Honesty Isn’t Islamophobia: An Arab American’s Brutal Truth About Faith and Family

I am Arab from a very strict Muslim family, and I have been living in the US for longer than I have lived in my home country. I realized over a decade ago that I was just agnostic and I’m over the idea of religion in general. I just want to vent about some points I have dealt with in the community I was raised in.

A lot of Muslims are not respectful of the culture they live around if it is different from theirs. They refuse to integrate into the western society for the most part. My family has been in the US since the 70s and their social circles are still extremely homogeneous. A lot of my relatives don’t even speak English.

Read nextगोंयच्या नव्या पिक्चेंचें धार्मिक संभाषण: रेडिटवयल्या वादांचो आडबोळ

A lot of Muslims complain about the values of the American culture, like sex before marriage, drinking, and more independent living. But most Arabs in the US are here because their people won’t stop killing each other. I know that’s the reason why I’m in the US.

My family always talk about the prejudice and discrimination in the US, and they complain about the Islamophobia they have been facing. But they still call African Americans “abeed” in Arabic which literally means “slaves,” and YES they are completely okay with the death of anyone that is gay.

Again, I am not generalizing or hating but this is a very very big pattern in almost everyone in my community.

One commenter said that the more strictly one follows religious teachings, the more racist, sexist, and xenophobic they tend to be. Another argued that this is a pattern in almost every community that emigrates into an area where they are outsiders. It is the tribal instinct to find familiar things. Western right wing media amps this up 1000x and creates waves of underlying racism more apparent.

In the United States in particular, this has been going on for hundreds of years for almost every cultural group—immigrants tend to stick together in community, they follow the ways of the “old country,” speak the language with each other, eat the cuisine, clash with the “natives.” They are ostracized before they integrate and then join in clashing with some new immigrant group. Muslims aren’t special in that respect.

The show's hosts dig into this story on the podcast.