For Muslims In The US, Recognition Does Not Guarantee Safety {barf alert}

Muslim Matters ^ | April 16,2026 | Johanna Elattar

[Cronos]

When I saw the image, I stopped scrolling. A mosque with an American flag in front of it. The words across the bottom: Ramadan has officially been recognized in Washington. And then the comments: Alhamdulillah. Historic moment. Muslim Americans are valued, respected, and part of the fabric of this nation.

I read it twice. And I felt something I wasn’t expecting—not joy, not gratitude. Something heavier. Something that has been building for a long time. I understand the impulse to find something to hold onto when you have been made to feel invisible for so long. I understand what it means to want proof that you exist in the eyes of a country that has spent years making clear it would prefer you didn’t.

But I struggle with the idea that Washington State’s proclamation is proof that we are valued and respected in this country. We have never fully been given that. Not without condition. We have been here, worked here, built here, and raised our children here. We have fasted every Ramadan and celebrated every Eid without waiting for anyone’s permission or recognition.

I know what the asking for proof of belonging looks like up close. A supervisor once found out I was Muslim; he looked at me and said, “You’re one of the good ones”. He said it casually, as if it were a compliment. What it meant was that the rest—my community, my family—were not. That contempt for Muslims was his baseline, and I was the exception he was willing to tolerate.

In 2017, I came across a Facebook discussion in which a man stated plainly that all Muslims should be expelled from the United States—even those who are citizens. For the ones he deemed acceptable, they would be given a year to sell their homes; for the rest, he suggested death or immediate banishment. No whispers. No shame. No consequences. When I challenged him, he told me that I, too, should get my affairs in order and leave.

A Climate of Manufactured Enmity

We are told that Islam hates America, yet Muslims died in those towers on September 11th and were among the first responders. And then a President manufactured and circulated videos of Muslims celebrating that day—videos that were debunked and designed to rewrite the truth—to tell the country that we were the enemy.

That climate produces real-world consequences. A man who believed those lies walked up to my seventy-year-old mother on a street in December 2016. She had to run into a store where strangers helped her and called the police. This is the environment in which Washington State has chosen to recognize Ramadan—not an environment of genuine inclusion. It is an environment where rhetoric from top officials has portrayed Muslims as criminals, fueling racial profiling and hate crimes. The Human Cost of Asymmetry

I know what this climate produces beyond the rhetoric. In June 2025, a 55-year-old mother of five was beaten on the E train in Queens after she confirmed she was Muslim. In October 2023, six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume was stabbed twenty-six times by his landlord in Illinois. Wadea was American. He was born here.

On social media, I recently saw an ad raising money for Muslim orphans. In the comments, people posted images of the Twin Towers and called us terrorists. I responded to one, noting that it is remarkable they feel free to dehumanize us this way—but if I were to do the same, heaven and earth would move to stop me. That asymmetry is not a coincidence. It is a climate. Faith Without Validation

A signature cannot close the distance between symbol and safety. It does not protect a mother on the street, and it does not bring back a six-year-old boy. Freedom of religion is not a gift the United States government gives to Muslims; it is the First Amendment and the foundational promise of this country.

Muslims have been on this land since before its founding, kept alive in secret by enslaved Africans who fasted and prayed with no recognition from anyone1. They did not need a proclamation then. We do not need one now.

What we need is to be treated as full human beings. We were never waiting for their permission to fast, and we were never waiting for their recognition to know our worth. We will continue to celebrate—with or without their proclamations. Our hope is part and parcel of imaan, and it has survived every generation that tried to break it.

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[Cronos]

know your enemy - it is within the gates

[Texas Eagle]

wah.

[escapefromboston]

I don’t want Muslims in America , that doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

[albie]

Whatever…I’d like every one of you to get the F out of the US!!

[newfreep]

MCGA = Make Crusades Great Again...and retake what the satanic muzzoids stole

[jmaroneps37]

And ..?

[PGalt]

Singleness of purpose Islam is well on the way to conquering America. City by city. It’s being done. It’s encouraging to MoFos (Mohammed Followers). It’s a forever war in their mentally ill minds.

[PGalt]

Thanks for the history lesson.

[Texas Eagle]

Is somebody forcing them to be here. There are plenty of muslim only countries in the world if they feel uncomfortable here. Are there any Christian only countries in the world? The Vatican doesn’t count.

[Iron Munro]

Obversely, for US citizens more muslims in the US also means more terror, more crime, more attacks on our culture, more attacks on Christains and Jews and less safety in our own homes and communities.

[Iron Munro]

And all those muslims viciously attacking Jews in New York City and hundreds of muslim men intentionally blocking city streets with their kneeling and praying is just a figment of our imagination.....

[Twotone]

I could wish they actually felt some fear & it made them go home. They obviously feel quite at ease threatening the rest of us.

[Da Coyote]

Hey Muzzies, we got yer safety right here, Mofos.

Total war with Islam...not if.

[high info voter]

WELL DUH!!! Do you understand we're in spiritual warfare???

HISTORY - 1400 years / over 700 MILLION innocent people murdered by Muslims!

“Muslims” A mass of people who carry a "holy" book that says to murder all Jews and Christians who won't bow to their prophet.
And now we're flooding them into our country and even putting them into our government.

Can American voters be more stupid or are we trying to destroy ourselves, our kids and grand-kids AND our future???

[BradyLS]

Sure. If only America were the happy, prosperous, free, welcoming place you left, right?