For many Muslim Americans,
threats of violence and discriminatory policies under Trump’s administration
signals a need for increased political engagement
Fariha
Nizam was sleepy and stressed last Thursday morning when she boarded the Q43
bus, which cuts through the
affluent Queens neighborhood where Donald Trump was raised.
As a Muslim, she was concerned about the newly minted
president-elect and his campaign promises that targeted Muslims, immigrants and
women. But it wasn’t until an older white couple began yelling at her, 10
minutes into her weekly commute to her internship, that the reality of Trump’s
America set in.
“Most of what they were saying was telling me I can’t wear it
[the hijab] anymore and telling me to take it off,” Nizam, a Bengali American,
said.
The 19-year-old student had heard some Islamophobic comments
before, but hadn’t experienced such aggressive harassment in New York City,
where she, like Trump, was born and raised. But the stream of verbal abuse
forced her to confront a reality she had been trying to avoid – that Trump had
actually won.
“I didn’t believe it until the moment this incident occurred,”
she said of Trump’s victory. “I don’t think I absorbed it and felt the reality
of it, I didn’t. I kept myself distracted all of Wednesday and then Thursday
happened and then it hits me, this is actually what’s going on and it was not
OK.”
Nizam is one of several
Muslims around the country who have spoken to the Guardian about life since
Trump’s victory. Trump won the keys to the White House following an incendiary campaign where he proposed a
ban on Muslims, said Muslims “hate” Americans and promised a Muslim
registry. Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, reportedly a key
member of Trump’s transition team, said on Tuesday that the president-elect’s
advisers are already considering the Muslim registry.
From The Guardian read it HERE
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