In early February, I published an Odyssey article, “Confessions of a Muslim American.” I discussed my everyday struggles, fears, and concerns about being a young hijabi in a world full of ignorant, uneducated, and Islamophobic individuals. It took quite a lot of strength to write, and frankly, I was a bit hesitant about publishing it because of how personal it was.

Fast forward to about three days later, when I noticed dozens of Islamophobic comments spewing in about my article. People were telling me many different things that include but are not limited to:

I shouldn’t be a Muslim in America if I can’t handle it. (I very much can “handle it,” I just choose to be brave enough to showcase the dark side of living in a country with “freedom.” Emphasis on the quotation marks in “freedom.”)

I should repent for my sins and believe in Jesus Christ. (Clearly, this person is unaware that Muslims in fact do believe in Jesus Christ. Someone didn’t do their research properly.)

I should buy a one way ticket out of here.

I shouldn’t be discussing my problems as a Muslim in America when there are so many more things to worry about. (Last time I checked, there are countless problems everywhere, and they shouldn’t be rated on a scale of horrible-ness. A problem is a problem and anyone who doesn’t feel safe, secure, or happy should receive all the support they can get!)

I should be ashamed of being a Muslim because of terrorists. (In that case, should all Christians be ashamed of their beliefs because of the KKK and Westboro Baptist Church? The answer is no, because the actions of a few individuals in any group of people do not represent the group as a whole.)

Islam shouldn’t be allowed in America. (Don’t even get me started on how many people kept saying this in response to my article.)

I’d post more disgusting comments, but I’ll leave you with one that tops it all. I was sitting with three other friends in the Adelphi University Center Cafe, eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I was on a break from my 9-hour lab safety training course that Saturday, exhausted and tired on my phone when a message from one of my friends popped up at the top of my screen. He was telling me to look at the responses to my article on Facebook.

I did a quick Facebook search on my article and to no surprise, I saw people publicly sharing my post with rude, crass comments.

However, there was one that left me so speechless that it made me stop chewing. I put my sandwich down and read it about a dozen times before I could comprehend what this man was saying.

Normally I would overlook the comment and go on with whatever I was doing with my life, but in this case, I felt the urge to speak out. When people insult me, I don’t care. When they insult an entire group of people and threaten them as well, I get mad. Needless to say, I reported the post to Facebook, and they responded with this:

It apparently didn’t violate community guidelines, even though, according to Facebook’s own guidelines, it was clearly in violation.

I was confused, upset, and as a writer and someone who doesn’t accept defeat so easily- I decided to make a Facebook post about it.

If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you probably remember something that circulated the internet for about a week, but before we dive into what happened, here’s what I wrote in that post:

Facebook, I’m actually disgusted with you for the first time in my life. In response to what happened yesterday, I reported the guy in the screenshot below for threatening and harassing not just me, but every Muslim person in the U.S. You decided it didn’t violate your community standards, including:

It goes against my views.

Makes fun of my personal values, religion or politics.

It advocates violence or harm to a person or animal.

It harms or humiliates based on race, sex, orientation, or ability.

I’m making this post public, so any likes, comments, and shares will petition that your decision to keep that hateful, disgusting, threatening post up is simply revolting. I can’t even describe how upset I am right now. This isn’t okay.

The screenshots that I talked about in my post are the two screenshots previously mentioned in this article: The hate post and Facebook's reaction.

My post caught fire pretty quickly, and the likes and shares, then in the thousands, doubled overnight after an activist with over 30,000 Facebook followers shared it. Within a few days it had thousands of more likes and shares. All the comments were in support and favor of me, and those thousands of people agreed that what Facebook had done to me was injustice. The original hate post had been deleted as well, and I was satisfied that I was able to use the power of social media to share my voice with the world.

One thing I should mention is that I actually didn't white out the name of the person who posted that hate comment like I just did in this article. Yes, his name was there in the viral post that thousands of people saw and reacted to. Now, I know what you’re thinking.

Why would she show that man’s name in the post? He’s being singled out.

It’s funny, because I thought of whiting his name out before making my post public. However, his post was public as well, and if I whited his name out, people would have typed his comment or even the link to my article into the search bar and his post would’ve been one of the first things to pop up. It would’ve created much more extra attention in the comments and I would have most likely been called out for trying to hide something and failing. In all honesty, keeping his name there was the most logical and reasonable thing to do. I made it clear in my post that I was disgusted with Facebook’s decision to not remove his post; there are plenty of people like him anyways, and keep in mind that his post was public with the intention of everyone (including me) to see it.

I was upset when Facebook decided to keep a hate post up, especially when it violated their own community standards. However, I was much more upset when I logged onto Facebook that following Saturday night and found out that my post calling Facebook out got deleted, by Facebook.

Does that make any sense? To remove my post because I was standing up against Islamophobia? Because I was being truthful? Because I was logistically voicing my concerns about being in a safe online environment? Because I called Facebook out for not living up to their own standards and guidelines?

I mean I’m still very upset that my post had been removed, but at the same time I’m glad I got the word around. I’m glad I was able to use Facebook to call out, well, Facebook itself. There’s honestly a lot of power in social media and I can guarantee you I will continue to stand up for my values and beliefs as long as I physically can.

People need to remember that it’s 2016. There’s no more room for ignorance, Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism, sexism, or anything that degrades anyone based on their values, beliefs, race, color, sex, orientation, or disabilities.

I strongly believe that anyone can do whatever they want as long as they’re not harming themselves or others. We’re all amazing people. We're all in this thing called life together. This world is a beautiful place; let’s keep it that way.