hi, please help me out! i am writing a kids book for english about a young Muslim girl to help raise awareness about islamophobia and educate people on islam. problem is, im a white anglican. i spent a few years in a muslim country and have a basic understanding of islam, however i do not really now the prejudices they face. if you could leave some examples of what people may say or do because u are muslim, that would greatly help! thank you so much!
btw she is around 14, and wears a hijab
I'm pretty white, but I've got a few links to sources for helping me write minorities!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/424042121159752979/ Here's one link
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/764697211702627135/ Another!
I am muslim! I feel like to explain our religion, and being in america is going to take a lot of talking haha
I hate it when people make terrorist jokes at school and they say words like "Allahu-akbar" in a joking manner. It pisses me off. "Allahu-akbar" means god is great, and we say it in our prayers to praise and worship and love god. It's horrible that some of our very beautiful words are associated with terrorism…sorry I'm ranting haha…Also people act like Islam is super different, but it's super similar to the basic ideals of christianity except for Jesus being the son of god. We have the same prophets and worship the same god essentially. If you want me to keep going let me know…I sound super salty, but I promise i'm really not haha
no, this is actually exactly what my project is on, thank you so much!
Bookmarking this chat in case I want to write an Islamic character, is that okay?
hmm what else… I know a lot of girls who don't wear the hijab who are muslim try to stay under the radar because they're so afraid of prejudice or backlash. But, i'm pretty overt about it because i'm waaayy too prideful haha. However, I understand where those girls or even dudes are coming from, it could be that they don't feel safe in there area or want to blend in to society better. I also remember one of my hijab friends (we call people who wear hijabs Hijabi(s)) had her hijab pulled off once, which is seriously disrespectful and a violation of privacy. Btw, hijab is a choice, or should be. I personally don't wear it, but I hold those who do in such high regard for being so dedicated to modesty and the religion. Some people are forced into the hijab such as in Saudi arabia or parents being parents. Others are like "Heck yeah let's do this!"
Another key point is Ramadan, which is a month of fasting. This is super important! We actually finished this month about a week ago haha. But you have to wake up in the morning an hourish before sunrise, eat breakfast, complete prayer. Then you don't eat or drink water until sunset. During the summer time this can get up 16-18 hours long. Anyway, a lot of people are pretty weird about it. Also very inconsiderate lolll. I mean I can't blame them because it's not something they're used to. However, this is a very fun an challenging month. I feel very accomplished after. It's also fun if you know other muslims, because you feel a sort of kinship.
On the brighter side, Islam allows us a unique perspective on life. It's sort of a moral code, and a way of life. A lot of my friends find it interesting because they are christian or athiest/agnostic, and are intrigued by different cultures and lifestyles. It makes me feel insightful and unique, and sharing information to uplift the religion is neat. A lot of people are actually really supportive or don't care what you are, it's really a small group of people that are oppresive, and some are just not educated on the religion.
To wrap this up, people should be free to practice whatever they want as long as they're not hurting other people. Islam gets a bad wrap sometimes because terrorist use it to justify their actions, but if you consider history, the native americans were wiped out or forced to assimilate into anglo american settlement. This was justified through christianity. It sucks how religion can be twisted to fit the desires of not so great people. Once again, I'm sorry for the super long rant post… I'm just so excited to see your story, and I want to be sure you get as much info as possible. It's going to be great!
If you need me to look over anything to make sure it's correct, I most definitely can haha
@Sparky_The_Genderqueer_Snek of course all good!!
thank you so much to everyone who helped out! i really wanted to properly represent my muslim character, and altho i knew a decent amount about it, having lived in dubai and studied it for years, it was really awesome to see the other side of it. thank you to everyone who helped out!
