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As a Muslim, I've had to make peace with knowing that I have no privacy and little guarantee of my rights. I recently graduated from Rutgers University in New J

by bilalq 13y ago

As a Muslim, I've had to make peace with knowing that I have no privacy and little guarantee of my rights. I recently graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey, and the NYPD was even spying and monitoring us there. [0] History's pages are filled with instances of minorities being targeted and persecuted. One can go back and look at what happened to the Blacks, the Jews, the Japanese, and many others. That the targeted group is different isn't the key here. What's different now is that technology has progressed to the point where the invasiveness and secrecy of what goes on is unmatched. [0] http://www.ap.org/Content/AP-In-The-News/2012/NYPD-monitored-Muslim-students-all-over-Northeast http://www.ap.org/Content/AP-In-The-News/2012/NYPD-monitored...

Amadou 13y ago
Don't make too much peace with it. A lot of my muslim friends have been reluctant to stir the pot about their treatment by the authorities and society in general, saying things like "it is in god's hands." The problem with that attitude is that in the US the system is designed such that the squeaky wheel is the only one that gets the oil. The civil rights movement happened because blacks organized, the japanese were really passive about the whole interment camp thing. I knew families that had lost everything -- houses, farmland -- because it was basically stolen from them while they were interred. When they were released they preferred to avoid talking about it, as if it were a great shame on them rather than a shame on the rest of the country for doing it to them. So practically no legal action occurred their property was never recovered, depriving their children of opportunities that were rightly theirs. You have to do whatever it takes to live without completely losing your marbles over the situation, so I'm not judging - just saying that it is important to talk about it as much as you can stomach with as many people as will listen so they can start to understand what your experiences are.
- maratd 13y ago
  To be fair, nobody is placing Muslims in internment camps nor are they being forced to ride in the back of the bus. If anything, we are learning that we are all under constant surveillance.
  - Amadou 13y ago
    The japanese internment did not happen out of the blue, there was a lot of agitation against them leading up to it. The goal is to stop things from getting out of hand rather than trying to fix them after the fact.
  - omarali 13y ago
    No, they just place you on the no fly list and detain you for 4+ hours every time you cross the US border by land.

by bilalq 13y ago

Amadou 13y ago

Don't make too much peace with it. A lot of my muslim friends have been reluctant to stir the pot about their treatment by the authorities and society in general, saying things like "it is in god's hands." The problem with that attitude is that in the US the system is designed such that the squeaky wheel is the only one that gets the oil. The civil rights movement happened because blacks organized, the japanese were really passive about the whole interment camp thing. I knew families that had lost everything -- houses, farmland -- because it was basically stolen from them while they were interred. When they were released they preferred to avoid talking about it, as if it were a great shame on them rather than a shame on the rest of the country for doing it to them. So practically no legal action occurred their property was never recovered, depriving their children of opportunities that were rightly theirs. You have to do whatever it takes to live without completely losing your marbles over the situation, so I'm not judging - just saying that it is important to talk about it as much as you can stomach with as many people as will listen so they can start to understand what your experiences are.

maratd 13y ago
To be fair, nobody is placing Muslims in internment camps nor are they being forced to ride in the back of the bus. If anything, we are learning that we are all under constant surveillance.
- Amadou 13y ago
  The japanese internment did not happen out of the blue, there was a lot of agitation against them leading up to it. The goal is to stop things from getting out of hand rather than trying to fix them after the fact.
- omarali 13y ago
  No, they just place you on the no fly list and detain you for 4+ hours every time you cross the US border by land.