Muslims respond to Liberty University President saying America should ‘end’ them

People disconnect themselves from realities that are too ridiculous to seem authentic. They push them aside as a part of a crazy and incomprehensible world we will never come in touch with. It gives them comfort to believe their world is different, coherent…good.

I’ve always wished for that luxury – the ability to simply pity the sad “other” world we hear about, sending out thoughts and prayers, then moving on with my life, putting the news in the drawer of the mind where other pitiable tragedies are stored, and only opening it when it’s time to “remember”.

Throughout my life and the lives of those like me, however, those events are our realities. We cannot hide them, pity ourselves, or forget. Ridiculous comments cut our flesh, the hateful speeches pierce our souls, and the violent intentions stemming from ignorance and hate end our lives.

On Friday, December 4, Liberty University’s president Jerry Falwell Junior, in his speech at convocation, said, “If more good people had conceal carry permits then we can end those Muslims before they get too far…Let’s teach ‘em a lesson if they ever show up here.”

As I watched the video of Falwell’s speech, I could hear the laughter and cheers of the students, and I felt strangely unsurprised. “They want to kill us,” I thought to myself, and proceeded to look up Liberty University on Google maps and find that it is exactly 1 hour and 12 minutes away from UVA. So close. Too close.

I blankly browsed the news for another hour, reading about Donald Trump’s plans to mandate religious ID cards for Muslims, and watching videos of people who look like me being harassed in subway stations, yelled at on trains, and spit at as they walked down the street.

My mother and I

I thought back to the stories my mother told me of the post 9/11 days; the woman pushed in front of the subway, the vandalism at our local mosque, the constant death threats, the penetrating glares of pure hatred as she walked down the grocery store aisle.

“I didn’t leave home for a month,” she told me, “many women I know took off their hijab (head scarf) for their safety…I considered doing so. Your father shaved his beard.”

My mother had always supported my decision to wear the hijab. She told me I was strong, independent, and brave. Her pride in me gave me strength to keep it on even when I was bullied, stared at, and questioned by classmates and teachers. So when she called me, and told me that I shouldn’t be ashamed of being scared, that if I wanted to, I could take it off for my safety…I was finally pulled back painfully to reality.

Once again I could not push this into my hidden mind drawer, once again a simple news story is my life, once again I will continue to be affected by the repercussions of misplaced hate, ignorance, and cruelty long after the media and my peers forget.

From fear, sadness, and bitterness, Muslim students around the community are trying to understand and cope with the situation so close to home.

Third year UVA student, Sarah Ilyas commented, “Lynchburg will never be the same…a quarter of my high school go to Liberty, and it’s so heartbreaking to see them become more and more negative. I mean they knew me. I was the only hijabi at that school.

“I can’t believe this is happening. It makes me so afraid for my family, for Muslim children in schools…Before I saw Lynchburg as a place I could be at home. I hope it stays this way. I want Lynchburg to be a place I still call home.”

Sarah Ilyas

Raisa Noshin, a first year student, said, “ In short, I’m scared. I keep talking to people who tell me this discrimination can’t happen at college…people are more open minded, and yet here it is. We need to stop pretending backlash towards Muslims isn’t a problem, because as someone who wear the hijab, I am aware of how easily the spotlight on my back can become a target.”

Raisa Noshin

The UVA Muslim Student Association vice president, Sundus Razzaq said she wasn’t completely shocked: “With the rhetoric spewing from so many politicians in this country, the fear mongering just seems to have become a trend that everyone wants to take part in.”

“Still,” she says, “as the head of an educational institution…he could have used the opportunity to encourage love and understanding instead of fueling fear.”

We can only try to combat hateful violence by being our true selves – we continue working to harbor understanding, condemn racism, Islamophobia, and any hatred towards our identities.

I await the generation when we have no stories of hiding and fear to tell our children, when an article of clothing doesn’t paint a target on our backs, when educator educate, when politicians represent, and when freedom of speech isn’t usurped to create animosity.