My being a Muslim still makes my American high-school friends uncomfortable
Mosque Photo: Shelby PDX
by Kinaya Hassane
In my lifetime, the region of Northern Virginia has become more and more diverse as people from a multitude of different cultures are welcomed with open arms. Since the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon and the linking of a local imam to several major terrorist attacks, however, that embrace does not include Muslims living in the region. This is very clear, even in the local high schools.
My own high school, as large as it is, is mostly made up of white Christians. Despite that, there are many active student associations pertaining to race and religion. Whenever Christmas rolls around, it is usually announced that the Christian Fellowship Club and the Catholic Student Association have planned some sort of celebrations. When Hanukkah arrives, the Jewish Culture Club hosts a party. February is a busy month for the Black Student Association and one can’t walk down the hallway without seeing a member of the Asian American Student Association wearing a shirt that reads, “I’m Asian and I Know It”. But once the time comes for Ramadan and Eid, the Muslim Student Association is silent.
My school’s Muslim Student Association in relation to the other student associations keeps a very low profile. On rare occasions, they will conduct a pizza sale in the main hallway after school. But that’s it. The association’s silence is probably due to the silent prejudice that still runs rampant amongst my school’s student body.
Post-9/11 Islamophobia causes students to shift uncomfortably in their chairs and sneak cautious looks at the nearest kid with a Muslim sounding name during the “Islam” unit of our history class, as well as the 9/11 commemoration during the school’s morning news program.
I hopefully speak for my fellow young Muslims when I say that I’m proud to call America home. If it weren’t for my parents’ immigration to this country, I wouldn’t have access to the excellent high schools and top-notch universities the nation has to offer. To assume that all Muslim-Americans hate the United States is absurd. Why would we hate the nation that has provided us with better opportunities than our countries of origin ever could? It’s ridiculous to assume that we’d love to see the country that we love burn at the hands of zealous, Western-hating extremists.
That’s what you get for following a terrorist religion. Sorry if that sounds insensitive but you can’t expect special pleading in that others respect your religion after all that it has done over the years. By association you get to take the good and the bad.
Huss D
January 21, 2013 at 17:30
Keep speaking out, Kinaya.
Margaret Weis
January 21, 2013 at 18:19
What an ignorant response from Huss D – I’ll only say this once and won’t be drawn into a flame war, but I had to say it. I am a Catholic, but know Muslim friends and colleagues whom I would trust with my life. Keep up the good work, Kinaya.
C O'Kane
February 3, 2013 at 09:58
Kinaya, consider that some of those looks might be embarrassment rather than hostility. Because they realize that you will be thinking – well just what you are thinking.
Some will be curious. Comparing a normal person sitting in their class with this image of hatred and trying to reconcile the two.
To write their feelings off as Islamophobia is to make the same mistake of lumping everyone together.
And then again Huss D was being insensitive, but has part of a point. If there were daily reports of a “Purple Foundation” blowing up buildings and vowing to change the west to their ways then wearing a T-shirt saying “I support the Purple Foundation” would be a bad idea. You would expect to get looks.
It’s no use saying “but the ‘Purple Foundation’ wasn’t supposed to stand for violence and hate” when people are terrified of seeing an unattended shopping bag.
It’s not fair, but it’s inevitable and it’s the fault of those zealous, Western-hating extremists you mentioned.
To a lesser extent the Catholics have the same problem with people pulling their kids out of their reach.
Maybe decent Muslims and decent Catholics should come up with a new name for themselves, but the extremists have changed what Muslim means and now when you say it you appear to be proclaiming your support for them.
Panikos
February 10, 2013 at 15:41
Wonderful commentary Kinaya, keep writing! Those of us in Normalville America (doesn’t make for good news stories) see you and every other Muslim American as friends. Lets hope America halts the wave of government eroding our religious liberties. It’s downright hostile to be Catholic these days with this Administration.
Number 9
February 27, 2013 at 20:28
This comment is just silly. I live in NoVa. I am an American, an Arab, and a Maronite. The disregard I feel is the prejudice of anti-Christian Arabs.
The fellowship and amity I see is that extended by Christians and the nominally christian in origin towards newcomers.
And you see it too, so enough with the fishing for pity.
You aren’t a minority, you’re an American. Act like one.
Joe
February 28, 2013 at 14:25