If you live under a rock, maybe you missed the Zimmerman verdict: absolution from even a manslaughter charge for killing Trayvon Martin. With this case, Zimmerman has joined the club of many publicly condemned individuals that juries have held innocent. President Obama stated after the verdict: “We are a nation of laws and a jury has spoken.” Words such as these make the average American feel proud to be living in a great country where democracy and the justice system is entrenched in our values. Don’t they?
Unless of course, you happen to be African American, or Muslim. The racial inequality that thrives in the United States today is prevalent not only in the black community but also other minority groups. Perhaps more than any other minority, American Muslims identify with the travesty of a trail that just ended. Trayvon Martin was black, but could easily have been Muslim. Exchange the hoodie for a hijab or a beard, and the parallels in stereotyping become quickly obvious. Before shooting Martin, Zimmerman told dispatchers that he looked “suspicious.” The same things happens to American Muslims on a daily basis, whether they are randomly selected for additional screening at airports or followed around by a security guard at a shopping mall, or their neighbors leave them strictly alone. In the words of a PolicyMic writer last year about the case:
This is the heart of the race problem in our country. We all suffer from this conditioning. Negative racial perception is so deeply entrenched and institutionalized that it consumes us. Some recognize and actively resist these perceptions. Others are privileged to never recognize that it exists. Unawareness is as problematic as both overt and covert racist action.
There is no doubt that discrimination against both African Americans and Muslims is alive and well in the United States today, for a variety of reasons. The Pew Forum reported that nearly six-in-ten adults (58%) say that Muslims are subject to a lot of discrimination, far more than the number who says so about Jews, evangelical Christians, atheists or Mormons. 49% say that African Americans face a lot of discrimination. Both segments of society face injustice in the American legal system, from the disproportionate number of African Americans in the prison system to Muslim prisoners held in Gitmo without being formally charged; from New York City’s stop and frisk program targeting African Americans, to the same city’s secret surveillance of Muslims.
The list of similarities goes on, yet there are differences as well. Writer Dennis Earl recently created a laundry list of ways that Muslims in America have it even worse than the African American community:
Think about it. Would American citizens be nearly as outraged about his death if (he) was wearing a turban or any other traditional Muslim head covering instead of a hoodie? Would they be wearing turbans in solidarity? Would they still be protesting in the streets demanding George Zimmerman’s arrest for weeks after the tragedy? Would they go out of their way to publicly support his grieving family? Would they demand changes to unfair law enforcement policies and criminal laws discriminatory to people like him? And, as far as the news media is concerned, does anyone believe CNN would have devoted so much wall-to-wall coverage if Trayvon’s name was Muhammed?
As an American Muslim, though, I feel much more hopeful. Race relations are better in many ways among religious groups than before. Pew Forum reports that although discrimination exists, familiarity in this case certainly does not breed contempt. Americans with the highest levels of familiarity with Islam express the most favorable views of Muslims. Nearly six-in-ten of those most familiar with Islam express favorable views of Muslims, compared with less than four-in-ten among those with less familiarity. And while, as Dennis Earl points out, the American public often doesn’t do much to stand up for the rights of their Muslim fellow citizens, the American Muslim community seems determined to change its own future for the better. Many Muslim groups are standing up without any media recognition for the rights of people like Trayvon Martin. For instance the Muslim Public Affairs Council has officially joined the NAACP request for a civil inquiry of the case, while the Council of American-Islamic Relations has welcomed the step as well. Perhaps if all Americans join together we can achieve Martin Luther King’s dream of justice and equality for everyone.
Saadia Faruqi is an interfaith activist, editor of Interfaith Houston and trainer of American Muslim issues. Follow her on Twitter @saadiafaruqi.
Every legal expert says that the case was complex because no one knows for sure what happened between Zimmerman and Martin. Zimmerman took the 5th and did not testify. That left the jury to decide based on circumstantial evidence. If there is reasonable doubt, the jury cannot convict the defendant.The jury made the decision, right or wrong.
A girl gets shot in the head by fanatics in Pakistan for attending school. The brave girl survived and she survived and she addressed the UN. The gunman were not caught, and i don’t know if the police were even interested in catching them.
When Jews arrived in the US, they faced discrimination and succeeded in ways they were unable to achieve in Europe. They did not play the victim card like you are.
A few questions for “Sammy” (not sure if this is a real name): You say that Ms. Faruqi is “playing the victim card.” Are saying that she’s imagining discrimination, and that none exists in the U.S. (or Canada, where I live)? Does the fact that Jewish Americans of an earlier era experienced discrimination and admirably prevailed against it, mean that Muslim Americans shouldn’t complain about it now? Would you criticize the Anti-Defamation League (which was founded largely to combat anti-Semitism in the U.S.) for “playing the victim card”?
Carl Rosenberg
Vancouver, BC
Saadia,
You are very lucky. Your biased blog gets through the censors here, while a more balanced blog by Ralph Saliger did not get through the Tikkunista censor,
Excellent article, Saadia. Thanks for summarizing the status of Muslims in America. You are right: the more Americans know about Muslims, the more favorable they become.
Some, of course, deliberately denigrate Muslims because they think that doing so advances their single-issue cause, but I think that truth spreads, and the days of hate-inspired anti-Islamism are growing shorter.
One point I learn from this article is injustice & inequality. It doesn’t matter what the color of the skin is or what religion a person belong to, when one is treated with injustice&unequally, it is always wrong.Recognizing the rights of minority is very crucial for America’s democratic system.
Very well said, Mrs Faruqi. Bravo!!
Hi it’s true ! i am french but i learned to Trayvon … Allahy dina inchaALLAH
Yes Saadia, life sucks for Muslims in the US
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4407897,00.html
France: 20 cars burned in wake of veil incident
As violence in Paris suburb enters second day, 20 cars are set ablaze. Saturday hundreds attacked police station west of Paris after arrest of man whose wife was ticketed for wearing face veil
Associated Press
Published: 07.21.13, 21:06 / Israel News
Some 20 cars have been torched and four people detained in a second night of violence in suburbs west of Paris.
The night before, about 250 people clashed with police in the nearby town of Trappes in apparent protest over the enforcement of France’s ban on Islamic face veils. Interior Minister Manuel Valls said police presence will be reinforced in the area until calm returns.
France’s interior minister said Sunday that the incidents overnight targeted the town of Elancourt. Police union official said on BFM television that about 50 assailants were involved, some firing weapons and a gasoline bomb at police.
France has banned face veils since 2011 (Photo: Reuters)
About 250 people hurling projectiles clashed with police firing tear gas west of Paris, in apparent protest over enforcement of France’s ban on Islamic face veils Saturday. Five people were injured and six detained in the violence, authorities said Saturday.
The interior minister urged calm and dialogue, insisting on both the need for public order and respect for France’s Muslims. The incident in the town of Trappes on Friday night reflected sporadic tensions between police upholding France’s strict policies of secularism and those who accuse authorities of discriminating against France’s No. 2 religion.
A few garbage dumpsters in the area were torched and a bus shelter shattered in the Trappes unrest. Spent tear gas capsules lay on the road Saturday near the police station at the center of the violence.
A 14-year-old boy suffered a serious eye injury in the violence, from a projectile of unknown provenance, Prosecutor Vincent Lesclous told reporters. Four police officers were injured and six people were detained in the violence, said an official with the regional police administration.
The violence came after a gathering of about 200-250 people to protest the arrest of a man whose wife was ticketed Thursday for wearing a face veil. The husband tried to strangle an officer who was doing the ticketing, the prosecutor said.
France has barred face veils since 2011. Proponents of the ban — which enjoyed wide public support across the political spectrum — argue the veil oppresses women and contradicts France’s principles of secularism, which are enshrined in the constitution. In addition to small fines or citizenship classes for women wearing veils, the law includes a hefty 30,000 euro ($39,370) fine for anyone who forces a woman to wear one.
The law affects only a very small proportion of France’s millions of Muslims who wear the niqab, with a slit for the eyes, or the burqa, with a mesh screen for the eyes. But some Muslim groups argue the law stigmatizes moderate Muslims, too. France also bans headscarves in schools and public buildings
thank you, Saadia, and thank you for the welcome news of the two Muslim associations coming to the support of Martin. So much violence seems to be the result of humiliation, fear, and then rage. People who are part of the predominant group can never know what it takes for others who are disrespected, devalued, and treated with suspicion to refrain from acts of rage and fury. The continual double standard must make life so stressful. When a white person commits a crime, white folk don’t say, “Well, here we go again. It’s a white person –what do you expect?” Instead the criminal is an individual. African-Americans and Muslims don’t get that privilege.