Zafar Khan
Lux
College Writing
Jan-11-2017
To be More Than a Label Every year my birthday falls three days before the worst terrorist attack ever witnessed. I was born in Hyderabad, India on September 8th, 2000, a year before 9/11 occurred. When I was about nine months old, my family decided to move to America. Being a muslim family a year before 9/11 meant you were just like everyone else, but everything changed after my first birthday. Three days after I turned a year old, there was an initial shock as to why everyone was in such low spirits after having just given me cake and presents. My family began to be very cautious as to whom they would talk to. One of my earliest memories was watching the news channel blare, “World Trade Center collapses under terrorist attack”, and when the word “muslim” and “Islam” began popping up on the news a …show more content…
When we were driving on the road, a cyclist riding nearby saw my mother wearing a hijab and began to ridicule us. The stranger became so infuriated with us being in America that he began shouting the word terrorist, trying to involve other people. My mother drove away before anything escalated further. I remember being so shocked about the incident that I didn’t want to be labelled as a muslim anymore. Today, I am much different. I realize the questions I had before are slowly being answered. If I am called a terrorist because of my religion, it is due to the fact that the word terrorist needed a more solid classification of people. People began to profile muslims as terrorists to combat terrorism. I know now that people were just attempting to stop this problem from ever occurring again. I have become proud of the muslims in America being able to carry this ball and chain around with them wherever they go. I realize that being a muslim is part of my identity and I will cherish that
Lux
College Writing
Jan-11-2017
To be More Than a Label Every year my birthday falls three days before the worst terrorist attack ever witnessed. I was born in Hyderabad, India on September 8th, 2000, a year before 9/11 occurred. When I was about nine months old, my family decided to move to America. Being a muslim family a year before 9/11 meant you were just like everyone else, but everything changed after my first birthday. Three days after I turned a year old, there was an initial shock as to why everyone was in such low spirits after having just given me cake and presents. My family began to be very cautious as to whom they would talk to. One of my earliest memories was watching the news channel blare, “World Trade Center collapses under terrorist attack”, and when the word “muslim” and “Islam” began popping up on the news a …show more content…
When we were driving on the road, a cyclist riding nearby saw my mother wearing a hijab and began to ridicule us. The stranger became so infuriated with us being in America that he began shouting the word terrorist, trying to involve other people. My mother drove away before anything escalated further. I remember being so shocked about the incident that I didn’t want to be labelled as a muslim anymore. Today, I am much different. I realize the questions I had before are slowly being answered. If I am called a terrorist because of my religion, it is due to the fact that the word terrorist needed a more solid classification of people. People began to profile muslims as terrorists to combat terrorism. I know now that people were just attempting to stop this problem from ever occurring again. I have become proud of the muslims in America being able to carry this ball and chain around with them wherever they go. I realize that being a muslim is part of my identity and I will cherish that