Get To Know An Uighur Muslim...

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

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themuslimvibe.com|By Writer in a Headscarf

Get To Know An Uighur Muslim

If you want to help Uighur Muslims, seek them out and get to know them.…

 

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

After the threat of the Muslim Travel Ban in February 2017, I was invited to a World Hijab Day event organized by non-Muslim women in Southern California. These open-minded women tried on hijabs to increase understanding and solidarity. They didn’t invite me to pity me or hear my sob story; they wanted to get to know me because they identified with me. We bonded on fashion and shared discrimination stories.

Shockingly, the organizer Kim told me, “You’re the first Muslim I’ve met. I have Hindu and Jewish friends, but no Muslim friends.” As a California native, I see Muslims and have plenty of non-Muslim friends, so I had assumed that everyone knows Muslims.

But the biggest thing I learned from that event is that when you want to help someone, you should get to know them. The interest shown in my faith, lifestyle, and safety empowered and motivated me to continue to believe in myself in this uncertain climate. Unfortunately since then, attacks on Western Muslims have increased. Muslims repeatedly echo this sentiment: Get to know your non-Muslim neighbors and community. If we want them to support us we have to open up to them.

Ironically, I see the same isolation and disenfranchisement among different ethnic groups within the Western Muslim community as well. I try hard to raise awareness for the issues indigenous, Latino, Black, and now Asian Muslims face, but it is met without much response (in my undergraduate MSA, I remember a suggestion to highlight issues in different regions like Darfur, Sudan being vetoed because ‘we only have time for Palestine Awareness Week,’ with one student actually saying aloud, ‘I only care about Palestine.’) This year, it finally occurred to me: there are ethnic minority groups within the Muslim community. Although a part of the disenfranchised minority in larger Western society, South Asians and Arabs play the majority and are therefore the power players in the Muslim sphere. The South Asians and Arabs are the most vocal, have the biggest masjids, and have their concerns met the most. Therefore, serious issues of certain groups of ethnic-minority Muslims are tragically overlooked constantly. Even though equally appalling atrocities happen in other communities, they are only addressed after years and decades of suffering.

Full Article:  https://themuslimvibe.com/muslim-current-affairs-news/get-to-know-a...

[Abd'Allah Muhammad-Bey, M.Ed]

You can't stop Allah Deen even if you don't believe in God, Allah which is a mental disorder.