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What About the Children?
Time can be the teacher of harsh lessons. By the time children reach puberty, there's a part of them that may be already dead, and hard to bring to life again. Some call it innocence. It happens to children in a subtle way: they become passive spectators of television and other forms of media, like the internet. These mediums become powerful education tools, as well as entertainment. It is important for parents to protect their children from the paranoia against Islam that are often transmitted through them . Children need clear guidelines to help them filter the distorted images that are filling the information highways. In regard to the young, it has been said that "they are like molten cement. Anything that falls on them makes a lasting impression."
Muslim students in America are becoming extremely hesitant to present their religious self in any way to their classmates or teachers. As inhabitants in both worlds, young Muslims are struggling to achieve an ideal cultural self that will be productive to the values of both traditions during a period in which many Americans are expressing a lot of opposition to Islam. Synthesizing the core of two identities is not an easy task when one of these identities has become such a contentious topic.
A young and inexperienced mind can become crushed from the weight of difficulties raised by such dualism. Islam's attitude towards democratic ideals had been clarified many times by community elders but America continues to be inundated with slanderous distortions.
Self-determination is an inheritable right of all America’s citizens, including Muslims. Most have lived in predominantly Christian communities since birth. They, too, deserve to see themselves reflected positively in as many ways as possible. Sadly, Islamophobia may be destroying whatever social bufferers against negative messages offered by the larger society today.
Muslim parents often hear from their young children about the embarrassment they have felt in school when the subject of 9/11 comes up in the classroom, ironically one of the few times that the subject of Muslims and Islam is included in the school curriculum. Embarrassed by the portrayal of their group as terrorist, they fidget in their chairs as they feel the eyes of non-Muslims looking to see their reaction to the sordid details.
Such comments may unintentionally set the foundation for self-rejection. It is important to consider the kinds of thoughts children are acquiring about the relative worth of being Muslim. If islamophobia is harmful adults, what kind of an affect is it having on Muslim children? Not only do children need to be able to recognize distorted representations, they also need to know what can be done about them. Learning to recognize cultural and institutional racism and other forms of inequity without also learning strategies to respond to them is a prescription for despair. Unfortunately, few adults feel empowered to stand against the demeaning or derogatory depictions of Muslims and Islam. How is a child suppose to respond to being the target of prejudice or discrimination?
This nation’s people should do what they can to encourage positive development rather than interfere with it. Parents, along with the community, are obliged to provide the Muslim adolescents with identity-affirming experiences and a space to practice and take pride in their own cultural groups. Youth sometimes struggle emotionally due to feelings of marginalization and rejection. But when one is able to freely explore his own spiritual connections, he is more likely to internalize a strong sense of personal security. He is much more likely to be willing to establish significant associations across group boundaries with others who are tolerant of his self-definition.
The last decade has shown that this country has a limited understanding of the different cultures, and it has not, by any means, integrated well enough to understand and respect the differences that lie in between. This means we all have a responsibility to address such ideological bigotry, whether we are the recipient or a bystander. If we simply allow behavior grounded in injustice to be made, we convey that we tacitly approve the behavior. The task for parents is to support their children’s developing a positive sense of where they come from and who they are. These skills included recognizing insensitive jokes and developing constructive, practical solutions for confronting racist behavior directed toward Muslim adolescents.
Life, liberty and happiness are the rights of all America's children. Isn't it time we all worked towards making this possible?
