As soon as I read the headline, “Deadly Blasts Hit Boston Marathon,” my first reaction was: “Please, God, do not let it be a Muslim who did this.” This reaction has followed every attack or shooting that has occurred in the United States since 9/11, and I guarantee I’m not the only Muslim who reacts this way.
Today, three died and more than a hundred were injured in explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. In Islam, we have a phrase we say when we hear of someone’s passing: “To Him we belong, and to Him we shall return.” I join millions of people across the country in praying for the victims of yet another horrible attack on innocents.
Not 10 hours after hearing the news, my friend asked me a “hypothetical” question: “If I were to tell you that the man being held for these attacks was a Muslim, how would you react?”
How would I react?
For the past 12 years, I’ve been harassed in some of the most demeaning ways. I cannot walk down a street in rural North Carolina without receiving death glares, as if I am some kind of monster. I cannot stop to pray in public without having the word terrorist yelled at me. I cannot go through airport security without being “randomly selected” and having my hijab checked for bomb dust. I cannot hear of an incident such as this without the heart wrenching fear that someone will ask how “my people” could commit such an evil act.
How would I react? There is no answer to this question. For now, I pray it isn’t true. If it is, and the man is Muslim, I pray that people across the country accept that he is not representative of the world’s Muslim population, and that they come to be more understanding of minorities, in a society that has not quite reached a point of acceptance.
Noura von Briesen
Pratt ‘16
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