about myself.
In today’s world people judge others just by looking at them and making decisions based on their appearances and actions. Misconceptions are caused by making assumptions firsthand, receiving incorrect information from a source or seeing a few members from a specific group commit an action which is attributed to the whole group. Most of the assumptions made are almost incorrect because the people who judge do not follow through to see what the truth is regarding their observation. Misunderstandings are caused by how the spectator interprets the expression of the group causing confusion. These misunderstandings often times go viral and are sometimes even carried on from one generation to another. Several religious groups are often perceived in a different light than their true identity. American Muslims, followers of Islam, are one of the major groups who are victims to this mass misconception.
Islam is a monotheistic religion, centered around the teachings of the Qu’ran and serving Allah (meaning God in Arabic). However, this Abrahamic religion has been harshly discriminated against in the United States for years. Most prominently throughout the last twelve years, post September 11th, 2001. Unfortunately, issues such as socialization through the media, power distribution, religious ignorance, stereotyping and visible differences have contributed to the ill attitudes towards Muslims. This paper will examine how Americans have been socialized in islamophobia within the United States.
“Stereotyping is a three-part process” (Floyd, 61). In the first stage, we identify a group to which we believe another person belongs. For example, if a man is wearing a turban, one might assume he is a Muslim. In the next stage, we recall a generalization others often make about the people in that group. For example, many people in the United States generalize all Muslims as terrorists or haters of America. The last stage in the process of stereotyping is applying the generalization to that person. “You are Muslim, therefore must be a terrorist.” Obviously, these assumptions are not accurate, but are examples in the process of stereotyping (Floyd, 61).