In most colleges across the country, the student body is comprised of individuals who were children when the 9/11 attacks occurred. And some of them are Muslim, following the Islamic faith.
But in the wake of these attacks, a growing national sentiment of Islamophobia made middle and high school a painful struggle for some Muslim students. Now they're adults. And some are actively working to create bridges of understanding with non-Muslims.
Now some Muslim students here in the Triad are describing to WFDD's Kathryn Mobley their life, post 9/11.
19-year-old Muhammad Fraz Siddiqui is a Muslim American with Pakistani heritage. In 2008, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York reported just under 1 million, 350 thousand self-identified Muslim Americans in the United States. Muhammad's been in this country since he was five. Now he's a sophomore at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, majoring in Religion, with a minor in Chemistry.
It's Friday, and he's leading about a dozen Wake Forest undergraduate and graduate students in the evening Islamic prayer. He describes his faith as a peaceful religion that Muslim and American radicals distort to invoke social fear and gain political power. When he was nine, Muslim terrorists hijacked 2 commercial planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center Twin Towers. Muhammad's father escaped the destruction and made it home late that night. Muhammad believes the best way to counter radical Muslims is to better educate the youth, many of whom are poor.
But not every young Muslim wants to be questioned. Khadijah Cook is African American. Her mother converted to Islam before Khadijah was born. Her two older brothers joined the faith, and when she was 11, Khadijah also chose to follow Islam, the only religion she'd known. But she says post 9/11 in her Philadelphia high school, students made her uncomfortable as she practiced Islam. Now at the age of 17, the sophomore is an English major at Bennett College in Greensboro. She's recommitted herself to Islam, she wraps her hair and wears long sleeved-loose fitting shirts and loose pants. She says its still a struggle to find a balance between being a Muslim on a non-Muslim campus. But lately, Khadijah has become more optimistic about being accepted.
24-year-old Stephanie Yep grew up Catholic, then Protestant just outside of Chicago. She's Caucasian and the youngest of four. According to Stephanie, she's always been strong in her faith and was a Christian youth leader throughout high school. But a series of religion classes at Illinois College, pointed out contradictions in the book of Genesis, causing her to question a life-time of belief. Now she's in her second year of a Master's program in Religion at Wake Forest University. Since 2006, she's been intensely studying Islam and this past February, she converted. Stephanie says her parents were very upset but have since become very supportive. She says according to Islamic teaching, she's to respect her family and spend time with them to support them during her time of transition.
