So my mother had come home crying the other night. When asked why she was in tears, she told me that while she was shopping at a grocery store, some woman had yelled at her to go back to her country.
My mother, who has been in this country since she was four years old.
My mother, who has single-handedly raised seven children on her own.
My mother, who is a domestic abuse survivor.
My mother, who went back to college at the age of 40 and earned a degree in accounting.
My mother, who is an American citizen.
My mother, who has nothing but kindness and love in her heart, told to leave the country she has built her home and spent her life in? Tell me, what gives you the right to be here and not her? Did you jump through a hoop ringed with fire? Did you commit some great feat that warrants you to tell her “you’re lucky we even let you into this country?” Tell me, what makes you more American than her?
Is this the world we live in today?
I am so sick. So sick of waking up every morning to read about another Muslim who has become a victim of a hate crime. Mosques desecrated. People beaten. People gunned down. People killed. And I picture my own family members—my own mother being among those who have been attacked or murdered. And my heart is overwhelmed with immense fear and pain. And I wonder, “Who will it be next? Will it be someone I know? Someone I love? Someone who shares the same blood as me?”
I am so sick of apologizing for the acts committed by extremist groups in the name of my religion. These horrible radicals do not represent the religion my family practices. Their religion teaches terrorism. My religion teaches me to be benevolent and generous. Theirs teaches terror. My religion teaches me to be kind to those around me. Theirs teaches oppression. My religion teaches me that even smiling at one’s neighbor is a form of charity. Theirs teaches unfound hate and fear and raw barbarity.
I am sick of it. I do not want to politicize the lives that ISIS or extremists have stolen. I want to send my love and condolences to these victims’ families without simultaneously having to defend my religion. I want to reach out to those hurt in the atrocities carried out by radicals, not because I want to be a spokesperson for my family’s and loved ones’ religion, but because my humanity compels me to. I want the freedom to empathize with the innocent lives lost without the need to make a distinction between the terrorist and myself. But it does not seem that I, nor the majority of Muslims living in America today, have that luxury.
According to a GALLUP poll from data it collected in 2010, Muslims (48 percent) were “more likely than Americans of other major religious groups to say they, personally, have experienced racial or religious discrimination in the past year. Muslim Americans are more than twice as likely as U.S. Jews, Catholics, and Protestants to say they experienced such discrimination in the past year [2010].”
Hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise. In a study conducted by the Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, the overall increase of these anti-Muslim crimes in 2015 can be attributed to a mixture of three factors: the Paris attacks, the San Bernardino shootings, and the rise of the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump. This study concludes that 174 anti-Muslim attacks took place in 2015, including 12 murders.
Following the senseless attacks on Paris, the number of attacks on Muslims went from an average of 12.6 per month to nearly 38 attacks per month. And this statistic only measures the islamophobic-motivated crimes taking place in America.
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in 2015, 63 cases were reported in regards to the defacement and vandalism of mosques.
Additionally, Trump’s harsh rhetoric incites only animosity and panic, and plays a blatant role in the increase of these hate crimes. In December 2015, Trump called for a ban on Muslim immigration into America “until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." After the Orlando shooting, 50 percent of Americans strongly or somewhat supported the ban, according to NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll.
This is so incredibly sad and heartbreaking. To paint a whole community with a single brush is utterly counterintuitive. It is completely illogical to judge all Muslims by the actions of a select few.
Do people not realize that ISIS is Muslims’ enemy as well? ISIS operatives have waged war and spilled the blood of so many Muslims—in Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Bangladesh and so many other Muslim countries. They have even attacked the Muslim holy city of Medina in the holy month of Ramadan, no less.
In 2011, the United States Counterterrorism Center reported that “in cases where the religious affiliation of terrorism casualties could be determined, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97 percent of terrorism-related fatalities over the past five years. Furthermore, last year, the United Nations reported that the largest victims of ISIS in Iraq were, in fact, Muslims.
In brief, not only are a majority of Muslims condemning these horrible attacks over and over and over again tirelessly, Muslims are also the victims of the majority of these attacks. Now add “hate crimes” to the list of the endless attacks.
If you are so quick to judge or hate my community because of what these terrorists have done, remember that neither ISIS nor any terrorist entity represent mainstream Islam or Muslims. They do not represent my Islam and they never will.
So please stop with all the senseless bloodshed and enmity. Stop with the animosity and hostility. Stop with the pain.
My heart is with the innocents who have had their lives unjustly ripped away. May peace one day prevail.
Sincerely,
Your local Muslim American
