Dear next President,

Since I came to the United State I faced much racism from different people who are scared of Islamic people just because of ISIS. They think ISIS belongs to Muslim people but actually not because ISIS is the reason causing immigrant people to leave their country. I’m student at Brooklyn International High School. I’m from Iraq and I came to the United States three years ago and I live now in New York. I am writing to you about Islamophobia because it is a big problem that you should address. Not every immigrant or refugee is a criminal or terrorist and if we continue to discriminate against Muslims they are going to lose their future.

The immigrant people need your support to help them build their future. And you should make other people think about Muslim people in a fair way because Muslims people are innocent. For example, In the article titled "Police release Muslim teen after his clock is mistaken for a bomb," it says, "In Texas- a 14-year-old Muslim student Ahmed Mohamed had taken a clock he made to the school. On Sept. 14, 2015, some teachers were afraid it might be a bomb." Just because he has a Muslim name. But the question why they think negative things about Muslims people? They should support him because he is a creative student and Muslim people can help our country. These immigrants are an important part of our economy. There is no evidence that the Muslim student meant to cause alarm at his school.” In the article "U.S. education officials to gather info on discrimination against Muslims," it says that Islamophobia "is creating a kind of toxic learning environment in which these students feel like they are under attack because of their faith." Almost all the students faced racism and attacks just because they are Muslim. We all know there is freedom in the United States so that means everyone has the right to choose a religion.

According to “U.S. education officials to gather info on discrimination against Muslims”: "Everything from being called 'terrorist' to jokes about 'Where is your bomb?' Obviously, they are not really jokes." There are a people when they see Muslim people they say to them "where is your bomb?" just to make fun of them, which the same thing that I have faced in my life. One student was telling another student about me and he was like, “You don’t talk to her, she's gonna bomb you.” At that time I told them it’s not my fault if there's a war in Iraq, it is not Muslim people who caused the war but ISIS who does. I was confused, I don’t know how to explain to them that Muslim people love peace and they want to live in peace and that’s why they immigrated from their country.

You must take care of immigrants because they really need your support and being beside them. Also, you must appoint more Muslim people to government positions. This would show that Muslim people can help our country and play an important part. You can do such as President Barack Obama who met with members of the Muslim-American community at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, Maryland, on Feb. 3, 2016. Obama made his first visit to a mosque. The president must learn about Muslim culture and their traditions because the president can't judge them if he doesn't have knowledge about Muslim people.

Sincerely,

A Muslim Student

References

Warren, D. (2015, September 21). No charges for Muslim student after clock mistaken for a bomb. Retrieved from https://newsela.com/articles/student-clock/id/12016/

Chandler, M. A. (n.d.). U.S. to track discrimination in schools as anti-Muslim sentiment grows. Retrieved September 14, 2016, from https://newsela.com/articles/discrimination-muslim-students/id/21551/

Superville, D. (n.d.). Decrying anti-Muslim bias, Obama pays the first visit to U.S. mosque. Retrieved February 3, 2016, from https://newsela.com/articles/obama-mosquevisit/id/14746