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I used to think my parents were paranoid when they said don’t say anything in a mosque or over the phone. Welp. 

Edit: I feel I should go into depth with this.  I’m born and raised Muslim and I’ve lived half of my life in a Muslim majority monarchy. When we moved to the United States 11  years ago (wow), we knew that there was some resentment towards the Muslim population. Now, after 9/11, I hear my parents say stuff like I said before, don’t say certain things over the phone because you never know who is listening to you. I need to clarify some stuff about my parents, particularly my mother who lived through several wars in India. So, I always figured that she always had that lingering paranoia about everything. 

So, whenever they’d say stuff about that, I used to think naww, not here, it’s America. Slowly, with the whole fiasco with “Ground Zero Mosque” that was actually a community center or the fact that people kept claiming that President Obama was Muslim or even the rise of shirah law in the United States, I’m starting to finally understand what they’re saying. 

It’s a little frightening. 

farhaaan:

Muslims To NYPD: ‘Respect Us, We Will Respect You’

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of Muslims prayed in a lower Manhattan park and marched to New York Police headquarters Friday to protest a decade of police infiltrating mosques and spying on Muslim neighborhoods.

Bundled in winter clothes, men and women knelt as the call to prayer echoed off the cold stone of government buildings.

“Being Muslim does not negate our nationality,” Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid told the crowd of about 500 gathered in Foley Square, not far from City Hall and local courthouses. “We are unapologetically Muslim and uncompromisingly American.”

The demonstration was smaller and more subdued than the Occupy Wall Street protests that led to clashes with police and made headlines worldwide. Police wore windbreakers, not riot gear, and protesters called for improved relations with police.

“We want for you to respect us,” Abdur-Rashid said, “and we will respect you.”

It was the first organized opposition to the NYPD’s intelligence tactics since an Associated Press investigation revealed widespread spying programs that documented every aspect of Muslim life in New York. Police infiltrated mosques and student groups. Plainclothes officers catalogued Middle Eastern restaurants and their clientele. Analysts built databases on Arab cab drivers and monitored Muslims who changed their names.

(via howlingdark)

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