From the stares to racist comments and harassment, I manage to wake up every morning with a positive attitude in hopes that my day goes by smoothly. I am a Muslim woman born in Chicago that has been wearing the hijab for six years now. This piece of fabric I wear on my head does not mean I am being oppressed. It is actually a personal choice. I wear it to express my Muslim identity. I wear it to express my devotion to Allah.
Ever since 9/11 Muslims in America have been victims of violent harassment verbally and physically. When 9/11 occurred, I remember being in kindergarten and my parents picking me up from school early with no explanation. I was too young to understand anything that was going on, but I distinctly remember my family being constantly worried every time I walked out of the house to go to school. As I grew older, I understood how much of an effect 9/11 had on my family even till this day.
I was born and raised here in Chicago. I identify myself as a Palestinian-American Muslim woman. When I am told, “Go back to your country” it’s hard to break it to the person that this is my country. I speak perfect English and I am very fluent in Arabic. When I go out, I am spoken to as if I am deaf and dumb because of my hijab and the way I dress. My family raised me to always respect the people around me and be the better person.
On February 10, 2015, three innocent Muslims, Deah, Yusor, and Razan were murdered inside of their home. Yusor and Razan wore the hijab. These amazing individuals were active in their community and are being remembered today as heroes and role models across the world. This tragic event was a wake up call for me. It reminded me of the reason I wore a hijab. After that day, I remember standing on the train station platform, waiting to board the train to get to campus and being stared at non stop. I felt scared. What happened to Deah, Yusor, and Razan could have happened to anyone, including myself, or my family. The loss of these three innocent souls affected me greatly. It affected the way I perceived the world. After this incident, I was told by my friends who are not Muslim to be careful and start wearing a hat when I go out instead for my own “safety”. Everyday, the people around me did fear for my safety, but in my head, I always told myself that no matter what happens, it is meant to be. No one wakes up knowing when they are going to die, no one knows what will happen the next morning. I learned to wake up with a positive attitude even though I would be put in situations that would ruin my day.
When the attacks in Paris happened, I was on campus getting my work done and I had people sending me messages saying to be careful. I didn’t know what they were talking about as I was too focused on getting on a bus to get to the train station. I heard so much talking on the bus with so many people staring at me with hate and disgust. I pulled out my phone and went through my Facebook and that’s when I had learned a terrorist attack occurred in France. I scrolled down at some of the most ignorant Facebook posts from people bashing on the entire Muslim population, making absolutely no sense.
How can people be so insensitive and so ignorant to blame an entire population for the actions of a couple of people. I am sorry? I didn’t blame the entire white population during Sandy Hook or during the Colorado movie theater shooting. Fed up, and so annoyed with what I was seeing, I took to Facebook and felt the need to get these words off my chest:
“Seeing all this hate by ignorant individuals on social media really angers me. If you are really going to sit here and blame Muslims and an ENTIRE religion for some extremists that decided to label and destroy all our teachings and values, then I really wish you would educate yourself. There are 1.6 billion Muslims around the world. What occurred in Paris is terrorists and low lifes that decided to label themselves as ‘Muslims’, yet if they were truly Muslims, they would know that our religion commands us to treat the People of the Book (Jews, Christians, etc.) with the highest level of respect and care. There are 1.6 billion Muslims around the world. ISIS, Boko Haram, al Qaeda make up 0.003% of that population. Those terrorist groups have labeled themselves as Muslims and claim to be practicing Islam, yet they have changed the Qur’an and Islamic teachings to fit their needs. You have extremists in every religion. Why should I defend something I don’t practice or believe in. No religion promotes hate or violence. It’s the individuals themselves that promote that. The religion itself has nothing to do with it, if that was the case no one would practice any religion. This week was a very rough week on all of humanity with continuing clashes in the West Bank with innocent Palestinians dying, Mizzou receiving death threats, suicide bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, and now in Paris with innocent individuals that lost their lives from various nationalities. Terrorism has no religion. It has no place in Islam. Blaming Islam for terrorism is like blaming Christianity for colonialism. Allah says in the Qur’an:
مِنْ أَجْلِ ذَلِكَ كَتَبْنَا عَلَى بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَنَّهُ مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الأرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَا أَحْيَا النَّاسَ" جَمِيعًا وَلَقَدْ جَاءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُنَا بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ ثُمَّ إِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ فِي الأرْضِ لَمُسْرِفُونَ"
“...Whoever kills an innocent human being, it shall be as if he has killed all mankind, and whoever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.” [5:32]”
I put this post on public, and received a very nice message from a woman that is not even friends with me or following me on Facebook that made me realize that good people still exist. The woman Facebook messaged me and said:
“I don't know if you will see my message but I wanted to say I read your post #UnitedWeStand and I totally agree with you. Bless you Eman I hope you have a wonderful evening and don't let the haters ignorance upset you. I've found you can't fix or argue with stupidity and those that put blame on anyone other than the individuals that carried out these terrible malicious acts are just so dumb they aren't worth your time Anyone with a brain that isn't a "sheep" following others blindly and is aware of what's actually going on in the world knows that the blame is not to be pointed at any religion
I was happy to see you speak out and say your thoughts. I'm sorry that ignorance sometimes results in hurting or angering others that have nothing to do with the violence. Bless you <3 span="">
I was happy to see you speak out and say your thoughts. I'm sorry that ignorance sometimes results in hurting or angering others that have nothing to do with the violence. Bless you <3 span="">
Never will I deny the fact I am Arab, never will I hide my Palestinian roots, never will I hide my religion, never will I change myself to better fit in with the American population. Just like everyone else has the freedom to practice their faith and dress freely, I will hold on to the rights I have been given since birth and make sure that I do everything I can to set an example for everyone out there that has been trying to make me leave MY country. Donald Trump, thanks for the laughs, but I am not going anywhere.
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