You might be polite about hiding the pain of it but I won’t, I can’t. I’m tired, I’m lost, I call out to Allah in this global isolation. Being a Muslim in a post 9/11 era has killed me on the inside, Mehreen. I have found myself apologizing again and again for things I would never do, for things my religion has never taught me. I have literally waited for people to call me a terrorist while I walk down the pavement in crowds. Your father has been questioned. I have been questioned. We’re scrutinized. We’re spied on whether we’re in USA or out of the country. It doesn’t matter if you’re Arab or if you’re Asian or if you’re African or if you’re European. You’re just a “Mozlem.” And “Mozlems” are bad. I don’t watch TV anymore. I don’t read the newspaper anymore. It’s either us getting killed for being “suspects” or us retaliating and then everyone starts calling us cavemen, barbaric savages. You know how it feels but you hide it. You’re polite about it. You’ve cried about it. Your father has. Your mother has. How does it feel to be subjected to constant paranoia, distrust, hate, xenophobia? Where do I go? Back home? The home that America wants to engage in war with? Do I stay in America? The place where my identity is no more than that of a “bearded terrorist”? Where do I go? Home is where the heart, right? My heart is crushed, Mehreen. There is no home. There is no peace. I call out to Allah after every prayer and weep in sajda. I ask him, Ya Rab, why us? Why? How long do we suffer? When will these people understand that it’s not you, it’s not me, it’s not him, it’s not her, it’s not Islam, it’s just a few bad people. I see our Muslim youth grow old before time with worry, with hurt, with this alienation. When will it stop.
My friend just emailed me. My heart has broken into a thousand pieces. Every single word of this hits so, so hard in the core.
(via mehreenkasana)
Thanks for all the support, everyone.
(via mehreenkasana)
(via luellaloves)
Gotta say, I’m hoping the President pulls this out in November. These close polls baffle me; but I’m just going to start working with OFA. A friend of mine joined in; it’s easy and you’ll meet some great people.
Who knows: might inspire you to start doing pull-ups, too.
…every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
Thomas Jefferson, in his First Inaugural Address, on March 4, 1801 (via classicpenguin)
What women could afford if the gender gap didn’t exist.
Put another way, a woman over the course of her lifetime could afford two houses, 7 college degrees from a public university, 14 new cars, or $431,360 for retirement.
(via barackobama)
AWW YEAH IT’S SUPER TUESDAY
This post contains ALL the awesome things.
GONNA BUST OUT THE POPCORN
WATCH THE RESULTS COME IN
AND REACT TO THE VARIOUS REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES SPEECHES WITH A MIXTURE OF
AND
If you’re wondering why this donkey looks so outnumbered: here’s everything you need to know about Republican Super PACs and this year’s election.
