American Muslims

Source

All social groups in the US today face challenges with fitting in to american society. The group I am writing about are Muslim Americans. As some terrorist attacks have been caused by a few muslims,  Muslim Americans as a whole face issues such as being able to wear their religious clothing without being harrassed or treated unfairly because of it. All Muslims in America face the decision of either conforming as best they can to american culture, or being bold and dedicating themselves to muslim culture.

Being part of this social group is clearly a challenge because it can be a sort of lose-lose situation for this group. Either they choose to continue to show their true muslim traditions and face harrasment, or they choose to conform to american society and face criticism from their own people calling them “fake muslims”. The overwhelming majority of Mulsim Americans (89%) describe themselves as being both proud Americans and Muslims. Growing up  in Panama as a child, I guess I can sort of relate to Muslim Americans in the sense that I was visibly different from the rest of my community and friends. I was never bullied and harrased because of it though unlike the majority of Muslim Americans.

About Islam

According to this source, Muslim Americans are actually considered to be the most racially diverse social group in the United States as 35% of them are African American, 28% of them are white, and 18% of them are Asian.This article claims that Muslim Americans are diverse from each other as they all have to make a decision between either conforming as best as they can to american society, or fully dedicating themselves to muslim culture. All Muslim Americans fall into some category on this scale. The article claims that  immigrants and converts “merely follow rituals.” Muslims that serve in Military and Law enforcement are “fake muslims,” sons and daughters of ritualistic muslims fall into the “confused muslim category”, and most indigenous muslims are categorized into the “revolutionary” muslim category. American Muslims face challenges different from the muslim majority such as just being able to wear their religious clothing without being treated disrespectfully because of it. It is very common for Muslim Americans to be harrased in public places such as restaurants, bus stops, and parking lots.

Daily Mail

American Muslims face challenges that some americans do not understand. According to this article, one of these challenges are being able to wear their headscarfs or “hijabs.” We don’t understand that it is an important part of their religion and that many muslim women have worn headscarfs their entire lives. If americans as a whole were more interested in learning about muslim culture, then we would have a better understanding of the challenges they face as minorities in the US.  According to an NPR podcast on Muslim Americans,  events such as terrorist attacks in the US caused by a few muslims have created negative assumptions and sterotypes of Muslim Americans as a whole, as many Muslim Americans every day are being called “terrorists” and are being told to go back to their home country.