Omar Suleiman

and talk about it and speak to the change in the perceptions of Islam that happened here in the United States and around the world.

But a lot of young people are born into that reality and are experiencing the aftermath of it.

And unfortunately have to deal with the bigotry that has not just taken greater shape in media constructions of Islam,

but also policies, right?

A lot of the civil liberties of the Muslim community were taken away from us.

You read about the Patriot Act, you read about the securitization of the Muslim community and some of the unfair practices that have been engaged by the Bush administration, the Obama administration, the Trump administration, and continue into the Biden administration.

International Islamophobia.

And so,

the hatred of Muslims and the bigotry that is wielded against Muslims on the basis of this idea that we are a barbaric people that ascribe to a religion of hate and violence has had immediate consequences for us no matter where we are in terms of our age and in terms of our experience.

We have dealt with that in different ways.

Now,

The association of Islam to terrorism is a lazy association.

It's one that ignores both the history of violence as well as its everyday occurrence.

You know, we're good for how many mass shootings a year?

When's the last time you heard of a Muslim carrying out a mass shooting in America, right?

How many of those mass shootings, if you were to scrub the social media, what, 400, 500 mass shootings a year?

If you were to scrub the social media of some of those that carried out those shootings, you know, we're good for one or two idiots a year, right?

It's unfortunate that you're going to have people that carry out despicable acts of violence

But when we as Muslims hear someone in the media say terrorism has been ruled out as a possibility while the blood is still on the floor of that Walmart, we already know that the police chief just said that that wasn't a Muslim.

Don't worry.