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Muslim women who wear coverings such as the hijab face scrutiny, discrimination and attacks around the world, including in the U.S. In March, the French Senate voted in favor of legislation that would ban Muslim girls from wearing hijabs in public if passed. 

How, as Syracuse University students, can we better discuss the issue of Islamophobia on our campus, and why we haven’t already been doing so? Is it because the issue of Islamophobia doesn’t affect all of us personally?

I have seen my own relatives ridiculed due to wearing hijabs and burqas — a long garment often worn by Muslim women that covers the whole body from head to feet — in this country. As a practicing Muslim myself, I also had to go through a fair share of backlash whenever I chose to disclose my religion. We need to do more to unlearn the demonization of Islam everywhere.

We need to start by addressing the issue of Islamophobia immediately. Allowing it to foster on and off our campus can cause chaos, build intolerance and even prompt violence. Shutting down Islamophobia on campus can be as simple as starting conversations on how these racist beliefs are wholly unacceptable and bringing more Muslim guest speakers to SU to reemphasize this.

As the future of our country, SU students are responsible for influencing what’s considered acceptable, and Islamophobia shouldn’t make this list. If we all do not agree to protect women who wear coverings such as the hijab and the burqa, all womens’ rights are negatively affected. Naively allowing racist rhetoric to spread will prevent us from diminishing violence and building peace.

The terrorist attacks that took place in France years ago stirred hatred and discrimination toward Muslims in many parts of the Western world. However, France has gone too far in reinforcing this hatred – the hijab and burkini ban are proof of this. 

Countries such as France claim to want to protect their culture and keep their nationalism alive. However, the intolerance of other cultures contradicts that. They say they want peace and freedom for all, but aren’t bans and intolerance counterproductive?   

The reason we need to address these issues is that they indirectly do affect us. Bans such as those in France are an attack on women’s rights and empowerment everywhere. We need to normalize talking about these issues as the future generation. 

Locally, Syracuse’s Muslim community members deserve to have their voices heard just as much as any other resident of this county. What are we saying to them when we ignore the rights of Muslims in other countries being stripped away? 

We have a lot we can do to take action against Islamophobia — the place to start is to simply talk about it. We need to acknowledge its imminent threat to freedom and security for all Muslim community members. 

Change can’t truly be made if Islamophobic ideologies are not actively denounced. SU and its students can use their platforms more to create events where we discuss these critical topics and work toward the betterment of the community. Although we might be in a country seemingly separate from these issues, Islamophobia is still greatly present here.

As students who have the opportunity to have our voices heard, we can help tackle Islamophobia both on and off campus as well. Doing so is not an option — it’s a necessity. Talking about this issue is always the first step.

Sourov Rayhan is a sophomore English major. Their column appears biweekly. He can be reached at srayhan@syr.edu.

Published on May 3, 2021 at 11:29 pm