Miskiin muslimah in texas discusses islamophobia

[grandpakhalif]

Despite having lived in Texas my entire life, I haven't experienced much Islamaphobia. In recent weeks, however, there has been an uptick:

A) A few hours after the Boston bombings, two men followed my youngest brother (he's fiiiiive, omgasdkjf) and I around the grocery store making all sorts of antagonizing remarks. My brother had no idea what was happening, and even tried to talk to them as we high tailed it out of the store...

B) On Monday, I was on campus, waiting for an advising appointment. A tall, well built man wearing a Wounded Warriors Project t-shirt comes into the advising office, and takes the only free seat: next to me. He takes out his phone to make a call, and in the finest stage whisper I've ever heard, starts bashing Muslims:

"I didn't go to Iraq to come back here to see them."

"I didn't fight for her effing freedom"

The secretary at the desk literally started hyperventilating when she realized who he was talking about.

He went on in that vein for a few minutes, including a lovely comment about being stoned if I were in my own country, even calling me illiterate and insinuating that I wasn't practicing my religion properly because my "burkha didn't cover her face". The entire time, he'd alternate between thrusting his upper body towards me and mugging me down.

C) Also on Monday... I was driving down a street in the middle lane, only one other car in sight. The driver was constantly tailgating, nearly fender to bumper. I sped up a tad, and she veered into the lane to my left, lowered her driver's side window, and started screaming like a banshee. It was a beaautiful day, so my own windows were down. She was spewing the usual "git back to your country" and flipping the bird. She then swerved in front of me and abruptly came to a complete stop. My brakes nearly gave out trying to avoid a collision. She has the nerve to a) continue shrieking and b) slag down my driving skills. Um, hello, check your privilege pls, you're crossing a line there, buddy. And the entire time, I'm thinking that she's going to jump out of the car with a baseball bat and smash my windshield. But he carries on driving, and it just so happens that we're both making a left turn. And oh my Allah, she was still going at it. Meanwhile, cars have pulled up around us, and bewildered drivers, myself included -_-, were gobsmacked and staring at her.

D) Tuesday.. I was filling up gas, and noticed a guy a few pumps away snarling. It'd be comical if it weren't so unnerving. Shaken, I got back into my car and pulled away. I noticed that hardly a minute passed and that he was doing the same, and a few moments later, he was behind me. I didn't think much of it, and zoned out for the drive home. By chance, shukr, while idling at a red light, I glanced in the rear view mirror and recognized the driver of the car behind me. I have an overactive imagination as it is, and ignored the "omg nancy drew, you're being followed". But a few lights and two turns later, he was still there. A trick that my dad taught me to figure out if you're being followed (don't ask) is to use your indicators. For example, you're in the middle lane. Indicate left, but merge right (of course, being mindful of traffic around you). [DON'T DO THIS THOUGH, OKAY, IT'S NOT SAFE] So I did that (the street was empty), and the guy started going left and realized I wasn't, then sharply swerved into my lane. Promptly drew up to a red light (oh great), I was shaking, shamelessly ran it omgomgomgomg I'VE NEVER RAN A RED LIGHT BEFORE, got caught by a speed-trap camera :c, and booked it at sixty mph in a forty straight to the freeway. Every light was green after that, alhamdullilah.

For the first time, I don't feel so safe going out anymore. May Allah SWT protect us all.

Seems very bad in America for our fellow muslims.

May Allah protect our sisters ameen!

[Magnusomalius]

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The views of Muslims in America more closely resemble those of other Americans on some issues of modern society than they do those of Muslims around the world, according to a new global survey of people of Islamic faith.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life surveyed 38,000 Muslims in 39 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe on issues such as Islamic law, religion and acceptance of other faiths. Those results, released Tuesday, were compared with findings of a 2011 Pew survey of Muslims in America and views of American Christians.

People who work with the Muslim community attribute the differences in views to religious freedom in the United States and routine exchanges of ideas with people of other faiths.

"The Muslims have more freedom here than in the Muslim majority countries they come from," said Hamed Baig, vice president of the Islamic Center of Des Moines. "They come here, and they are more secure and more relaxed."

That comfort, said Baig, has led Muslims in America to be more accepting of other faiths, and more comfortable with their own.

According to survey findings, almost two-thirds of U.S. Muslims (63 percent) and U.S. Christians (64 percent) say there is no conflict between religion and modern life. In Africa, Asia and Europe, 54 percent of Muslims share that view.

Views of Muslims worldwide were closer on the issue of violence. Most Muslims reject suicide bombings and violence against civilians, the surveys found, including 81 percent of American Muslims and 72 percent of Muslims in Africa, Asia and Europe.

In those continents, researchers found, a large majority of Muslims believe that Islam is the one true faith leading to heaven, and that belief in God is necessary to be a moral person.

In contrast, a majority of U.S. Muslims, 56 percent, say that many religions can lead to heaven. About two-thirds of American Christians and Americans in general share that view. But just 18 percent of Muslims in Africa, Asia and Europe believe that religions other than Islam offer a path to eternal life.

Anwar El Nour, leader of the Darfurian Community in Iowa, says the statistics may offer a narrow window on the issue.

"I myself don't think that all Muslims even go to heaven," El Nour said.

El Nour said his experience as a Sudanese immigrant in Des Moines has led to direct exchanges with other cultures. The Lutheran Church, he said, has welcomed the 200-strong Muslim immigrants and even provided a place to pray.

"We share a lot of things in America with Americans," El Nour said. "The way we have been treated as Americans here, with democracy and freedom, I think we are totally different from Muslims in other parts of the world."

The survey also found that less than half of U.S. Muslims (48 percent) say all or most of their close friends are followers of Islam. In Africa, Asia and Europe, a median of 95 percent of Muslims says that all or most of their close friends are Muslim.

Fatima Smejkal, a board member of the Cedar Rapids Islamic Center, said her community is constantly melding with other faith communities.

"The Christians, the Muslims, the Jewish faith — we are all as one here. We respect each other, work together, live together. We frequent each other's house of worship," Smejkal said. "It's a wonderful society."

People of other faiths who work with the Muslim community in Iowa also see a regular exchange of cultures versus what happens in other countries.

"Culture is a big piece of who we are as individuals, and that's certainly influenced by the society and culture around us," said Connie Ryan Terrell, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa. "Folks who don't have the experience of interacting with people who are different from them usually have a much narrower viewpoint."

Rabbi David Kaufman of Temple B'nai Jeshurun said another reason Muslims in the U.S. have similar viewpoints to other Americans is that they purposely left countries where the prevailing views were different. Like the Jewish community that came to the United States in the 19th century, Kaufman said, Muslim immigrants were more likely to be secular.

"When you're dealing with Muslims fleeing from Iran, fleeing from Iraq, coming to the U.S. from Egypt, they're fleeing fundamentalism and coming to a place where there's freedom," and they are entering the American education system, Kaufman said.

"In this country, we educate about civil rights and secular views, and interaction with people of other faiths and ethnicities is a huge part of it," Kaufman said.

Of course, not all Muslims in the United States share singular opinions, Kaufman said.

Sal Syed, public relations committee chair of the Islamic Center of Ames, said that while U.S. Muslims have more freedoms than in other countries, they are not necessarily treated equal to people of other faiths.

"Here people are separated and don't really know who other people are," unlike in his native India, he said. While most people are off on Sunday, a Christian day of worship, Muslims have to make special arrangements with their jobs to worship on Fridays.

"We are a secular democracy, yes, but for non-Christians, it is not secular enough," he said.

Sarai Rice, director of the Des Moines Area Religious Council, said most of the time when various communities work together on social services, discussions of contemporary society don't even come up. But there is one thing, she said, that everyone has in common.

"We work together not in beliefs, but in meeting the needs of the community," Rice said. "All faith traditions essentially agree that we should all be contributing to the

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013 ... y/2125993/