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    Ali-Karamali's "The Muslim Next Door" Chapter 10 Analysis 1

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    Gladys vidzo
    The document discusses the reaction of American Muslims after the September 11 attacks. It describes how American Muslims grieved for the victims but also had to brace themselves for backlash from their fellow citizens. The author recounts her own experience being harassed after 9/11 and how it made her afraid to leave home without her mother for two years. However, she learned that she must stand up for her Muslim identity unapologetically. The document argues that true Muslims follow the teachings of Muhammad to lead with compassion, as when he visited a sick woman who had previously harassed him.

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    Ali-Karamali's "The Muslim Next Door" Chapter 10 Analysis 1

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    Gladys vidzo
    203 views4 pages
    The document discusses the reaction of American Muslims after the September 11 attacks. It describes how American Muslims grieved for the victims but also had to brace themselves for backlash from their fellow citizens. The author recounts her own experience being harassed after 9/11 and how it made her afraid to leave home without her mother for two years. However, she learned that she must stand up for her Muslim identity unapologetically. The document argues that true Muslims follow the teachings of Muhammad to lead with compassion, as when he visited a sick woman who had previously harassed him.

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    Ali-Karamali’s “The Muslim Next Door” Chapter 10 Analysis 1

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    The document discusses the reaction of American Muslims after the September 11 attacks. It describes how American Muslims grieved for the victims but also had to brace themselves for backlash from their fellow citizens. The author recounts her own experience being harassed after 9/11 and how it made her afraid to leave home without her mother for two years. However, she learned that she must stand up for her Muslim identity unapologetically. The document argues that true Muslims follow the teachings of Muhammad to lead with compassion, as when he visited a sick woman who had previously harassed him.

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    203 views4 pages

    Ali-Karamali's "The Muslim Next Door" Chapter 10 Analysis 1

    Uploaded by

    Gladys vidzo
    The document discusses the reaction of American Muslims after the September 11 attacks. It describes how American Muslims grieved for the victims but also had to brace themselves for backlash from their fellow citizens. The author recounts her own experience being harassed after 9/11 and how it made her afraid to leave home without her mother for two years. However, she learned that she must stand up for her Muslim identity unapologetically. The document argues that true Muslims follow the teachings of Muhammad to lead with compassion, as when he visited a sick woman who had previously harassed him.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Ali-Karamali’s “The Muslim Next Door” Chapter 10 Analysis

    (Reaction to September 11 by American Muslims)

    Sumbul Ali-Karamali in this chapter is giving clear concise answer as to what Islam is

    and who its followers or “true followers” are. In order to do that, she picks up the most

    controversial event in the west on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Since the

    attack on 11th of September, Muslims have been the headlines on newspapers, and the talk

    on basically every media outlet globally. However, even though so many ideas and thoughts

    have been formulated as to what Islam and Muslims are, people don’t fully understand the

    religion and its followers. Written from a point of an American Muslims, Ali-Karamali stands

    to defend the honor of Muslims, the real ones at that. Ali-Karamali goes on to say, “. . And

    American Muslims were doubly harmed: like everyone else, we grieved for the victims,

    struggled with the images of their nightmare, and lost friends and relatives in the senseless

    destruction of the twin towers. But unlike everyone else, we braced ourselves for the backlash

    of hate mail and attacks on our persons and property, not from terrorists, but from our very

    own fellow citizens” (Pg. 211). Here you can hear the cry in Ali-Karamali tone, she talks on

    how the Muslim population thus being the guilty ones, were still the victims. The terrorist

    that claimed to be Muslim not only harmed the public and the New Yorkers, but they caused

    a bigger harm to the Muslim population and name of Muslims. Muslims were afraid of being

    themselves because they now lived in a world where people were sending them hate mail,

    and harming them physically. This is true today even, terrorist extremist groups are still doing

    things in the name of Islam, ruining the image for us once again, and because of that, the

    public sees anyone who looks or speaks like a Muslim as a terrorist, some more than others.

    The first pillar is Islam is Shahada: declaring faith in God and believing that

    Muhammad is the messenger of God. A way of having faith in Allah is to believe that Allah

    is Al-Rahman as stated before, where he has mercy for all of Mankind. If a Muslim doesn’t
    believe in Allah and his messenger, or has a wrong meaning of what Islam is and what it

    means to be a Muslim, you’ll have terrorist groups that run with the name and ruin reputation.

    During the Prophet’s time, may peace be upon him, there was many occasions that the non-

    believer were harming him. On one occasion, there’s was a woman that used to throw trash in

    the direction of where the prophet used to walk in the morning and one day the trash wasn’t

    there, so the prophet went to look to see what happened to find out that she had been sick. He

    visited her and the woman humbled herself ashamed of what she had done to him, and for

    him to visit her and wish her well, she was amazed by his character. He showed this woman,

    that leading by example is the best way to go, then this woman converted to Islam. So for a

    Muslim to believe in Allah and his messenger, they must follow the teachings of the prophet

    and not doing that may lead to people questioning your faith, or for the case of many

    Americans labeling you a terrorist. The vocation here for a Muslim, or generally is to take

    this gift that Allah has given us (Islam) and use it in a way that is good and doesn’t harm a

    soul. The gift isn’t something that Allah gave specifically to Muslims, but I think every

    human possesses a little bit of this gift given by God. Also, religion is your way of life. A

    Muslim must make choices as to what’s important or known/seen as good and the actions that

    follow must be good. Because there are so many things that can prevent Muslims from being

    their best self, the struggle here is to work hard to keep Islam and the reputation of Muslims

    pure.

    There’s so many stories a person of Muslim faith can tell about them being harassed.

    For my story, It was Eid and there’s a prayer that goes with the celebration. Before the

    prayer, me and friends wanted to quickly run to Super America next to the Minneapolis

    Convention Center, where the Somali Muslim community rented out to pray Eid Prayer. As

    we were walking, A Black man was sitting outside of the convention center and he followed

    us all the way to gas station, which was about a good blockor two, throughout this whole time
    he was touching my friends behind and kept saying things like “Somali girls are so beautiful”

    and “What’s your dad’s number beautiful, I’ll do it the halal way.” One of my friends, Aisha

    told him off and he got angry and crossed the street to sit with his friends. We made it safely

    in the gas station, and as we were walking out, he’s yelling from the other side of the street to

    “give me back my bedsheets,” and “Take back september 11th.” Downtown Minneapolis is

    always busy, so people were looking at us and him and I was genuinely so scared, but it got

    scarier when he started chasing us back to the convention center and everyone was watching

    either laughing at the situation or too scared to do anything. I remember I lost my shoe while

    I was running, and I turned back to get it and he had caught us up, but just as he was about to

    grab me I ran for my life and he pulled down my hijab. I kept running and all I could think

    about was I’m dying without saying I love you to my mother. Needless to say, I survived and

    I learned that there’s people that hate me, as small and nice as I am. Ali-karamali says, “It is

    exhausting. I cannot dismiss the lurking fear that we have not progressed very far in fifty

    years. .” “We American Muslim love our country. .” (pg. 215). All these things she’s saying

    is nothing but the truth. She also talks about her mother and the fear she had when coming to

    America and after the event, it made her fear what people were going to do to her. Just like

    Ali-Karamalis mother, after my incident, for 2 years I didn’t go anywhere without my

    mother, but time taught me that I must be unapologetically Muslim. The author says its

    exhausting, and for someone who hid for 2 years, I know exhausting, but because I am

    American born and raised, I apologize on behalf of the black man. He lacked education, and

    basic manners. A person that runs after someone, or instills fear doesn’t know how to love,

    and I felt bad for him. I didn’t let what he did to me to cause me to put down my hijab, rather

    it made me appreciate it more, and I thank him for that. This taught me the only way to deal

    with a hater is to ignore them. This shaped my vocation into being able to smile after

    someone says a mean comment, or anything that harms me. Sometimes, it does get to me, but
    to keep myself pure and see my self worth, I don’t do anything that’ll harm the name of Islam

    or Muslims, I am better than cursing at someone, or harming someone, and the only to show

    them that is to kill them with kindness.

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