ignorance

On September 12, 2001, I was walking across campus to my Politics and Film class when a guy bumped into me, sent my books scattering across the tarmac and then called me a raghead.

Since then, I’ve been subjected to similar forms of racial epithets, even though I’m not Arab (I’m of Indian descent). My fellow Muslims have faced similar reactions from Americans, most notably white Americans, who seem to think that anyone with brown skin is a potential terrorist.

We’ve been through this discourse before. Islamic Horizons, ISNA’s magazine, had a recent article about it. We call it by different names: Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism, and so on and so forth.

I call it ignorance.

On both sides.