The Problem With Islamaphobia

This past weekend Americans commemorated the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It is amazing how on that day many emotions arise that make it seem as if the attacks happened only yesterday. I remember the feeling of never wanting to EVER get on plane. I remember looking at every single person that I thought was of Middle Eastern descent with conviction. I thought that they all had something to do with it and my trust of the world was lost. That was 9 years ago, though. I was an 18 year old college freshman.....young and dumb, for lack of better terms. As I grew up and advanced in my knowledge of the world and other cultures, I expected that America would as well. I was dead wrong.

In recent months there has been another surge of Islamaphobia. This is in large part due to the Park51 Islamic community center that is going to be built near Ground Zero. Not only is the center being protested, but mosques and proposed mosques all over the country are being vandalized, fire-bombed and terrorized.....for lack of a better term. What the opposers would have you to believe is that Muslims build mosques on areas that they consider conquered territory.....hence the location near Ground Zero. HUH?! There is a mosque about 5 minutes away from where I live. I highly doubt that any "conquering" happened there. There was a mosque of sorts INSIDE one of the towers. There was also a mosque already in that area that was destroyed when the towers fell. So the idea of Muslims worshipping peacefully there is not out of the norm. What is really killing me out of all this is the blatant racism and ignorance that is being shown by a LOT of people. How a Christian could condone the burning of a holy book of someone else's religion is beyond me.

Lots of Muslims are being looked at with a second glance as if they were planning an attack. As a black person, I just can't get down with that. It is hard enough to live in America and just get by. But add to that mix being a minority and not have a "favored religion?" That has got to be enough to make even a sane person go mad. Common sense and research tells me that Islam is an Abrahamic religion, meaning simply that I can relate to a lot of the teaching of Islam if I am a true Christian. The origins are rooted in the same God. How can you hate something that you know absolutely nothing about?

I don't know any Muslims personally.....but my fast Blogspot friend is Irendi, who is a Muslim. Just reading her blog and the blogs of other Muslims that she follows make me long for the type of devoutness and honesty to their faith that they have. It prompts me to pray for ignorance to be removed from the hearts of all of these misguided people pretending to be Christians.....

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