Unfortunately, Strangers on a Train

[Hatalles]

Unfortunately, Strangers on a Train
Mona Eltahawy

I was on the evening train from Washington DC to New York, happily reading a book, when I overheard a sliver of conversation that would make it impossible to concentrate and remind me just what an uphill struggle it could be to be a Muslim in America, today.

"And those cartoons! They get so angry about cartoons but planes flying into buildings? My God. Cartoons," said a woman.

"That's why the two people shouldn't mix," is what I thought I heard the man next to her reply.

I felt at once nauseous and invisible. I was sickened by the contempt for Muslims that was clear in the woman’s words. In my own writing, I have criticized as exaggerated the reaction by some Muslims to the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. But I criticize as a Muslim who is proud to be identified as such.

And I felt invisible because it was obvious that these two Americans never for a second thought a Muslim could be there on the train with them. To them, Muslims were “over there” – somewhere primitive and far away, not on a train from Washington DC to New York just like them.

...

Full article links:
http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?sid=1&id=1643
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=23642
http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2006/04/unfortunately_s_1.php

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. We walk in their midst, invisible

even more so now, when there are threats to mosques and people have been killed just because they "looked Muslim". I've had more than one fundamentalist tell my husband and I what "good Christians" we are because of the way we act. If I wasn't certain (sadly) that we'd be harmed, I'd tell them the truth. But I am seriously afraid.