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Features
March 2011
Hate speech, Islamaphobia strike campus By Sami Safiullah Staff writer
I was walking with my friends Hana and Mahmood toward Stevenson Library just before midnight on the Thursday before spring break. A man, accompanied by a woman, came across the Peabody bridge toward us. He must have noticed Hana’s headscarf and Mahmood’s beard, because he confronted us and started shouting epithets. I could smell alcohol and his eyes were bloodshot. “Al-Qaeda!” he screamed. “You killed my people? Trying to kill my family?” He lunged forward as if to attack us, before a woman with him pulled him back. My heart pounded as we ran into Stevenson. I’d never seen the man before, but based on the way he was dressed at the time I believe he is a student. The woman grabbed him and redirected him toward Central Library.
“Al-Qaeda!” he screamed. “You killed my people? Trying to kill my family?” “I was so scared that I felt my body shivering, and actually had a few tears in my eyes,” said Hana Nasr, a senior. “I was so angry that something of this nature could happen on Vanderbilt’s campus, and even angrier that I had to run away from someone who I didn’t know [and hadn’t] done anything to!” The Muslim community center near the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan is the most controversial mosque site that has been met with resistance in the past year, but it is certainly not the only one. Closer to home, after demonstrations and legal opposition to a proposed mosque in Murfreesboro were exhausted, opponents set fire to construction equipment at the site. But even after that incident, Muslim students at Vanderbilt never had cause to feel unsafe. Even after an Abt-TIME poll found that 46 percent of Americans believe Islam is more likely to promote violence than other religions, until recently incidents like this only seemed to happen off campus. What is it that is poisoning Americans against Islam again, nearly 10 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks? I drove to the University of Tennessee in Memphis with 10 members of the Vanderbilt
Muslim community to see “Mooz-lum,” an independent film directed by Qasim Basir. The film, which analyzes what it is like to be a Muslim college student in the post-9/11 United States, tells the story of a university student who is forced to cope with actions of violence against himself and his community in the Sept. 11 aftermath. Basir, an African American Muslim, said that the film “is an autobiographical recollection of the events of my life, focusing on the hardships I faced as a result of my ethnicity and faith.” Basir set out to make “Mooz-lum,” which stars Danny Glover and Evan Ross, after a lifethreatening car accident. He explained that the film, which has had a limited release, is intended to explain that Islamaphobia in America is due to misdirected anger and general ignorance about the faith. “American Muslims are far removed from violence, whether in the form of revolution in the Middle East or whether in the form of hate against other Americans. After Sept. 11, we lived here just as normally as everyone else, going to school, attending parties, and keeping up with
TV shows,” said Vanderbilt alumna Neelam Khan. “It doesn’t make sense that we have suddenly morphed into this inherently violent group of people fervently aiming to take over America as
our own.” Acts of violence and aggression against American Muslims are often explained as isolated incidents that do not represent widespread misunderstandings and prejudices. But I don’t buy
After years of apparent progress after Sept. 11, Muslims are experiencing a backlash as the direct result of politicians like Bill Ketron and Peter King, who are stoking the flames of Islamaphobia for political gain. it: after years of apparent progress after Sept. 11, Muslims are experiencing a backlash as the direct result of politicians like Bill Ketron and Peter King, who are stoking the flames of Islamaphobia for political gain. At least, that’s the way I feel as a victim of a terrifying incident like this. There is nothing glamorous about being verbally or physically assaulted for your religious beliefs. And certainly not about the shooting death of Surinder Singh, a Sikh who was shot and killed in Sacramento after being mistaken for a Muslim. Could we go vague? In spite incidents like these on campus and around Tennessee, many Muslim students at Vanderbilt remain determined to better our campus by discussing tolerance and strengthening our bonds of diversity. “[Mooz-lum] was quite captivating, its portrayal of the life of a Muslim growing up in America exposed many of the struggles Muslims face in our country,” said Vanderbilt sophomore Mohamed al-Hendy. “But beyond the actual movie, just the fact that a movie like this could draw so many bigname actors and be available to large audiences across the United States is remarkable in and of itself.” Americans cannot exist in a bubble, where cultures and customs outside of our daily norm are seen as a threat to our status quo. America has always been a multicultural society built from the ground up by people of different ethnicities and religions. And in America, nobody should be afraid to be, dress or worship the way they want.