Here, in the wake of the Fort Dix jihad arrests and ongoing jihad violence around the world, is another Muslim in America claiming victim status.
For it is so hard, you see, to be a Muslim in America. So very, very hard. You see, Ayesha Malik Nasson has to “explain or defend Islam” again and again to people “who are set on believing the worst, no matter what” she says or does. Ah, I see. People like Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, Naveed Haq, John Walker Lindh, and Adam Gadahn, who seem as Muslims to “cherry-pick” the worst and most violent aspects of Islam?
No, of course she doesn’t mean them. She means non-Muslims who have trouble believing claims that Islam is a religion of peace in light of ongoing jihad violence and the justification of that violence by reference to the Qur’an and Muhammad’s example. Why should we believe our lyin’ eyes instead of Ayesha Malik Nasson? We’re just making her “tired and irritated,” and overwhelmed with how hard it is to be a Muslim in the United States today.
How hard is it to be a Muslim in America today? Well, if your son is arrested for plotting a jihad attack at an American military base in which he hoped to kill as many Americans as possible, business at your restaurant might suffer. And if you trump up hate crimes to enhance your protected victim status, people might find out. But you don’t have to worry about your mosque being torched, or being killed for something you say or someone else said, or even for something you draw or someone else drew.
Meanwhile, you don’t have to face all the deprivations and human rights abuses of Muslim-majority countries. In fact, Muslims in the U.S. are as free to practice their religion in peace as they are anywhere in the world, and freer than they would be anywhere else from violence, instability, repression.
But they might have to explain their Religion of Peace to skeptical infidels. It’s too bad that Ayesha Malik Nasson doesn’t direct her efforts to eradicating jihadist sympathies from the American Muslim community. But of course that would make her even more tired and irritated than she is now.
“And surely after hardship there is ease,” by Ayesha Malik Nasson at ReligionAndSpirituality.com, with thanks to Neil:
These days it sometimes feels really hard to be a Muslim in America.
Occasionally it leaves me feeling disheartened, overwhelmed, despised, feared or pessimistic. I want to retreat, tired and irritated from having to explain or defend Islam yet again to those who are set on believing the worst, no matter what I say or do as a practicing Muslim.