Dear President,

We should try to find resolutions for Islamophobia. Muslims suffer a lot of discrimination throughout their daily lives. At first it was mostly just verbal abuse and whispers while walking by but now it's also physical. Hate crimes against Muslims are at their highest rates ever in the United States. People can have their own opinions,but when it gets physical and mothers fathers and kids are getting hurt. Then I think something needs to happen.

The system of media and the social world has a lot to do with Islamophobia in America today. According to Al Jazeera statistics, the percentage of Americans who respect Muslims and their beliefs dropped from 47% to 25%. According to The Huffington Post’s 2015 survey, nearly 52% of Americans do not like Muslims. The media has a big role in how situations and things that happen in the world are viewed. In the morning before people go to work the first thing they'll do is turn on the 9 o'clock news or grab a newspaper on their way to wherever they are heading. The news is not only influential to adults but it is influential to all ages. According to nydailynews.com, just recently 7 year old Ahmed Usmani was beaten up by his classmates for being Muslim. All because some parent seen the news and was scared of Muslims or was islamophobic and passed it onto their kids. The media has to stop having deep root islamophobic articles and broadcasts. The media also needs to stop saying saying bias and islamophobic things. As I was looking for more information and sources about this topic I stumbled across what CNN anchor John Vaus has said. “Why is it that no one within the Muslim community in France knew what these guys were up to?” These are the type of quotes that perpetuates Islamophobia. They allow the audience to think all Muslims are terrorists. This also feeds into xenophobia that's commonly against Muslim immigrants.

Xenophobia is one of the branches that lead to Islamophobia. When someone discriminates against someone because they are from another country it is hard for Muslims and immigrants to adjust to where they have migrated to. A lot of Muslims and non-Muslims migrate to other places because of forced or chained migration. Chained migration is when one person from a certain group migrates to a destination and other people from that group follow. when the immigrants migrate to another place to start a new life and find job opportunities and to take care of their loved ones Being scared of Muslim, immigrants can lead to them not getting the right resources. According to society of human resources management a man named Zaw oo was randomly picked to check if he was a terrorist just because he is Muslim. “One minute I was in my unit and then because I am a Muslim I was being investigated for being a terrorist supporter” Zaw oo said. Zaw oo was in the U.S army. And even after he was cleared he was still getting sent anonymous death threats. Zaw oo's co workers have disrespected and mocked the Quran. He even got sent a video from a coworker who was threatening him. “I can't afford to lose my job I have a wife and a child” Zaw oo said. A lot of people have to go through many hardships just to keep their job everyday. But a positive point is according to the society of human resources management (shrm), 89 % percent of Muslims are satisfied with their job. “I would be very cautious of hiring a Muslim we have no way of knowing how many will support America,” Joseph Hepp, a retired executive of Battle Creek illustrations said.

Whenever news outlets or anywhere else is mentioning Muslim, they only mention Middle Eastern countries. Why? ⅔ of the Muslims population is from Asia and Africa. People are very uneducated about Muslims and our diversity. I feel like that's also one of many reasons why there is a lot of islamophobia happening throughout the world. The world's 1.6 billion Muslims are connected because we are all from one religion. But that doesn't mean we are all from the Middle East. Throughout my whole life I have seen the beauty in the diversity of Islam. I just wish others could see it too. 53% of Africa is Muslim. 62% of Asia is Muslim. Every ethnicity/race/country in this world has Muslims. So why is it always only the Middle East that's brought up. I would like people to see how much diversity we have in this world that makes us who we are as a whole. I have seen Caucasian Muslims, Black Muslims, Asian Muslims, Hispanic Muslims, etc. In Fact according to teachmideast.com, the country with the most Muslims in the world is Indonesia. But a lot of people will only have a stereotype that all Muslims are only from the Middle East. When we are from every part of this world. And I think if people knew this it could be one step into demolishing Islamophobia.

This problem that we call Islamophobia needs to be resolved. I'm not saying that it will take a day or a year or a month I know it will take time. But the more we don't do anything to fix it the more Islamophobia grows and the more it passes on to other generations. It hurts Muslims a lot when Islamophobic things are said. Just today a kid threw a backpack next to me in school and said “ Allahu Akbar!” And that really hurt me deep. Now of course I defended myself and tried to educate him more. But islamophobia goes deeper then something only a couple of people in the world can solve. One way we can start resolving islamophobia and the violence of it is by education! If more people knew the positivity Islam has and its effects on the world I think there would be less Islamophobic people in the world today. If they knew what Muslims invented if they knew how diverse we are and if they knew we come from every single country and continent on the map. Another way we can resolve things is by using the media for a positive outlook. Instead of the media making Muslims seem mean and dangerous they can talk about how Muslim countries are having the same problem with terrorism. And how Muslims are getting killed raped and murdered by terrorists. How Muslims have to flee and sometimes leave their loved ones and maybe never see them again. We should stick together and educate everyone on what's going on. The man thing we can do to resolve Islamophobia is education. I think that is the only way we are going to make this world a more positive and beautiful place.

I wish the world didn't have Islamophobia and I wish we could have more possible positive coverage for every religion throughout the world. I hope that one day I can tell my kids or grandkids about our history in the world and about how we have conquered Islamophobia and how in my generation we focused on making the world a positive place for all religions and all races. But at the rate we are going I don't know if I will be able to. But I will persevere and try everyday to have a positive outlook on the world and educate the world on Muslim people. But until we can solve Islamophobia I will remember one of my favorite quotes that give me hope and remind me about positivity. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind not with it” - Henry Ford. I hope you will help America take steps into the right direction future president. I hope you will be one of the best.

Sincerely, 

Zahuur Hassan