That said...
Eljay told his story from the point of view of a young African American man growing up in a still racist minded southern U.S. This post is going to be less uniform than most of my posts (I feel like I say this every post), and is going to be more from the perspective of a young Muslim American growing up and trying to succeed in this country.
While the country was (justifiably) in an uproar over the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida, across the country a similar situation had occurred. In California, a 32-year old mother of five children was beaten to death. Shaima Alawadi was an Iraqi American woman that was doing nothing to harm those around her. This case was a little more clear than the Trayvon Martin case in terms of motive and details. It was a hate crime, as there was a note that was left next to her body that said something along the lines of "go back to your country, terrorist."
Why didn't this more media coverage though? I'm not trying to take away anything from Trayvon Martin's case, but Shaima Alawadi's case deserves to be put in a similar spotlight. Both were unwarranted hate crimes, based on profiling by the majority of people in this country. Both cases need to used as examples of why we should stand against the never ending injustice in this free country that we live in. Again, I implore you to read Eljay's posts that I linked up top because he covers all the bases in terms of racist America. In Shaima Alawadi's case, my mother could've been Shaima. My sister. My aunt. My niece.
Ever since 9/11, Muslims in this country have been looked upon with fear. Fear that we're all working together to take down America. Unwarranted fear. Unjustified and unexplained fear. If you know me, you know that whenever I bring up the topic of 9/11, I always say that the people responsible for those attacks are not Muslim. They can call themselves whatever they want, but they are NOT Muslim. It is a clear violation of what Islam stands for if you attack innocent civilians. Those people calling themselves Muslims would be comparable to Jesse Jackson calling himself white. Just because you say it doesn't mean it's true.
Rami Nashashibi came down to U of I a few days ago. For those that don't know who he is, Nashashibi is a community organizer and activist in the southside of Chicago. He help found the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) that helps blacks and Hispanics living on the southside create a better life and opportunity for themselves. I suggest you look into it if you are interested. It's a great program.
But anyway, Rami came and spoke about community activism and how we need to start standing together. Because it was a Muslim Students Association event, he was referring to the Muslims all over the country to stand together and help each other in times of need. Help those being oppressed by their own leaders. Help those that face discrimination in a free country. I agree with this. We need to empathize with those in more unfortunate circumstances. Those that face ordeals some of us could never imagine. We need to make ourselves truly care about situations like these and put ourselves in a vulnerable state to truly understand what they are going through. This vulnerability will lead to motivation. Motivation to take the lead on calling for justice for all.
I want to take this to a broader scale though. I want to extend this to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Especially in this country. We need to stand together. We need to stand for justice. Every time a Trayvon Martin case comes along, we should all mourn. He was our brother. Every time a Shaima Alawadi case comes along, we should all mourn. She was our sister, our mother. We should feel enraged whenever we hear cases like these because they are all family. They are all human beings. The moment you hear about these cases and no emotion comes out of you, no anger, no sadness...that is the moment you have lost your humanity. I know it's too often that we hear about someone dying for one reason or another so much so that we've become almost insensitive to it, but that should not be the case. Every night, my dad turns on the news to hear the top story which is 75% sure to be about someone else whose life was taken early. This has to bring out something in you. If you are not capable of doing anything with your hands or with your actions, at the very least pray for them. Pray for yourself. Pray for all of humanity that one day, we should all stand for what is right and condemn what is wrong.
A little sidenote: Eljay makes a great point in his piece, asking "what is awareness without action?" Again, I agree but I do have a note to add to that. Not everyone can do something. We can't all take action, that's for sure. Some people just don't have the means. So at the very least, make your awareness genuine. Truly care about what you say. Make sure it comes from the heart, not from a Twitter trending topic.
A random sidenote: I picked the title of this post because Below The Heavens was playing while I was typing this up.
Stand for something or fall for anything.
Peace & love.
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