By: Sahra Sasa, age 12
I’m a first-generation Muslim American with immigrant parents: My dad was born in Damascus, Syria, and my mom was born in Milan, Italy. Growing up with immigrant parents is hard enough, since you practice a different religion and have different values than everyone around you.
My dad immigrated when he was 9 years old. He hasn’t been able to visit Syria and see his family that still lives there, because of the war, and we were scared that if we went, he would be forced into the Syrian military. My mom and her family lived in Italy and in the United States but settled down fully in the States when she was 13.
When I interviewed my mom, she said, “The American teen culture is very different from the Italian teen culture.” She said that there were more bullies here. Something else my mom mentioned was that in Italy people of all ages would hang out together, but in America sometimes it’s seen as “embarrassing” to hang out with someone younger than you, like a younger sibling.
When my mom was in college, she converted to Islam and decided to wear a headscarf, and not long after that, 9/11 happened. My mom was interviewed for the Providence Journal and was featured on the front page. She said, “Not one day went by that I wasn’t verbally attacked by at least one person.” After 9/11, the Muslim community in her area decided to have a campaign educating people about Islam. “I spoke at universities all across New England and schools elementary and middle, and just like different events would invite me to be on panels,” she said.
I asked my mom if she saw any similarities from back then to today. She said she noticed statistically that hate crimes have been increasing these past few years. USAFacts reported hate crimes have risen by 108% in the last nine years, from a low of 5,597 to a high of 11,643. Ignorance and stereotypes lead to misinformation. You should never judge someone based on their background, as my mom said. “People just prefer to just hate someone rather than know their story.”
