Thursday 17 Dec 2015 - 12:09 Makkah mean time-6-3-1437
Amara Majeed. Image from Mail Online
Washington, (IINA) - A Muslim American teenager has written an open letter to Donald Trump, calling out the US Republican presidential hopeful for inciting hate speech and making it acceptable to make sweeping, unflattering remarks about a diverse group of 1.6 billion people, Mail Online news reported.
Amara Majeed, 18 year-old, has lived in the United States her entire life, but is now starting to feel less welcome in the country she calls home - a startling change she attributes, at least in part, to incendiary remarks made by Trump on the campaign trail.
The Baltimore, Maryland native explained her point of view in a letter to Trump on Seventeen.com, laying out why his words are so dangerous and explaining the threat they pose to a country that guarantees freedom of religion under the First Amendment.
Now a pre-law student at Brown University, at age 16 she founded a group called “The Hijab Project”, which works to promote the understanding and empowerment of Muslim women through social experimentation.
She also wrote a book while still in high school called The Foreigners, which aims to eradicate stereotypes about Muslims. After introducing herself in the letter, which has gone viral since it was published on Seventeen's website yesterday, Amara immediately made it clear that the intent of her words wasn't to attack the candidate, but rather to open his mind to new ideas.
'Mr. Trump, I am not using this letter as a way to condemn you or embarrass you; rather, I want to give you some perspective,' she wrote. 'I'm not sure whether you say the things that you do because you genuinely believe them, or in an attempt to reign as the number one Republican candidate trending on social media, but I'm here to tell you that your statements are inherently harmful and affect us Muslims in profound ways.'
Amara explained that now, because of remarks like these - and the fact that, because they are made so publicly and unapologetically, more and more people feel free to voice similar sentiments - she no longer feels like an equal in her own country.
'I have always thought of this country as my home, because it always has been, and someday I'd like to teach my children that this country is their home,' she wrote.
But now, she doesn't feel safe or secure, because Trump is 'creating an atmosphere in which my entire identity is reduced to narrow-minded bias based on my skin color, my last name, and what I choose to wear on my head'.
She points to the story of a Muslim store owner in Queens, New York, who was left with a black eye, cuts, and bruises after being beaten by a man who said he was to 'kill Muslims'.
In the Bronx, a sixth-grader who wears a hijab was attacked during recess by her classmates, who tauntingly called her 'ISIS'.
Amara herself has not faced physical violence, yet she has received many hateful comments on my social media platforms in recent weeks.
But despite all of this, the self-assured teen refuses to fall prey to the same bias an hatred that drives those who target Muslims.
She told Trump: 'I will never hate individuals like you because ultimately, terrorism is perpetuated on the basis of hate. I won't compromise my own character and values by contributing to this very cyclical process of terrorism brought by blind hate.'
Amara also shared how sad she is that the phrase 'Allahu Akbar', which translates to 'God is great', has been so terribly polluted. It should be a beautiful expression of faith - and is, for the vast majority of Muslims who say it. But because it is also heard on the lips of terrorists, it is seen by some as something bad, and quite different from similar expressions in other faiths, like 'hallelujah' in Christianity and 'l'chaim' in Judaism.
That's because people are fearful, and Trump is just stirring the pot.
'With all due respect, Mr. Trump, you are a demagogue who is capitalizing on Americans' fear and paranoia; you are scapegoating an entire population of 1.6 billion people in an attempt to further your campaign, she wrote.
“Regardless of how much you criminalize and dehumanize Muslims, you will never be able to invalidate our American identities,” she concluded. We Muslim Americans will continue to make America great, if not greater.
SM/IINA
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