Posted by I think, if there’s one thing I will like about President Obama’s term coming to an end, it is that perhaps the extreme right-wing of this country will go back to their classic culture wars tropes – wars on the poor, black people and a little misogyny thrown in for good measure. Actually a lot of misogyny if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee. (Yes, the Left has its own classics so shut up).
Eight years of people screaming about creeping shari’a law. Eight years of the President supposedly being a Muslim and facilitating the rise of militant Islam in the USA. Eight years of not understanding what the hell the President Obama’s speech in Cairo meant. Eight years of people posting stupid bullshit taking the President’s tolerance completely out of context while throwing their hands up in the air saying, “No really I don’t hate Muslims!”
Did you hear that [insert geographic location] was bombed the other day? Whodunit? Too late – almost every single Muslim in the USA already thought, “oh please let it not be a Muslim!” How relieved I was when the Oklahoma City bombing was found to be done by a non-Muslim. Praise Jeebus!
But I was struck tonight, after reading another half-assed attempt to tar and feather Islam and President Obama, that this ain’t shit compared to what blacks in this country have and continue to endure.
For American Muslims, it’s been maybe… 30 of increasing pariah status? Shorter? A smidge longer? How about 300+ years of that sh*t? Slavery, indentured servitude, overt institutionalized prejudice, covert institutionalized prejudice.
I’ve been tempted at times to give up on Islam. Not because I feel it lacks truth. Because I’m weary. I’m weary of having to defend my religion. I’m weary of these extremists. I’m weary of the constant demands that moderate Muslims must at all times denounce extremists. As if leading a life of peace (and hating the Cleveland Browns) isn’t enough.
To take up the mantle of agnosticism or some other ism. To cloak myself in another identity. Yet, black people can’t exactly do the same. They must endure*. However weary I get, Muslim is not a constant part of my American experience. Sometimes, I get mistaken for Hindu.
*Black American Muslims? Yikes.
