United States citizens are hard to recognize; accents, skin tones, backgrounds, genetics are all meaningless. Whether by birth or via test, an American citizen is identifiable primarily by his or her commitment to ideals set forth more than two centuries ago.
Any 7th grader can provide the gist of the guarantees set forth by the Founding Fathers; that citizens ought to be free from government involvement in religious worship, free speech, peaceful assembly and petition, and harassment; but imagine a scenario where the people who created this credo to protect themselves – and their descendants – chose to marginalize and mistreat groups with different appearances or beliefs.
It isn’t that hard, is it? Native Americans, African Americans, Jews, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, Homosexuals – the list goes on. At prestigious, private institutions of higher education, it may be easy to tsk, offer a genuinely sympathetic head shake, and remark on how unenlightened previous generations were, while marveling at how people could be so cruel and downright ignorant.
A large Muslim population is asking that very question right now. There has been a recent wave of anti- Muslim sentiments on the international scale. It is leaving many followers of Islam feeling slighted and frightened for their safety.
On February 10th of this year, three college students (Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha) were fatally shot in their home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The neighbor who allegedly shot them has been arrested. There is widespread speculation that this was a hate crime, based on the content of his social media accounts and one of the victims telling a relative she believed the man resented them for their religion and heritage.
The killings occurred after President Obama asked congressional approval for authorization to use military force to fight the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Not to mention the murder of 17 people in France by Islamist terrorists last month. Could it be a coincidence? That this was truly a horrible incident, a squabble over parking blown unbelievably out of proportion? That absolutely could be the case. However, in the time since the death of the three students, there have been in increase in similar incidents. Some examples can be seen below:
2/13/2015: A fire broke out at an Islamic community and education center in southeast Houston; hours later arson police discovered accelerant was used. The assistant imam said the night before someone had driven by screaming mocking chants.
2/17: The entrance of the Islamic School of Rhode Island in West Warwick was tagged with orange graffiti reading “Now this is a hate crime”, “pigs”, and offensive references to Muhammad. The school’s board of trustees, Hilmy Bakri, said the school had never before been the subject of vandalism.
2/17/2015: “Muslims get out” emblazoned across the outside of Skyview Junior High School in Bothell, Washington.
2/17/2015: Many mosques in Ohio received threatening phone calls – with exceptionally graphic and disturbing language – from the same individual.
2/17/2015: A man threatening to bomb a restaurant specializing in Middle Eastern food and an Islamic center in Austin, TX was arrested.
2/19/2015: An Arab-American man was speaking to his children in Arabic while grocery shopping at a Kroger in Dearborn, Michigan when he was assaulted by two white men who were enraged upon overhearing him. A witness said she heard “‘ISIS,’ I hear ‘terrorist,’ I hear ‘go back to your country’ and ‘raghead’…”
This sort of thing is not new. In December, Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein, 15, was run over by an SUV outside a Somali community center in Kansas City. The same center that called the police after earlier witnessing a lingering SUV bearing the painted phrase “Islam is worse than Ebola”.
What’s more worrying than the fact that this isn’t new, is the fact that this might not be ‘newsworthy’. The coverage of the attacks in France lasted significantly longer than the coverage of the three students deaths. In order to form a more perfect union, has this nation enabled Islamophobia?
Hate crimes are generally not reported, and the percentage of hate crimes not reported by Muslims is even higher, as FBI reports show they are among the most profiled and targeted groups in the United States, especially since 9-11. To try and ascribe one cause to Islamophobia would be to try and justify prejudice. The logical mind rejects and the determined mind refuses to accept or seek out knowledge that would threaten or discredit their ingrained “understanding”. The news has been permeated by the ascendance of a new terror group who has seized headlines and world attention primarily by beheading Western aid workers and journalists.
A Brookings Institution poll published in January revealed that 14% of Americans believe the Islamic State has the support of a majority of Muslims worldwide. In comparison to the world, Americans might argue that Muslims don’t have it so bad! It’s not like Belgium or France with bans on veils or headscarves. However, at the very least, there is an awareness of the community and a very verbal discourse about rights. Uncomfortable subjects need discussion and power actors to advocate on their behalf before American Muslims – before any optimistic, tolerant Americans – can anticipate any real change.
words_ kathryn collins. illustration_ carlos latuff.