Islamophobia in America

On the evening of February 10, three young people were killed in a Chapel Hill, North Carolina apartment. All three victims practiced the Muslim faith.

The New York Times reports: “The victims were shot inside an apartment, according to one of the calls, and family members said the police told them they had been shot in the head.” Investigators claim that the incident was related to a parking space dispute between neighbors. Yet, details of the incident raised questions about whether it should be considered a religiously-motivated hate crime.

The Guardian also reported Craig Stephen Hicks as the alleged shooter, who claims to be an atheist and has been connected to social media posts with views of religious intolerance.

Through both accounts, we see other human faces in this story. Deah Barakat was a second-year student at the University of North Carolina (UNC) dentistry school. His wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, was just beginning her first-year at the same program. They were fundraising for a program to provide dental service to Syrian refugees. The third victim was Yusor’s sister, Razan Abu-Salha, a student at North Carolina State University.

The case is still under investigation, so I will not comment on theories of what happened. Instead, I will focus on the conversations around Islamophobia in the United States that have resulted from the news of the Chapel Hill shootings.

Anna Bigelow, a professor of Islamic Studies at the UNC, knew Deah Barakat from one of her classes and remembered him as a bright student. She shares that all three people lived out the core Muslim principle of ihsan: “doing that which is both beautiful in itself and beautifying to the world.” In my mind, the term parallels the Christian value of compassionately serving others.

Bigelow then lists five points about American views of Islam.  The first of Bigelow’s points cites a study by LifeWay Research: about one quarter of Americans surveyed view ISIS as a true representation of Islam.  Bigelow finds this as part of a disconcerting trend that places negative views on Muslim Americans.

In the aftermath of the Chapel Hill shootings, there have been several violent attacks on Muslim communities around the country. While these actions are not be directly related to the Chapel Hill incident, they do suggest that negative views of Muslims are prevalent in America.

Sadaf Sajwani adds another voice to this concern. He cites a Pew Forum study that less than 40% of Americans surveyed know someone who is Muslim. This same study also claims that, “knowing someone from a religious group is linked with having relatively more positive views of that group.” Without personal experience, the view of Muslims by the American public are largely shaped through the political discourse and media coverage at times of crises. For example, Sajwani notes that this year the American media had more press coverage around the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris while the attacks of Boko Haram in Nigeria were virtually ignored.

Sajwani says that this kind of media bias leads to a “systemic dismissal of Muslim voices,” and that the misrepresentations must stop. He concludes that Muslim Americans are just as much citizens as other Americans. I agree with what Sajwani claims is at stake: insuring that the principle of religious freedom is being recognized for all American citizens.

At the basic human level, this incident is a tragedy of three innocent lives lost, and one life changed for the worse because of a decision to act out in violence. Both realities are terrible to hear about and require a change in our public discourse toward more life-giving ways. Our mindset after this incident needs to follow that of Anna Bigelow. “These three beautiful individuals were exactly the kind of citizens America needs. Their achievements were celebrations of their lives, loves, faith, commitment, dedication, and integrity. And no amount of death can take that away.”

Instead of fear-mongering and polarizing, the American public needs to hold a fair dialogue on religious freedom. We should not make judgments about other people, and especially religious groups, until we have listened to what core principles they hold. Keep in mind that just as there are different views within Christian denominations, so also Muslim communities hold different views around Islam. Some beliefs of another might even be similar to what we hold. At the same time, understanding another person's belief does not mean that you have to accept them as your own. Yet, as we listen to what others believe we can better understand what we believe, and have a better sense of how each of our beliefs contribute to the morals within our country.