Islam: People
How have the people of Islam been discriminated against since September 11th.(Tel Aviv)
Since the beginning of their religion Muslims have always been discriminated in some way. But lately it has been worse than ever. Ever since September 11, 2001 more and more people are feeling that Muslims are bad people and that they are dangerous to them. Muslims feel very hurt because of this. The people of Islam have feelings too, and we need to respect them.
Polls show that almost three fourths of the Muslim American population have either themselves been or know somebody that has been discriminated because of being Muslim. Some say that they have been accused of being “Demons” and following a “Pig Religion”. They also say that people have spit in their faces and in some cases, even physically attacked them. And 60% believe that the U.S. is not trying to make a “Fair Peace” between the Israelis and the Palestinians, they say that the Bush administration has always favored the Israelis. In a lot of ways, Muslims feel cheated in civil rights by the U.S. government.
An example of this discrimination is the story of six imams that were traveling to Phoenix, Arizona when they were removed from the plane. Three of them were just finishing up their evening prayers when a passenger noticed them and passed a note expressing concern to a flight attendant. The passenger also said that he thought that they made anti U.S. statements. And once on board the imams split up and did not sit in their assigned seats. So there was some supicious activity. So U.S. airways removed and had them handcuffed and questioned for several hours. What really happened on the plane was a lot different. The anti-U.S. statements were actually prayers. They split up because one man was blind and they had to accompany him. And they did not sit in their assigned seats because the blind man had to be close to the front of the plane. And after all that, they still did not even give them another ticket to a different plane, and they also told them that they could not purchase tickets from U.S. Airways anymore. This discrimination is getting a lot worse, there are more and more cases of “flying while Muslim” all the time.