{"id":4899,"date":"2015-06-22T12:08:39","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T11:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=4899"},"modified":"2015-06-22T12:08:39","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T11:08:39","slug":"i-am-a-muslim-girl-not-a-terrorist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/i-am-a-muslim-girl-not-a-terrorist\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am A Muslim Girl, Not A Terrorist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mahee\"<\/a>A tiny, thirteen-year-old Muslim girl has raised her voice against the Islamophobic stereotyping she is confronted with by classmates on a daily basis, urging school officials to add diversity courses to curriculums in an attempt to correct misconceptions spread through mainstream and social media.
\n\u201cI face these stereotypes every day because I am a Muslim girl. It’s what I experience,” Sumaiya Mahee told Metro.us on Tuesday, June 9.
\n\u201cWriting about this boosted my self-esteem because it gave me a way to tackle the stereotypes that I face. When I started talking about it, I realized I wasn\u2019t alone and that other kids go through the same thing,\u201d she added.
\nLiving in a diverse and progressive city such as Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mahee was not safe from encountering prejudice on a daily basis for her faith and heritage.
\nPutting her daily challenges into words, Mahee authored the essay, \u201cYou\u2019re Not Who You Say You Are: Beyond the Single Story,\u201d an assignment for her combined social studies and English classes at Kennedy-Longfellow School, designed to teach all students that they each have been stereotyped \u2013 and how those stories are generally all wrong.
\nThe essay went viral and was published in Public Radio International\u2019s Global Nation Education section, demonstrating a self-awareness and cultural knowledge far beyond her young teen years.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to take in because I am viewed as a terrorist by people,\u201d Mahee said.
\nShe writes in her essay about the external identity forced upon her: “According to society and everything else going on in the world, I am not who I say I am. I am not an innocent girl who walks around not hurting the world. Because of violence, from the Boston Marathon bombings to the almost bomb that went off in New York by a Bangladeshi boy, I am apparently the “child” of the terrorists who did these acts.”
\n\u201cMy goal is to keep working to correct the stereotypes,\u201d Mahee said.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t want other Muslim kids to grow up and have to face those and not be able to do anything.\u201d
\nFacing daily offenses, Mahee wrote about reaching a boiling point after facing mistreatment day-after-day.
\nThe moment came when she, her sister and best friend were walking home from the mosque around midnight one evening with their hijabs on when two men laughed and said, \u201cDanger! It\u2019s the Muslims!\u201d
\nMahee, boiling already, shouted back, \u201cWait till we come after you! You\u2019re not going to survive any longer!\u201d
\nThe interaction with the two men was the dawning of a profound personal realization: Hate cannot be combated with hate.
\nMisconceptions<\/strong>
\nFor young Mahee, media was to blame for a large share of increasing anti-Muslim sentiments by drawing Muslims as terrorists.
\n\u201cIf someone calls me a terrorist, I won\u2019t choose the actions that I chose. I would tell other Muslim kids to tell people what a real Muslim is like,\u201d Mahee said.
\n\u201cMuslims are shown on TV as terrorists and it makes people think that that\u2019s what a normal Muslim is.\u201d
\nThe essay came as a shock to Mahee’s English teacher Woodly Pierre-Louis, who initially rejected the idea of rising anti-Muslim sentiments.
\n\u201cHere she is, this tiny little girl, and it amazed me that anyone could see her as a threat or a target of ridicule. I couldn\u2019t believe anyone would comment like that at all.\u201d
\nFor now, Mahee sees hope in her push against the “Us vs. Them” mentality.
\nShe believes schools need to start teaching diversity and encourage students to have open dialogues to foster a real cultural melting pot.
\n\u201cIt takes a long time to change people\u2019s mindset,\u201d Mahee said.
\n\u201cSchools need to give students a way to see that we go through the same things, even though we have a different background. That\u2019s the first step in making a change.
\n“I am Muslim and from Bangladesh. I have these two characteristics but that does not mean that I am a terrorist or someone who hurts society,” she added.
\nThe United States is home to a minority of between six to eight million Muslims.
\nA US survey has also revealed that the majority of Americans know very little about Muslims and their faith.<\/p>\n

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