Anti-Muslim attitudes have infected classrooms across the US — and young kids are paying the price

[CopyBoy]

While watching a TV news report on the Paris attacks with her seventh-grade class, Farah Darvesh became acutely aware that she was suddenly the center of her classmates’ attention.

“When they said Muslim terrorists did it, everyone’s heads turned and all eyes in the room were on me,” says 12-year-old Farah, one of only three Muslims at her middle school in Columbus, Georgia.

A few weeks later, a classmate asked Farah point blank: “Why did your people kill those people in Paris and San Bernardino?”

rawstory.com/2016/01/anti-muslim-attitudes-have-infected-classrooms-across-the-us-and-young-kids-are-paying-the-price/

 

[theropod]

A few weeks later, a classmate asked Farah point blank: “Why did your people kill those people in Paris and San Bernardino?”

People aren’t going to ignore the reality that world wide terrorism today (as terrorism is actually defined. please don’t bother with changing the definition to alter statistics. That’s intellectually dishonest and won’t work with me) is almost exclusively an Islamic problem.

She needs to get used to this question being asked, and be ready with a response. She needs to understand for herself how she is different than those who murder in her religion’s name, as well as be able to explain that to others. Anything else is just sticking your head in the sand and wishing it would just go away.

 

[DaveBj]

People aren’t going to ignore the reality that world wide terrorism today (as terrorism is actually defined. please don’t bother with changing the definition to alter statistics. That’s intellectually dishonest and won’t work with me) is almost exclusively an Islamic problem.

She needs to get used to this question being asked, and be ready with a response. She needs to understand for herself how she is different than those who murder in her religion’s name, as well as be able to explain that to others. Anything else is just sticking your head in the sand and wishing it would just go away.

Your response makes my response unnecessary

 

[Son_of_Niall]

She needs to get used to this question being asked, and be ready with a response.

She’s a kid!

 

[JurisPrudens]

This is something all minorities are destined to have. The parents will have to explain the child what their attitude to a particular problem is. If a person is of an unusual background, he or she should always be prepared to answer questions. However, You are right in that the teacher’s must strangle such “finger-pointing” attitudes in cradle.

 

[Bill_Martin]

Was being Irish conflated with terrorism to the extent that being a Muslim has been? Turn on any TV show like NCIS or others that deal with terrorism in the US and you’ll regularly see Muslim terrorists. For a kid, I can see how this would confuse them.

 

[TheAtheist]

She’s a kid!

I share in the sentiment.

Over in India, we’ve had a variety of issues of a similar manner popping up - doubly worse in certain cases because of our rather long and sordid history with Pakistan.

So you are either a Terrorist or a Traitor to the Nation if you happen to be a Muslim…

 

[claymcdermott]

The classmate who asked little Farah why there is a sizable minority within Islam that thinks it’s okay to kill innocent people is* also* a kid, you know.

The parents of both children will have to teach their children that most Muslims are good people, but there exists a large and historically significant minority of Muslims who believe that to be Muslim is to believe and do evil things. Many of the good people who fight and/or speak out against this latter group are Muslims themselves, and they are heroic and brave.

It is important for both children in this case to hear that from their parents. And the teacher should explain this difference as well if she notices this is an issue.

 

[Bill_Martin]

Thanks for your answer. I think it’s an example of the resiliency of the tribal mentality in human society, probably a holdover from the days when those strangers appeared on the horizon or wandered into a hunting camp. We still find ways to make things “us vs them”, and look for characteristics with which to classify people as one or the other.

 

[HCTC]

People aren’t going to ignore the reality that world wide terrorism today (as terrorism is actually defined. please don’t bother with changing the definition to alter statistics. That’s intellectually dishonest and won’t work with me) is almost exclusively an Islamic problem.

She needs to get used to this question being asked, and be ready with a response. She needs to understand for herself how she is different than those who murder in her religion’s name, as well as be able to explain that to others. Anything else is just sticking your head in the sand and wishing it would just go away.

This is not the way that we are supposed to treat each other. By failing to protect Muslim children from bullying we make them outliers in our society thus contributing to their radicalization. By failing to correct and stop the bully we facilitate the self-destructive damage that a bully inflicts on his own soul.