As a small child my mother saw her family home burn in flames in the early 1950’s when riots broke out against Ahmadi’s Muslims in Lahore (Pakistan) and my father suffered persecution for years as a government employee for being an Ahmadi Muslim.
Source/Credit: Atlanta Muslim Examiner
By Saima Ahmad | February 13, 2016
“Are you a Muslim? I do not know about the Islamic faith!”, “Are you a Shia or a Sunni Muslim?”
Curiosity about the Islamic faith and occasional looks of disgust, suspicion or even “the no eye contact treatment” seems like a new norm for me as a "hijab" wearing Muslim woman.
With every atrocity committed in the name of Islam, American Muslims come under the microscope but, Muslim women with their head garb are easy to identify and target.
When I got married and moved to the States almost fifteen years ago, I felt a genuine sigh of relief; a feeling of freedom and of safety.
Religious persecution has shaped me into who I am today.
Growing up in Pakistan, I had never idolized the U.S nor had I ever dreamed that I will be living here one day but, life took a surprising turn when during the college years, I found out that my family belonged to a sect of Islam which the state had declared non-Muslim.
Our association with Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was kept away from me and my siblings. Why?
This sect of Islam was and still is heavily persecuted minority for its “heretic” beliefs back home in Pakistan. Many community members have suffered emotional stress, social boycott, loss of property and business and even life at the hands of fellow citizens in the name of Islam.
As a small child my mother saw her family home burn in flames in the early 1950’s when riots broke out against Ahmadi’s Muslims in Lahore (Pakistan) and my father suffered persecution for years as a government employee for being an Ahmadi Muslim.
This is why for people like us, America seems like heaven on earth. A country built on the principles of tolerance; freedom of speech and of religion has attracted people from across the globe looking for that feeling of safety and freedom that their own motherland failed to provide.
No wonder it didn’t take long for us to fall in love with our adopted homeland. American Muslims did suffer a backlash right after 9/11 but things were not really bad until recently when ISIS started committing crimes against humanity and then presidential candidates, especially Donald Trump, started spreading a hateful and intolerant rhetoric in the name of public safety.
Safety of American people should be top priority but rather than alienating a whole group of people, we need to find ways to get to the root cause and work together to rectify it.
To see Trump leading the polls and that the ideas he is promoting have a substantial backing in the GOP is an alarming development. Banning all Muslims from coming to the U.S, that they should wear badges for identification, or shutting down mosques are all outrageous proposals. In essence they go against what America stands for and as a Muslim it’s a scary to have the threat of persecution yet again, now in my adopted homeland.
The fear is real and now particularly for us Muslim parents who want their children to practice Islam in its real essence of peace, tolerance and moderation and while trying to protect them from extremist recruitment.
My own community is on a mission to fight radicalization. Its latest campaign “True Islam and the Extremists” aims “to strengthen unity between Muslims and non-Muslims in America against violent extremism, which in turn will improve national security” says Qasim Rashid, the national spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community U.S.A. The campaign was formally launched at the West Coast Annual Convention in California in December 2015 and its website lets people endorse principles they support and encourages them to share it publicly.
“True Islam” explains that Islam teaches peace and tolerance and promotes the idea of loyalty to the country of residence, moderation, and sanctity of life.
It is time to know your Muslim neighbor and promote love and understanding instead of harboring feelings of fear, hate or suspicion.
I wish and pray that my children become star American citizens and that they never have to go through persecution of any sort endured by so many across the world.
Read original post here: USA: #TrueIslam campaign dispels misconceptions about Islam | Saima Ahmad
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