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For Muslims In The US, Recognition Does Not Guarantee Safety {barf alert}
Muslim Matters ^ | April 16,2026 | Johanna Elattar

Posted on 05/13/2026 4:24:28 AM PDT by 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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know your enemy - it is within the gates
1 posted on 05/13/2026 4:24:28 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

wah.


2 posted on 05/13/2026 4:26:09 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all. )
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To: All

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


3 posted on 05/13/2026 4:37:12 AM PDT by escapefromboston (Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.)
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To: Cronos

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


4 posted on 05/13/2026 4:43:04 AM PDT by albie
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To: Cronos
MCGA = Make Crusades Great Again...and retake what the satanic muzzoids stole


5 posted on 05/13/2026 4:43:52 AM PDT by newfreep ("There is no race problem...just a problem race")
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To: Cronos

And ..?


6 posted on 05/13/2026 4:46:30 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 (Freedom is never free. It must be won rewon and jealously guarded.)
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To: Cronos

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.


7 posted on 05/13/2026 4:52:43 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization? )
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To: newfreep

Thanks for the history lesson.


8 posted on 05/13/2026 4:53:38 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization? )
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To: Cronos

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.


9 posted on 05/13/2026 4:54:49 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all. )
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To: Cronos

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.


10 posted on 05/13/2026 5:04:21 AM PDT by Iron Munro (David Horowitz — "Inside Every Progressive Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out" )
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To: Cronos

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.....


11 posted on 05/13/2026 5:10:46 AM PDT by Iron Munro (David Horowitz — "Inside Every Progressive Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out" )
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To: Cronos

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


12 posted on 05/13/2026 5:11:02 AM PDT by Twotone (Sometimes I wrestle with my demons. Sometimes we just snuggle.)
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To: Cronos

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

Total war with Islam...not if.


13 posted on 05/13/2026 5:11:03 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: Cronos
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???

14 posted on 05/13/2026 5:13:59 AM PDT by high info voter (Delivery )
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To: Cronos

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


15 posted on 05/13/2026 5:21:43 AM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: Cronos

HORROR IN NYC:
Masked Muslims Assault Jewish Children Outside Synagogue in NYC, Terrorize Jewish Neighborhoods

By Pamela Geller - May 12, 2026

https://gellerreport.com/2026/05/horror-in-nyc-masked-muslims-assault-jewish-children-outside-synagogue-in-nyc-terrorize-jewish-neighborhoods.html/?lctg=12728334


16 posted on 05/13/2026 5:41:58 AM PDT by Iron Munro (David Horowitz — "Inside Every Progressive Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out" )
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To: Cronos

“Muslim Americans are valued, respected, and part of the fabric of this nation.”

Grade “A” Bullshit. The only thing Muslims really care about is contributing to the effort to create a worldwide Caliphate under Sharia Law.


17 posted on 05/13/2026 5:44:48 AM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: Texas Eagle
Is somebody forcing them to be here. There are plenty of muslim only countries in the world if they feel uncomfortable here.

In a way, yes. They are compelled by their belief system to conquer and bring non-muslims to submission. It's the long game. They are guaranteed riches and sexual pleasures over the people (women, men, and children - it's not considered homosexuality if the man you are buggering is non-muslim and you are humiliating him) they subjugate while alive and houris and riches in paradise if they die in jihad.

18 posted on 05/13/2026 5:48:49 AM PDT by IYAS9YAS (There are two kinds of people: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.)
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To: Cronos

Correct. No matter if we recognize them...they can always be a terrorist waiting to kill americans.


19 posted on 05/13/2026 5:53:12 AM PDT by for-q-clinton (RL)
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To: Cronos
This is the author. Sounds about right.

Johanna Elattar is an Arab-European journalist and writer based in New York. Her work spans investigative reporting, personal essays, and cultural commentary, with a focus on amplifying underrepresented voices. An award-winning contributor, her investigative reporting on missing and murdered Indigenous women has been recognized by Oxford University Press in the forthcoming 4th edition of Race & Racisms. She has been published in outlets including Yellow Arrow, Unheard Voice Magazine, and Muslim Matters, where she explores the intersections of identity, social justice, and the experiences of Muslim women in America.

20 posted on 05/13/2026 5:59:39 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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