By Haneen Khatib/nw news editor
Growing up, I was oblivious to the racism around me and against me.
When I was younger, my family and I would travel to Jordan for a few months. It was fun getting on a plane to go see our family. After 9/11, traveling became harder for everyone.
But some people don’t notice that those “random checks” done for security purposes are not so random.
How is it that in every long security line, all I see are Muslims getting picked for closer inspection?
One summer, after a long flight, my brother, Mouhammad, and my cousin, whose last name is “Arab,” were with me at baggage claim.
The security officer kindly asked to see our passports. Then, the kindness suddenly vanished.
“Mouhammad and Miss Arab, we have to do a random check. Open your bags and take off your shoes.”
Of course, I hate racism, but I had never let it get to fuming anger until one night I watched an ABC show called What Would You Do?
The episode was about a bakery owner not serving a Muslim girl because she wore a hijab. Of course, these were two actors hired to see strangers’ reactions toward the discrimination.
I was disgusted to see some people agree, calling her a “terrorist.”
One man, though, was outraged. The bakery owner told the man he was not a good American. The man replied, “I believe I am a good American. My son just came back from serving in Iraq for a year, and that has nothing to do with her rights.”
He was right. This is America, a free country, but Muslims go through this every day.
It infuriates me that people would actually make someone feel hated and humiliated for no reason other than being Muslim.
Have some Arabs done a few bad things? Absolutely, but so have others from different races. Yet those races are often not held accountable for the mistakes of others.
Every race, culture and religion has good and bad. Last year, a short commercial on MTV said a lot.
“Make no mistake, Islam is not the enemy. Arabs are not the enemy. Hatred is the enemy,” it said.
