Growing Up In A Muslim Community

In 2009, then British Conservative leader David Cameron warned us of the “age of austerity.” Since then, we have seen various permutations of austerity—not only with regard to government spending, but also in the everyday choices people make. We see austerity’s influence in Apple and Google’s logo designs, in the clean lines of trendy Scandinavian furniture, in the preoccupation with decluttering and minimalism, and in the blossoming tiny-house movement. With the British vote for “Brexit,” Australia’s reluctance to accept Muslim refugees and the recent election of Donald Trump, we have also clearly become more austere in our view of “other” people which can be seen in Laila Lalami’s “My Life as a Muslim in the West’s ‘Gray Zone,’” as she speaks of the obsession to put people neatly in their proper boxes in addition to compartmentalizing them to uphold certain values, features, and looks.

In the lecture “What It’s like to Be Muslim in America” by Dalia Mogahed, Dalia emphasizes how “Muslims are like canaries in the coal mine, we might be the first to feel it, but the toxic air of fear is harming us all” (Mogahed). This xenophobic behavior is what strives citizens to fear one another and find an excuse to polarize a certain ethnicity for their alleged affiliations with terrorist groups. This overwhelming fear causes the initial hatred towards some people but it ultimately ricochets onto the rest of society. Next, the abundant amount of fear proves to be detrimental to society due to the fact that it provokes disastrous behavior between citizens. According to Dalia, “ISIS has as much to do with Islam as the Ku Klux Klan has to

For this paper, I have chosen to interview an acquaintance of mine who is a devote Muslim and follower of Islam. For the sake of this assignment I will be referring to him under the pseudonym of Jack. I spoke with Jack about some wide-ranging topics discussing things such as, media, bias, stereotypes, and really in general what being a follower of Islam is like in this divided country right now. In our country, today it’s pretty apparent there is a type of fear of Muslims, so much so that 7 heavy populated Muslim countries are not permitted from entering the United States of America. I never had conversations as personal as this with Jack and I feel as if I gained a lot of insight into the types of things minorities, and especially Muslims

As a child, I didn’t think my life’s situations and experiences were too different from others being a Muslim in Canada. I only came to the realization of this as I grew older. Living as a Muslim we celebrated different holidays, wore different types of clothing, and valued things differently. I grew up in Cambridge, Ontario, and only moved to Mississauga in the ninth-grade grade where I realized how much differently I was treated. It wasn’t always ignorance; they were just unknowledgeable and unaware and I couldn’t blame them as I was apart of a religious minority. I looked at the understanding of my life’s events being apart of an Islamic subculture from a conflict theorist’s perspective where social life was looked at as “privileged groups

Much of my whole life growing up was doing more good than bad. Much of us probably know about following rules as an access to heaven which I was raised under. Growing up as a child, I was forced in religion because of my grandparents did it and also my parents. My grandparents were so strict with their faith that my parents stop going to church since they made them feel not accepted. At times I asked my parents why we are not going to church and always told me we have other plans today. Not knowing that was the day I stopped going to church and knowing God more for the next 12 years of my life. During these times, I still followed the rules that I was raised under and was truly hard on myself when I did something wrong to the point where I would ground myself (I was 6 at the time).

Being a Muslim American in post 911 America, I was a pariah for most of my life. The stress of being bully caused me to lose my hair. I was diagnosed with alopecia areata, which an autoimmune disease. I truly wasn't accept by my peers till I started wrestling. In high school, I only cared about wrestling. I didn't realized how lost I was. After my dream of wining states were crushed, I'm trying to find who I want to be. After my father almost died, I learned I want to be a

I will be writing about the oppression of Middle Eastern people in America. They can come from Egypt all the way to Iran, and they make their home in America. When Terrorism became a more talked about problem, fear started to trickle out. And with fear there comes a lot of anger about what we don’t understand. America is predominately a Christian nation and the sects that follow that belief system, and therefore Americans in general have more of a bias view to those religions. This is what makes it hard for Middle Eastern people to live here with this oppressive attitude. What doesn’t help is how the only news that is told to Americans deals with wars and suicide bombings, it creates a view that people from the Middle East are actually dangerous and have ideas that threaten Americans. In reality, those are the talked about topics because they are flashy and make people want to read about it.

For my outside experience project for TRS 101, I visited the Islamic Society of Akron and Kent, which is located in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Prior to my experience, I had little to no knowledge about the Islamic faith, other than what popular culture and the news has engrained into the public’s minds. I already recognized that there was a major difference between radical Muslims such as Al-Queda and Isis, but I did not have much of an understanding of what the normal, more conservative Muslim faith was really like. One of my high school friends, Youseff, was one of the very few Muslims at my Jesuit high school. He is an extremely personable and bright kid, and is able to speak extremely articulately about his faith and its numerous misunderstandings and stereotypes. I had hoped that the community at the mosque would be made up of people like him, but I truly had no idea.

Comparatively Lina's life in America was a big concern for her family because she was a young girl who struggled to acquire personal independence from her traditional Arab parents. Thus she became a typical American teenager, like many high school kids, she wanted to find her identity so she dressed and dated like them and her mom got furious about it. Lina was sent to Iraq to embrace the culture and her roots as an Arab women. Especially seeing how Iraq has no rights and values like America has all because of Saddam Hussein. Being young and Arab in America is not always about discrimination or being the target of a crime they did not commit, being a young Arab can also mean being a part of the teenage culture and its consequences. In Lina's

On December 1, I attended a program called “Stories of Black Muslims in America” sponsored by Damietta Cross Cultural Center. As a white Muslim, I haven’t experienced any racism toward my skin color so it was interesting to see how black Muslims in America have embraced both sides of their identity. “Black” and “Muslim” are terms often not associated with one another. In fact, most Americans have a hard time understanding the concept.

The video “Being Muslim- American” by Dalia Khan is about what it means for her being a Muslim- American and all the obstacles and discrimination she had to face. Also, her experience on her first time wearing a hijab and instead of people showing hate they should show compassion and support to their fellow Muslim friends. I was really moved by the way she described everything about being Muslim- American.

What it’s Like to be a Muslim in America by Dalia Mogahed and A Tale of Two Americas and the Mini-mart Where They Collided by Anand Giridharadas, both talk about what life is like being the “other” in America. Being a minority and trying to live a normal life interacting with the majority is shone to be difficult. There are two worlds living in one country, but neither of them truly understand each other.

Now I am in 12th grade and hope to major in Accounting, throughout my college experience I want to be involved in the Muslim Youth community as I am today. I aspire to one day become as involved in the Muslim and American community as my uncle Yasir Billoo, a corporate lawyer who has received his fair share of

Being a Muslim in America country is a struggle, and ever since 9/11, things have taken a turn for Muslims. When Trump was elected president, the discrimination against Muslims has grown stronger. People need to be educated about Muslim culture and eliminate the perception that every Muslim is a “terrorist.” The community I am looking towards on the University of Kentucky campus is the MSA. The MSA is the Muslim Student Association and their goal is to promote Islam and teach us all about the peaceful nature of the religion. Throughout my paper these 5 sources that I researched played a major role in the Muslim community. My first source was a video called Muslim leaders speak out after mosque fire. My second source was an article called Young

For my paper I decided to choose the religion of Islam. I decided to pick this religion because of its fast growing rate. It is also different from what I am used to growing up with, so I was interested in learning more. I had learned some basic facts after the 9/11 event, but the Muslim religion and culture was still a mystery to me. Picking this topic has helped me learn more about Muslims and will help me better relate to them in my future work.