Invitation to a Dialogue: Being Muslim in America

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/opinion/invitation-to-a-dialogue-being-muslim-in-america.html

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To the Editor:

Let’s talk “identity politics.” I don’t have a single label. I'm a woman. I’m Muslim. I’m Arab. I’m Latina. Every one of those labels has become some type of political identity that leads me to support those in power whose policies keep my rights protected. What happens when the newly elected government threatens your identities and your rights?

Because I do not fit the mold of “white, Christian, all-American girl next door,” I — and many people like me who are considered “diverse” — have been tagged as less important, and our rights and safety concerns have been pushed aside by our president with every executive order he signs. People like me are actually larger in number than you may think. The millennial generation is said to be the most diverse in our history, with 43 percent of us being nonwhite.

It has been less than two weeks under Donald Trump’s America, and he has already taken steps to bar many Muslims from entering the United States, deport illegal immigrants, reinstate the abortion gag rule, have a wall built on the Mexican border and reconsider the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Since the executive order on Muslims was signed, I have personally faced discriminatory comments from my fellow citizens such as “She needs to go,” and “Arrest them, jail them for terrorism, then deport them.” America has a dark and shameful history when it comes to providing those fleeing persecution and war with safety and security.

As a Muslim woman, I have heard things like “Muslim feminist is an oxymoron.” I have been made to feel like an outsider in my own place of birth and am being threatened with some fantasized “cleansing of America” of people of my faith.

So what can we do? We need to fight back. We need to demand different policies. Together, we can prove that it’s not about the power of the government, but the power of the people that can make a change.

JENAN A. MATARI

New York

The writer is co-founder and editor in chief of the website MissMuslim.

Editors’ Note: We invite readers to respond briefly by Thursday morning for the Sunday Dialogue. We plan to publish responses and a rejoinder in the Sunday Review. Email: letters@nytimes.com