The burden of being a young American Muslim

By Hailey Woldt

A group of children leaving a Bridgeport, Connecticut mosque last week, as reported by the Connecticut Post, had to brace themselves as they walked past a group of about a dozen Christian protestors yelling "Islam is a lie" and "Jesus hates Muslims."
One man shoved his sign at them and yelled, "Murderers!" Flip Benham, organizer of the protest, explained, "This is a war in America and we are taking it to the mosques around the country."

While this may seem like an isolated incident, it was regrettably part of a growing pattern I encountered across the country as part of the research team led by the well-known anthropologist Akbar Ahmed for his American University sabbatical project "Journey into America." We traveled to roughly 75 cities and visited over 100 mosques throughout the United States interviewing thousands of Muslims and non-Muslims for the first and largest study of its kind on the Muslim community in America. We set out to learn what it meant to be Muslim in post-9/11 America and discovered some interesting, and at times discomforting, trends.

In many other parts of the country, we heard stories of Islamic schools being vandalized, children's fathers detained and their homes searched, and non-Muslim children teasing and bullying Muslim peers. While there are many people speaking out against these generalizations and restrictions on Muslims' civil rights, pervasive negative attitudes towards Muslims in America do exist, especially after 9/11. I saw firsthand how higher levels of discrimination and Islamophobia post-9/11 are affecting the generation born after 2001, both Muslim and non-Muslim, and could have serious long-term implications for our society.

While conducting interviews in Brooklyn's "Little Pakistan" in a shabby mosque built by struggling immigrants, a ten-year-old boy spoke up in the circle of elders. He had none of the awkwardness or shyness expected in a boy his age and his eyes were those of a mature and sorrowful man. He told the group: "People in America, they think they have a right to push us around. Well, like in the New York Constitution [sic], it says that all people have a right to practice religion, right? So, we can practice our religion in peace, but other people, they're gonna do something like attack us or attack any person and then they're not gonna go to jail for it. When you call the police, they're not gonna do anything because they think we're bad people and then they're gonna blame us for doing something."

He talked about how the kids at school beat him up and called him a terrorist. "Well, they say, 'You Muslim people are terrorists. You don't have a life.' But then I say, well you'll see, like in the future, you'll see how big we are." The most heartbreaking part of the story, though, was that a few months earlier while visiting relatives in Pakistan, his mother had been killed in a roadside bombing by a real terrorist.

Prejudice is not innate. Children absorb and mimic the values and language of broader society, and thus as blank slates children can serve as revealing mirrors of societal biases. I heard stories of Christian or Jewish American children with no first-hand memory of 9/11 calling Muslim classmates "terrorists" from New York to St. Louis. Many adults attempt to justify their stereotypes of Muslims with anger felt over 9/11, but children have no such emotional baggage, and as such these kids have learned that behavior either from their parents, teachers, the media, and/or society at large. When American kids see demonstrations like the one in Connecticut, or listen to the contentious debate over a mosque near Ground Zero, the negative attitudes towards Islam filter down and are being subtly internalized.

These underlying preconceptions are deeply affecting Muslim children as well. Not only do they feel cut off from their non-Muslim classmates, but they hear adult rhetoric and watch their actions. Although they have grown up in America, have American accents and watch American shows, many Muslim children are growing up feeling excluded by American society.

Young Muslims may also feel that their other identities, "Muslim" or "Pakistani" etc., are rejected as well. When Islam is derided or their nations of ethnic origin are in turmoil or reject them as "too American," they have no identity with which to anchor themselves. The unintended consequences of this could be placing them in the untenable position of choosing between being American or being Muslim, a psychological identity crisis that could be very hard, if not impossible, to reconcile.

Furthermore, there is little guidance, especially for poorer or newer immigrant families, on how to navigate these difficult issues. Schools are already strapped for teaching resources and can provide few answers; peers have limited understanding or even bully them; and their parents are primarily immigrants who usually have a superficial understanding of American culture and can offer little insight into what is happening. Muslim adults, too, feel under pressure and are struggling with their own place in post-9/11 American society, further complicating the situation for their children. While there are some communities attempting to engage the youth and develop strong Muslim and American identities, the larger societal issues linger.

The long-term outlook for some of these kids is troubling and a logical conclusion is that they will be confused, angry, and rootless--exactly ripe for extremist causes and ideas. Many experts tell us that it is Islamic theology driving Muslims to terrorism, but the profile is usually a young man with no real knowledge of Islam drifting between East and West. One need only look at Faizal Shazad or the five young men in Virginia who went to Pakistan.

While this projection is alarming, the response to these at-risk children should not be more of the same--isolation and targeting. Communicating to them that they are American citizens, which they all are, and helping them establish a place in the community is essential. We could have an asset in these kids as we do in the older generations of Muslim-Americans, Muslims who love the United States and call it "the best place to be a Muslim." It also means that the media and public leaders need to be more aware of their actions and rhetoric as well.

9/11 was a horrific and pivotal moment in our nation's history, but unresolved questions and emotions should not stain our next generation. For many non-Muslim American children, they are inheriting a legacy of fear and mistrust and there are innocent Muslim children, not even in existence on 9/11, who are becoming the victims. This could in turn trigger a new cycle of misunderstanding, anger, and violence.

This is America where we have a rich history of tolerance, diversity, and pluralism. It is well within our grasp to change this trend--and imperative that we do.

Hailey Woldt is an Ibn Khaldun Fellow at American University. She was a member of the research team for the book and film "Journey into America" led by Dr. Akbar Ahmed.

By Hailey Woldt  |  August 24, 2010; 6:42 AM ET Save & Share:                 
Previous: Is Sharia law reconcilable with modernity? | Next: Once a victim, St. Thomas' Parish rebuilds

Posted by: Kingofkings1 | August 28, 2010 5:38 PM
Report Offensive Comment

Posted by: glynch23 | August 25, 2010 11:42 PM
Report Offensive Comment

Posted by: BerkeleyBW | August 25, 2010 12:06 PM
Report Offensive Comment

Posted by: jhimmi | August 25, 2010 8:43 AM
Report Offensive Comment

Posted by: ThomasBaum | August 24, 2010 6:53 PM
Report Offensive Comment

Posted by: Nabihah | August 24, 2010 4:45 PM
Report Offensive Comment

Posted by: wiprolife | August 24, 2010 2:05 PM
Report Offensive Comment

Posted by: ThomasBaum | August 24, 2010 12:25 PM
Report Offensive Comment

The comments to this entry are closed.