Anti-Muslim Sentiment from Presidential Candidates to Schools to Grass Root Citizens

Anti-Muslim sentiment, often referred to as Islamophobia, Anti-Islam, or Anti-Muslim, is as horrible, hostile and dangerous as any other term denoting hate of one group. Personally, I dislike the term Islamophobia because it implies a severe mental illness affecting a small percentage of the population.

Anti-Muslim sentiment denotes much more than merely a “fear” of those who are Muslim and practice Islam. Anti-Muslim sentiment denotes hate, prejudice, hostility, and a desire to harm those who are Muslim. Hate is hate and not just a fear. This hate permeates our nation and our world. It is part of the rhetoric of many who seek elected offices and their followers; actions by schools and by many in the general public.

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On September 17th Donald Trump was asked a question at a town hall by one of his supporters to the tube of when the U.S. can “get rid” of Muslims. The person asking the question also made an assertion that President Barack Obama is Muslim and not an American, stating, “We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims. You know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American. We have training camps growing where they (Muslims) want to kill us,”. The man, wearing a “Trump” t-shirt, continued, “That’s my question: When can we get rid of them?”

Instead of condemning the comment and the question Mr. Trump stated that, “We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things. You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We’re going to be looking at that and many other things.” Mr. Trump apparently accepted the hateful and totally wrong assertion by the questioner as truth while giving an answer that repeated itself. Unlike John McCain in 2008, Mr. Trump did not correct the questioner but, instead, he perpetuated hate and Anti-Islamism.

On September 20th another Republican candidate for President demonstrated bigotry, hatred, and a denial of the vales of his nation. Dr.Ben Carson stated, “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of our nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.” He went on to say that Islam is not “consistent with the Constitution.” Repugnant is an understatement as he would be hard pressed to find any person who does not believe in his dogma should be excluded from leading this nation. He would find the Torah, the teachings of Buddha, and other religious teachings as being contrary to what he deems appropriate when it comes to leading our nation.

Ahmed Mohamed went to his high school in Texas, excited to show his teacher the digital clock he said he had invented using wires and circuitry he researched inside of a pencil box. He is a teenager with dreams of attending MIT and becoming an engineer. Ahmed’s day ended not with praise, but punishment, after the school called police and he was arrested. He was handcuffed in the school hallway and led off to jail. Reports of the source of Ahmed’s invention might show that he did not actually invent this clock but had used models from the past.

The point is I am sure that if his name was Chaim Goldstein, Juan Rivera, John Dow, or Mason Van Hearst, he would not have been arrested. This time by a school which is supposed to be educating and teaching acceptance of all.

Last year around this time, I wrote a column about the Islamic New Year and Eid. These were some of the comments from supposed members of our community:

Lewis Facebook comments

Those comments are only the tip of the iceberg as this column did not include other ramifications of hate speech that include physical harm and daily discrimination. The best remedy for this hate is education and the enforcement of laws. Our elected officials and public figures have to speak out against Anti-Muslim sentiment as they speak out against actions and words which show racism, anti-semitism, or homophobia. Most importantly we all need to work together and understand each other.

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