Anti-Muslim hate crimes are five times more common today than before 9/11. In 2015 500 Anti-Muslim hate crimes were reported. These hate crimes aren’t just bodily harm done to the individuals but these are attacks on Muslim businesses, homes and mosques. Women wearing the hijab have been verbally and physically attacked, maced and held at knife point. Mosques have been set on fire, the words “TERRORIST” or “GO HOME” have been spray painted in big letters and even beheaded pigs have been dropped off at their door steps. Last month a Imaam and his assistant were followed from their mosque and shot from behind. This past week on the 15th anniversary of 9/11, a woman wearing traditional muslim clothing had her blouse set on fire by a man in lower Manhattan. The day before that two muslim women pushing strollers and had them knocked over by a woman who screamed “GET THE F**K OUT OF HERE!”
That last incident terrified me because it took place in my neighborhood.
The same neighborhood I was born and raised in. The same neighborhood where my family and I never felt disrespected or unwelcome in. The truth is that I’m terrified now. It’s terrifying to be a Muslim right now. I find myself always on edge while on public transportation. I've trained myself to always keep an eye on any woman wearing the hijab just in case anyone harrasses her or tries to assault her. Why? Because that could be my mother, my aunt, my friends or my cousins who are vulnerable and defenseless in moments like those. I fear people attacking them, but what I fear most is no one jumping in to help. After the woman’s shirt was set on fire on 9/11, a cousin of mine texted me about her fears . She told me how her mother used to tell her sister to have a good day at work, but now when her sister who wears the hijab leaves for work her mother tells her to “Be careful.” It’s such a sad mindset to live in but it's our reality. And no one seems to care or talk about it but us.
It's such an exhausting conversation to have. I don’t enjoy talking about this over and over. I don’t like to always think that people I love may lose their lives for wearing a hijab out in public. Or that I can be kicked off a plane for speaking Arabic. Or someone may hear my mother and I having a conversation in Arabic and think we're pledging allegiance to ISIS. (These sound completely ridiculous, but they all have happened.) I don’t think living in fear is the type of life to live but living in fear is why all these incidents and murders have happened. People fear muslims, and in that fear is the overwhelming hatred. The media plays on those fears and has successfully enticed people who have a lot of hate, and no remorse for Muslims into attack mode. I can sit here and repeat Muslims are not terrorists over and over until my face is blue and nothing will change. I’ve given up hope on trying to get people to like us, I just want them to not kill us.
