Growing up Muslim in an age of Islamophobia
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States has had at best an uneasy relationship with Islam. As this year’s midterm elections approach, that relationship is again taking center stage, with politicians like Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharon Angle asserting that Sharia law has taken over in some parts of the United States, New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino running ads saying that the planned Islamic community center in New York is “a monument to those who attacked our country“, and ex-Alaskan governor Sarah Palin tweeting that the mosque is an “unnecessary provocation.”
But passions over Islam in America became truly inflamed when Terry Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center threatened to burn copies of the Koran to commemorate the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Pop and Politics crew arrived in Gainesville, Florida on September 10th, a day before the the planned burning. In the midst of the worldwide media maelstrom, we met the Qamar family, moderate Muslims trying to convince their fellow Americans that being Muslim does not equal being a terrorist.
