The Recurrence Of Ignorance

In the Senior humanities class called Journalism. We learned how journalism helps us to see stories around the world. If we didn’t have these articles we would know nothing about things that happen in this world in faraway places. We learned about the dangers and criteria that being a journalist would bring. We learned about bias in the news, for example, we read an article about an 11-year-old girl that was raped by 8,15-20-year-old males. In this article it made the girl seem like she was asking for it because she hung out with the males and she was wearing what is considered “not age appropriate” clothing. In this class we had a photographer come into FE. We all took pictures of our classmates and at the end, we all took a photo of everyone from different angles. For this Action Project, we were supposed to come up with a story that isn't told in the news. Below is the story I wrote, called The recurrence of ignorance.

AL "the recurrence of ignorance  continues " (2017)

" The next stop is Monroe on the left, doors closing". I was on the train on the way to school, everyone was deep in thought face down looking at their phones or talking to their friends. I  opened my messages it was my friend telling me that a man on the train whispered under his breath that, calling her a terrorist. She told me that this happened to her at least three times since she started to wear her hijab again to school. This made me think about what it is life like to be a Muslim American after 9/11.

The lifestyle of Muslim Americans changed soon as the plane crashed into the twin towers after being shot down. Everything changed. The rise of hate crimes skyrocketed after 9/11 from 28 hate

crimes to 481 according to the article "Data: Hate crimes against Muslims increased after 9/11. I decided to interview my friend Yolanda who is a Muslim and has been through people profiling her just because of her religion." She said that "it’s always people that say things under their breath but not to my face" she stated. "calling me a terrorist". It has been a decade since the tragedy occurred yet children who weren't even alive are being affected by this event

To find out how 9/11 affected the Muslim community I went to interview a close friend of mine that wished to not be named. She is only a small view of the things that Muslims have had to deal with at the time from hate crimes to harassment on the train. She explained to me that some people look at her like she doesn’t belong like she has no right to have fun and live her life because of her religious beliefs. She said “ One day when I was hanging with my friends, we were laughing and joking it was three of us, all of different races and religion. A man was staring at me with disgust as I laughed with my friends. One of my friends noticed and asked him what he was looking at ? but he only ignored her question and walked away”. This is just one of the stories I have heard from friends of mine about encounters they have had with people while walking the city streets.

I asked one more person that wished to not be named or photographed. He stated that one time on his way to work he saw some kids calling Muslim women on the train a" terrorist" as well as trying to pull off her hijab. He said, “ I regret not helping her she was staring at me like she was begging for help with her eyes”. In the Muslim religion, it is bad to pull off the headscarf or hijab of women. I asked my friend Yolanda why this was bad and she explained to me saying “ it is a bad thing because they’re disrespecting me and my culture. They are dehumanizing me in public and Allah wouldn't approve of something that horrible. The person is showing other people that I'm not worthy and I'm not women of Allah and humiliating me, and just to be women in general. the person is showing others that I  am weak. And the person is trying to take my dignity and identity. Like I'm not good enough the way I am. And I need to show my hair to be a “real girl” and not to be a terrorist and taking power out of what they think is a terrorist”.

She has opened my eyes to what I as a person that doesn’t value religion doesn’t know or would understand. We as people tend to ignore the problems we see in our day to day lives that don't affect us. She as well left me a quote to end out this story, she stated “ I'm a woman and best thing is that I'm Muslim women. I love my culture and my religion. I'm not asking you to do the same but at least show me the respect that you'll show your sister and mother. I hope people can learn to love everyone.