I was in my senior year of my Under-Grad when I first faced open discrimination for being Muslim. I was running for president for an in-class assimilation and I lost, to the person who had no experience and happened to not be Muslim.
The process was identical to how our last election process went. We had 3 debates like the normal election; the 1st debate was a standard debate, the second, town hall style, and the third was just like the first.
At this time, I was not wearing scarf to show I was visibly Muslim but people knew of my faith. I was not ashamed of my faith or hiding my faith. I did not feel I had a reason to be ashamed. That is because, before this incident, to my knowledge, I thought my college was full of open minded people.
People in my class told the other students that they would not vote for me as president of the class because I was Muslim.They stated;
They would never vote for a Muslim in a real election, so why would they vote for me in this class?
I was more qualified and had more experience than the other person running against me. I have interned for a state assemblyman and been a president of several college and non-college organizations.
This class made me lose hope that a Muslim will ever be able to be the president of the United States.
However, out of me and the other person I was running against, I was far more qualified. In this class, I had one of the highest grades ( An A) and my professor had even written me a very nice letter of recommendation, after the semester.
Does my competitor having no experience sound familiar to this last election? After the last election, we have seen you do not need any political expertise or experience to be the President of the United States. I am probably more qualified to be president, than our current president-elect.
I lost hope, until I heard Keith Ellison, an elected Muslim congressman was running for the DNC chair. I never thought it would be possible for a Muslim to be the president of the United States of America. Now I do.
I never told my professor of the discrimination that happened towards me, I probably should have. Now I am at that point in my life, I would have spoke up. I am not apologetically Muslim.
The Above Picture is Not of Me. Click on picture above for original Location!