An Important Thing To Remember When 'Traveling While Muslim'
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Politics and Activism

An Important Thing To Remember When 'Traveling While Muslim'

Do not feel the need to stray from you identity to discrimination at bay.

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An Important Thing To Remember When 'Traveling While Muslim'

We are living in a world where Islamophobia is on the rise and it seems as if the public sentiment towards Muslims focuses more on what is considered “threatening” rather than treating Muslims as fellow human beings who are afforded the same rights and freedoms as everyone else.

On December 6th, 2015, Mohamed Ahmed Radwan, while traveling on an American Airlines flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Detroit, Michigan was allegedly called out by the flight attendant as a Muslim passenger. She said, “Mohamed Ahmed, Seat 25-A: I will be watching you.” basically singling him out. And when Mr. Radwan protested the treatment, he was removed from the flight for making the flight attendant “uncomfortable.”

Mr. Radwan’s case is one of the latest in a phenomenon that is known as “flying while Muslim,” which refers to the profiling of Muslims in airports in the aftermath of 9/11. In April 2016, a student was kicked off of a Southwest flight for speaking Arabic, making a passenger uncomfortable, and in January 2016 three Muslim passengers and a Sikh passenger were kicked off of an American Airlines flight without any explanation, later being told it was because of the way they looked and because the captain felt “uneasy” due to their presence. I could continue to go on, but in essence, this issue is becoming more and more prevalent as we navigate through these treacherous waters in a post-9/11 society.

What irritates me is that nowadays the rhetoric against Muslims (and people of color in general) has become so severe that the only way we could avoid discrimination is by appearing and acting as “non-Muslim” as possible. By this I mean doing everything in our power to not stand out, to seem “American” (and even that isn’t a guarantee). The Daily Show’s Hasan Minhaj and Jon Stewart perfectly mock this notion in a satirical segment called “Halal Things Considered” back in June of 2015 in response to the controversy surrounding a Muslim woman on a United Airlines flight who was refused an unopened can of soda for fear that it might be used as a “weapon”. This video is perfect because it basically shows how the only way a Muslim can be treated with any dignity is if they basically disguise and/or deny their religious and/or cultural identity. Of course it is meant as satire but unfortunately it is true in many cases.

Now as I stated in the very first article I wrote for Odyssey Online, it does bother me when these cases are being discussed as discrimination against “American Muslims” when in reality I think it should just be Muslim because I don’t think that nationality should decide whether or not that Muslim is worthy of defense or if they deserve the same dignity as any other American. It makes it seem as if were that person a Pakistani Muslim or an Egyptian Muslim then it would have made it somehow slightly more acceptable to be treated that way. A Muslim doesn’t have to be an American to be treated like a human being or have the same rights as their fellow humans.


This aggravates me because it conveys to me the message that when I am traveling, I have to hide who I am if I want to avoid being harassed. I often wear shalwar kameez, a traditional South Asian dress, most of the time when I am out and about (unless I am doing something professional) because I find them to be the most comfortable, far more comfortable than jeans and dresses. And of course when I am traveling, I dress for comfort. But if I am pulled aside by security or ever kicked off of a plane, there are many people who would say it is because I “made myself stand out” and because I didn’t conform to societal norms. Apparently dressing that way makes me look like a terrorist and it makes people uncomfortable. A Muslim who stands out in the slightest---whether it is the way they dress, if the recite any type of prayer (which is in Arabic), if they have the audacity to speak a language other than English, or even if they have a Muslim-sounding name, they are more likely to be scrutinized. And this disgusts me because as human beings we all have rights and we are all created equal. We have the freedom to express ourselves however we see fit. And yet, a person wearing a hijab or shalwar kameez will be subjugated to questioning and even be removed from flights while a person wearing a shirt that supports the KKK or something that supports an equally hateful message will easily slide by on the basis of freedom of expression.

A person who chooses to pray namaaz in a corner at the airport will be hauled in for questioning, yet a person who reads the Bible and recites verses from it is not bothered because their prayer is “non-threatening” and “correct.” If I want to speak Urdu, my mother tongue, with my family or on the phone, I’d be better off doing it once I get in the car leaving the airport. But if I were to wear jeans and a tank top, change my name to sound “less Muslim”, didn’t recite my prayers, and spoke perfect English then all of a sudden I have a higher chance of being afforded the same rights that all humans are entitled to. It is as if we are being told that “Muslim Americans” have the same rights as everyone else, but only if they look and act “American” (which is basically what Hasan Minhaj was trying to convey in his satirical segment). I am aware that I have discussed the need for limitations of freedom of speech and freedom of expression, however we must remember that these methods of expression are not harmful or wrong; they are our way of staying true to our culture and religion. And the bottom line is that we have every right to do it, no matter what is advisable or what is going to make life easier for us. And any discrimination that stems from it should not be put on our refusal or unwillingness to blend in but instead should be put on the perpetrators who refuse to follow their own laws and treat us with the dignity and respect that they give to everyone else, because we have done nothing wrong. This type of treatment is nothing short of oppression.

Trying to avoid discrimination by changing who we are avoids the problem we are being faced with and only validates the oppressors. It is our duty to educate the people around us about who we are and to be tolerant of one another's differences, because it is an important step in attaining the dignity and regard that all human beings are entitled to.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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