News of the senseless execution-style murders of the three Muslim university students in North Carolina has made me sick in my heart. The country that we often idealize as “the land of the free,” now seems like the land of “wild freedom,” where a gun-toting neighbor can murder you just because he does not like the way you look, dress, speak, or no wait, just because he disapproves of your use of parking space in the neighborhood.
While Craig Stephen Hicks is a self-declared atheist, who held all religions in disdain, the Muslim community — in the US and elsewhere — doubt that this was simply a parking dispute. And they are probably right, for this is a country where Islamophobia is a stark reality.
Day after day, the average American sits down in front of his television to see a bigoted picture, a view that demonizes and alienates Muslim minorities all over the world. Media audiences are taught to equate all Muslims with a small minority of extremists who indulge in terrorist activities. Speakers such as Richard Dawkins are free to spew spiteful venom against Muslims, Congress members can, and do propose and pass anti-Shariah bills, and thousands of primetime news hours are spent vilifying Islam.
There is no such thing as objectivity in the manner that media agencies choose to tell a story, and their double standards allow them to pick and choose stories that ensure the propagation of only a particular viewpoint. When the perpetrators of a crime are Muslims, like they were in the Sydney siege, the Boston marathon, or even before, in the 7/7 or 9/11 attacks, mainstream media, and even many politicians belonging to this “land of wild freedom” take no time to demarcate the world, dividing it into “us” and “them,” with their loud headlines and minute-by-minute coverage.
However, when the victims are Muslims, or thought to be Muslim, it becomes an isolated case: A deranged or upset man, in this case one with a general disregard for all religions (and neighbors), who found easy prey in the house of three practicing young Muslims.
The crux of the tragedy that shook the families of the three Muslim students killed last week is probably that it was the outcome of the daily dose of suspicion and hatred of Muslims that is pumped into the average an American. Yet, in the polarized grounds laid down by this mixture of media bias and the global antipathy toward Muslims, there is something else that we now need to think about and come to terms with when we think about migration.
Muslim migrants who make the choice to move to the US for the sake of quality education, better jobs or political stability, often lacking in our home countries, should know full well the challenges that await them. Granted that America is a democracy. While that means a voice and legal rights for everyone, the fact remains that it is one where Muslims are not the majority. It is also a country where others also use the very freedom that we set out to enjoy, to express their dislike of our presence there.
Muslims are different, and we always will be. Even as we embrace some of the values and culture of our country of immigration, there will be strings of discord — in what we choose to wear, the language we speak and the rituals, values and beliefs that we carry forward. These differences might not be acceptable to everyone, and the deadly consequence of this dislike might result in some migrants paying a price as high as this: It can get you killed — perhaps defenseless, and in the sanctuary of your own home.
