On Sunday, a journalism student from NYU was kind enough to give me the opportunity to be interviewed for her multimedia thesis project on Islamophobia.
Being neither a pundit nor an academic on the subject, I doubt I had anything groundbreaking to contribute to the content she’d already accumulated, other than to reiterate the one point I don’t hear being made enough: that countering Islamophobia in America should not simply be a matter of repelling the stigmas that bigots impose on Muslims, but also of Muslims’ claiming space in America as Americans.
It’s overwhelmingly the case that Islamophobic attacks slice so low below the belt that retaliations must be equally rudimentary. No, Muslims aren’t Satan incarnate. No, Muslims aren’t constantly preoccupied with plans for the next terrorist assault. No, Muslims aren’t proponents of slavery or child abduction. To go so far as to argue that the Muslims of America shouldn’t have their patriotism questioned, and shouldn’t be made to feel as if they don’t belong, feels like asking for the moon, but if there’s one thing my limited experience with activism has taught me, it’s the importance of making certain that the moon is the one thing you always ask for. Muslims in America should be respected as Americans, and there’s nothing overly ambitious in demanding as much. Anyone who argues to the contrary is no less guilty of racism than the gemstone who asks the imam where he’s hidden his horns.
But even this stance is something of a compromise, insofar as it only examines the identity of American Muslims in response to bigoted attacks. How much better it would be to, say, examine the contributions that prominent Muslims have made to American culture, or propose a “Muslim History Month,” than to only approach these subjects as a means of deflection. How much better to initiate these conversations simply for the sake of celebration, rather than empowering the racist factions of our society by allowing them to provoke us into doing so.
This will remain a dream of mine.
Being neither a pundit nor an academic on the subject, I doubt I had anything groundbreaking to contribute to the content she’d already accumulated, other than to reiterate the one point I don’t hear being made enough: that countering Islamophobia in America should not simply be a matter of repelling the stigmas that bigots impose on Muslims, but also of Muslims’ claiming space in America as Americans.
It’s overwhelmingly the case that Islamophobic attacks slice so low below the belt that retaliations must be equally rudimentary. No, Muslims aren’t Satan incarnate. No, Muslims aren’t constantly preoccupied with plans for the next terrorist assault. No, Muslims aren’t proponents of slavery or child abduction. To go so far as to argue that the Muslims of America shouldn’t have their patriotism questioned, and shouldn’t be made to feel as if they don’t belong, feels like asking for the moon, but if there’s one thing my limited experience with activism has taught me, it’s the importance of making certain that the moon is the one thing you always ask for. Muslims in America should be respected as Americans, and there’s nothing overly ambitious in demanding as much. Anyone who argues to the contrary is no less guilty of racism than the gemstone who asks the imam where he’s hidden his horns.
But even this stance is something of a compromise, insofar as it only examines the identity of American Muslims in response to bigoted attacks. How much better it would be to, say, examine the contributions that prominent Muslims have made to American culture, or propose a “Muslim History Month,” than to only approach these subjects as a means of deflection. How much better to initiate these conversations simply for the sake of celebration, rather than empowering the racist factions of our society by allowing them to provoke us into doing so.
This will remain a dream of mine.
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