Dear President of the United States,

I know a girl who wears a hijab. She told me that one day riding the subway a man said something against Islam because he saw her headscarf. Discriminating against someone for their religion is really bad. The 1st Amendment shows the freedom of religion, it was written by the founding fathers, and those rules are very important to follow in this country. Islamophobia and hate crimes against Muslims really goes against our whole country’s purpose and that should be against the law. Islamophobia is a big problem that you should address because a lot of Muslim immigrants in the United States are being harassed and face a lot of problems by other people because of what the media shows on the news, showing Muslims as terrible people that cause a lot of problems to the world.

People around the United States should know that Islam is not harmful religion. As I research about the issue, there was a lot of problems such as bullying, harassing, and stereotyping that’s going on about Islam or Muslim people. According to Manya Brachear Pashman of the Chicago Tribune, a Muslim women student at a middle school in Chicago got bullied by one of her classmates because she was wearing a headscarf. “One of them wrapped his scarf around his head and said he looked like Osama bin Laden.” By doing this, he was saying that all Muslim women are terrorist and describing Islam in a negative way. This hurts feelings and this is the problem of Islamophobia: they hurting people's feeling. Islam has nothing to do with ISIS. Bhaiji's French teacher had spoken to classes that Islam does not represent ISIS. It’s very important to use empathy in this life and have the power to stand in someone else's choice and see how they are feeling. 

Another example of Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times, Muslim women are being a target of their headscarf: “Since the attacks in Paris, France, and San Bernardino, California, Muslim women wearing headscarves have become obvious targets. They are harassed more often than others, frequently by men.” This is a very big problem, which Muslim women's are being the only target, because wearing the headscarf is an easy way for other people to know if they are Muslims and start to harass Muslim women everywhere. This problem was an issue since the Paris attack, which people think was done by Muslims, and that's wrong because Muslims are different than ISIS. Some Muslim women around the country stop wearing hijab (headscarf) because they’re very scared from getting harassed again.

Suspicion and hate by Islamophobia cause a lot of problems to Muslims for no reason. According to the article of David Warren of the Associated Press, a big news about 14-year-old Muslim high school student lives in Texas named Ahmed Mohammed, was arrested for taken a clock he made to school to show his school of what he have done and his teachers thought it looked like a bomb. This is a very big problem of arresting a young boy without knowing the story because Ahmed Mohamed was trying to show his school what he had done at home. He is being proud of himself, but people are thinking in a different way just because he is Muslim. According to Ahmed’s father, he says that Ahmed is treated badly at school because his last name is Mohammed, which represents an Islamic name so people connect it to the  9/11 attacks. The events of 9/11 and the Paris attack had an impact on the Americans of the way they are thinking toward Islam, which has an effect on Muslims in this country. 

Sometimes there should be actions takes to solve problems. According to Darlene Superville of the Associated Press, President Obama has done something good by visiting a Mosque and have some discussion about the issue. “Obama visited and sat around a large table with Muslim university chaplains, community activists, and medical professionals. They discussed religious tolerance and freedom. He planned an afternoon speech focused on how the U.S. can more successfully confront extremism if the country works with Muslims instead of branding all of them as potential enemies.” President Obama has done something great and important to Muslims and the country because it might change a lot of things and decrease the problems and conflicts toward Islam that’s being caused by Islamophobia, which is the huge problem in this country that breaks the rules of the 1st Amendment.

In conclusion, Islamophobia is a huge problem in this country because a lot of Muslim immigrants in the United States are getting harassed and facing a lot of problems by other people because of what the media shows on the news. The media shows Muslims as those terrible people that cause a lot of problem to the world. Some possible solutions to this issue are to give all women the right to wear hijab without being judged, create some activities that show Islam in a good way, and lastly, the government should pass a law that Muslims can celebrate their holidays, which it will show that Islam still a part of the country and peace. This issue has to be taken action as soon as possible because the amount of hate crimes against Muslims have gone up a lot. A majority of Americans think Islam is a violent religion. The Muslim woman in America are afraid of wearing the hijab (headscarf) in fear of people bullying. I would like you to please stop this discrimination, oppression, disrespect, and hate crimes against Muslims. So the people and Muslims of this nation can all feel safe.

Sincerely,

Ayad Kaid  

References

Manya, B. P. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2016, from https://newsela.com/articles/chicago-muslimyouth/id/14920/ 

Fiske, M. H. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2016, from https://newsela.com/articles/headscarves-harassment/id/13623/

David, W. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2016, from https://newsela.com/articles/student-clock/id/12020/

Darlene, S. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2016, from https://newsela.com/articles/obama-mosquevisit/id/14748/