American Muslims

The US is no stranger to prejudice, racism, and other forms of discrimination. Some believe that it’s not as big of a problem as it used to be. However, there are still many cases of inequality in our society. Muslim-Americans are some of the most stereotyped and discriminated groups of the US. They face many obstacles that are unique to them and there needs to be a call to action to prevent the discrimination of Muslims in America.

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These stories show how it can be hard for Muslim-Americans to live without discrimination, prejudice, and harassment in their lives. According to Molly Hennessy-Fiske in the article, “Muslim women say headscarves are targets for harassment after attacks,” some have their days interrupted by people assaulting or harassing them because they openly practice their religion and wear a hijab. Some are even flat out turned away from jobs due to it too, according to the article, “Court sides with Muslim job applicant turned down after wearing hijab,” by David G. I personally haven’t been harassed due to my religion, however, I do hold sympathy towards the people who have. We all should be able to freely practice our religion without being attacked due to it. The people in this community are brave and faithful for persevering even after the harassment.

Not everyone in this group is one race, they can be from multiple, although there are more common ones. They share religion and culture, however, each have their own experiences and point of views. They don’t have a single mind and actions by others that are muslim shouldn’t define what they all are like. Muslim-Americans have been a part of US history for a long time, and yet they still face immense challenges. Harassment isn’t known only to Muslim-Americans, however, their encounters with it and many other issues presented to them are unique compared to others.

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Many people haven’t been harassed, wrongly denied jobs, or weren’t allowed to freely express their religion by others so it might be hard to know exactly the severity of the issues they are facing and understand it. Try and find stories of the problem and put yourselves in their shoes, and think, if someone did those things to you in a place where you are supposed to be able to freely express yourself, how would you feel? Many of the people who harass Muslim-Americans think they are terrorist because of attacks carried out by muslims in other places. That is far from the truth and those people have done nothing wrong yet suffer consequences for actions they didn’t commit.

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Stereotyping Muslims usually leads to racism, anti-muslim hate, and harassment in general when they shouldn’t be categorized into a singular category. According to Pew Research, “Most American adults (82%) say Muslims are subject to at least some discrimination in the U.S. today…..including a majority (56%) who say Muslims are discriminated against a lot.” This shows how severe the problem is and why action needs to be taken now.

Although people know or have even witnessed discrimination towards Muslims, not much has been done to help them. To help Muslim-Americans, you should first try to learn about Islam yourself. If you ever see a Muslim being harassed by another person do your best to stand up for the person and disrupt their islamophobia. You don’t have to experience their problems or be a part of their community to empathize with them and stand with them against islamophobia, do your best in the community to make a call to action for equality and acceptance for them in the US.