I’m writing this because I’m fed up about the criminalization of Arabs and the Arabic language in public spaces. It’s not a surprise that many people in recent years have a fear of Muslims. I won’t get into the discussion of whether or not that fear is rational or not, but what is completely ridiculous is this recent wave of people calling the police or being removed from planes for speaking the language of Arabic. There are many decisions that Americans make that are irrational, like electing Donald Trump but to criminalize a LANGUAGE, a language that is the sixth most spoken language around the world is absurd and counterproductive in this “war on terrorism.” In this time of Islamophobia, many Arab-American Muslims have been forced to whitewash themselves and turn their backs on many cultural practices to make Americans feel comfortable. Many have shaved their beards, took off their hijabs, skipped out of wearing cultural clothing in hopes that they won't appear too ethnic or in others words "terrorist like."
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But what has happened in return is that Americans have found new things to pick on that has left us marginalized and have had our human rights violated. So are we not supposed to wear our cultural and religious clothing and be shamed out of speaking our mother tongue to make you more comfortable? You mean to tell me that America the “home of the brave” is afraid of a language? My mother always told me that people fear what they don’t know, but that sounds like a cowardly excuse to me. In the age of Google and the melting pot that is the United States, “not knowing” simply isn’t a good excuse anymore. Muslim Americans literally watched a satanic burnt potato get elected after hearing his plans to kick all of them out and you don’t see us running to the hills crying about being uncomfortable. Arab Americans have stayed in the states post 9/11 as the number of hate crimes against them has skyrocketed and you don’t see us crying about being uncomfortable. Arabs in New York City especially have been marginalized in such a heinous way to purposely make them uncomfortable and we just had to take it on the chin because hey, that’s the “American way.”
Listen, many of us have fears while flying. Yes, the world is a scary place right now and anything is liable to happen. But the problem is many of your fears are ignorant, racist, islamophobic, completely irrational, trample on people’s civil rights, make a large population of the country feel unwanted, and most importantly stupid.
A normal person’s fear while flying will be “Is my pilot sober? Is he in the right mind to fly?”
An idiotic person’s fear while flying will be “Look at that Muslim couple quietly sitting there in their seats being all Muslim. Is that Arabic I hear? WHO LET ISIS ON THE PLANE?”
Here’s where many Americans fail in their fear (and you have Fox news and the garbage school system to thank.)
Terrorists on the plane don’t dress like this. Stop and do yourself a favor and stop watching BS shows like homeland. This is not part of ISIS’ dress code. You can relax.
Terrorists on the plane won’t hijack the plane using a coke can. I honestly want to know what shows you're watching.
Arabic is a language. Stop calling people Arabic. (read this six times out loud please, so I won’t have to go over this again)
A person speaking Arabic on the plane isn’t going over last minute terrorist plots. “Assalam Alaikum” doesn’t translate to “Hey man, I’m on a flight to vegas. How do I blow myself up again?”
A brown person watching something “violent” isn’t an ISIS member. I can assure you he’s not watching a last minute ISIS instructional video.
This……. is really really really stupid even for American standards.
