The incident happened at a nearby Target. A Muslim woman in a black headscarf was shopping when another woman approached her.

‘You are evil,’ the woman had said. ‘You are evil, you are evil.’

The Muslim woman, amazed and unsure of how to respond, turned around and walked away. This is one story that comes to mind for Tanweer Haq, the Islamic chaplain at Syracuse University, when he thinks about the treatment of Muslims in today’s society.

‘Starting from schoolchildren all the way to adults, people have to be prepared for greater scrutiny, for being asked questions, for suspicion sometimes, for being treated differently from others,’ said Haq. ‘And it gets more and more difficult the younger the person is.’

Islam, a faith that has more than a billion followers, is the second-largest religion in the world. In 2011, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimated roughly 2 million people in the United States practice it. But despite the widespread practice of the religion, events like Sept. 11 and recent reports of police monitoring on college campuses have caused Muslims living in the United States to fall victim to scrutiny, making some fear every action will get them placed on a list.

SU was one of the campuses where New York Police Department sent undercover officers to monitor Muslim student associations and events for suspicious terrorist activity, beginning in 2006. A student informant was on SU’s campus during that time.

This incident, in addition to the Sept. 11 attacks, brought changes in Islamic identity to light on college campuses. Although some Muslims shy away from fully expressing their faith for fear of backlash, others see it as an opportunity to embrace their identity and speak up against unfair judgments about them.

As president of SU’s Muslim Students Association, Azhar Ali said the news often makes students feel uneasy and that they’ve done something wrong when they haven’t.

Ali, a junior education major, has always wanted to make the organization of more than 40 students more welcoming to those who want to know more about their faith. But he said the recent incident could make his goals for the MSA more difficult to execute. After learning about the investigations, Muslim students may not want to attend MSA meetings or events, hindering Ali’s vision. Some students’ parents, he said, are even discouraging their children from hanging out with Muslim students.

‘It’s going to become even more impossible because of incidents like this,’ he said.

Ismail Pathan, a junior finance major and vice president of the MSA, said the incident strengthened his Islamic identity. After coming to college, Pathan said he starting noticing the negative perceptions the public had toward Muslims and felt it was his duty to change them.

‘Part of the reason I became vice president of the MSA was to do this,’ Pathan said. ‘To be involved, to talk to people, to have this opportunity.’

Pathan said there are different responses to incidences like Sept. 11 that reflect a change in Muslim identity today.

Though there are some individuals who choose to be vocal about their Islamic identity, Pathan said, others sometimes don’t want to share their views. They refuse to speak out in fear of retaliation from government agencies eager to question them. They choose to lay low and continue to live their lives quietly, he said.

But those individuals should go out and socialize with non-Muslims. Otherwise, Pathan said, their hesitance to display their religious beliefs will leave the public with the negative images and ideas presented by the media.

Pathan said the MSA plans to hold a panel discussion regarding the NYPD monitoring after Spring Break. Though the event is still being planned, he said the panel would include people from the community including Haq, the Islamic chaplain, and Brian Small, the director of programming and student engagement at Hillel Jewish Student Union.

Muslims have an important role in changing outside perspectives as well, Haq said. He thinks Muslims should be more forthcoming and interact with others so people become aware of who they are and what they stand for.

The more outside pressure there is for Muslims to hide their identities, the more important it is to connect and embrace them, Haq said. Past incidents haven’t changed Muslim identity, he said, but have instead put them in more focus.

Unfortunately, that focus involves special scrutiny.

The United States has not learned from past experiences, said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He referenced Pearl Harbor and the U.S. government’s detainment of Japanese Americans for purposes of maintaining national security.

‘Unfortunately, one would hope that we have gone through a learning curve, that we’ve learned what is a mistake,’ he said.

Although Boroujerdi understands the need for the monitoring, he said there would be more of an outcry if another group were the subject.

‘I think we need to sort of complicate the narrative a bit, this simplistic good guys versus bad guys narrative that, unfortunately, the media loves to embrace,’ Boroujerdi said.

News of the NYPD monitoring does not bode well for a community of people who already see themselves as second-class citizens constantly trying to prove their identity, he said. Each Muslim must make a choice, he said, of either choosing to educate others or act like everyone else and practice only inside their home.

Both Ali and Pathan said they have not personally encountered a moment when they were treated differently at SU, and they said it has been easy for them to interact with other students.

Hillel released a statement in February announcing their support for the MSA after the AP report was published.

‘These people are our friends the same way that the Catholic students are our friends, or the Buddhist students are our friends,’ said Hannah Miller, president of Hillel. ‘We just wanted to make sure that they knew and that we publicly made it clear that we support them and we’re on their side.’

As vice president and president, respectively, Pathan said he and Ali enjoy talking to students and hearing people’s opinions, he said. After three years, he knows they’ve changed at least one person’s opinion about Islam.

‘It’s trying to show that we’re just like everyone else in this country,’ Pathan said. ‘If we can change one person’s idea, I’d say we’re pretty successful.’

To portray Muslim identities in a more positive light, Ali said he thinks there should be institutions in place to make being a Muslim on campus easier. The university has the resources to invest, but the change must come from the bottom up, the MSA.

Pathan said he encourages others to view Muslims on campus as any other student.

‘Have an open mind, and for a second, try to forget all you know and all that you heard from the media and just get to know someone on that level,’ he said,’ and then try and create your own opinion or perception of what it is.’

mjberner@syr.edu 

Published on March 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Maddy: mjberner@syr.edu