美国穆斯林青年多重身份的挣扎

AS IT IS 2016-07-04 Young US Muslims Want to Be Judged as Individual 美国穆斯林青年多重身份的挣扎s

 

Young Muslims in the United States are concerned about anti-Muslim feelings and calls to bar other Muslims from entering the country.

Several young Muslims spoke¹ to a group of people during a recent visit to Washington D.C.

They said it is unfair to connect Muslims to terrorism.

Oya Rose Aktas is a student at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She said that is putting “labels on people” and thinks “that is the driving force behind their actions.”

Aktas was a member of a VOA panel of four young Muslim Americans. They expressed their opinions about religion, anti-Muslim opinions and terrorism.

One of their concerns: the media’s repeated reporting of Islam as the religion of Omar Mateen. Florida police say Mateen killed 49 people last month at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

The panelists said most criminals are not identified by their religion.

One person who watched the discussion on Facebook said: “Muslims are not terrorists, (terrorists) are terrorists.”

Another panelist, Othman Altalib, was born in Iraq. He said U.S. Muslims are responsible for less crime than other groups. Those who become extremists, he said, spend most of their time alone looking at computers.

“So I definitely think the message for us should be, let’s get our youth now, bring them to the mosques³, bring them to Muslim events and organizations and let them interact with other people.”

About 3.3 million Muslims live in the United States. That is about 1 percent of the total U.S. population. But the number is expected to double in the next 30 to 40 years.

The Young Muslims on the VOA panel said Muslims do not all think the same, or share the same beliefs.

Oya Rose Aktas had this to say.

“Oftentimes people try to split it (the Muslim community) into moderate Muslims and conservative Muslims, but there is a lot of diversity past that.”

Mohamed Hussein is a member of the Somali American Youth Foundation in Virginia. He says some young people have more than one identity that defines them.

“It definitely is a struggle, not only being a Muslim American, being Somali, being black, being young, there’s a lot of identities that you have to reconcile,” he said.

Hussein said he was lucky to be the son of immigrants to the United States. His parents, he said, had to “learn to change” from being part of a Muslim majority “to being a minority.”

The panelists also spoke about the call by Donald Trump⁴ to bar Muslims from entering the United States.

Trump is the likely presidential candidate of the Republican Party. He made the comment after a man and his wife shot and killed 14 people at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California. Federal investigators⁵ said the couple was under the influence of Islamic State militants⁶.

Since then, Trump has amended⁷ his proposal. He now says the United States should ban people coming from countries with a terrorism problem.

Still, Altalib said: “It’s hard for me to believe that any sound-minded Muslim would vote for someone trying to put bans on them.”

But Hussein said voting should be a personal decision. “It is a disservice to Muslims to say vote one way or another way. Teach them to think for themselves,” he said.

Words in This Story

panel – n. a group of people who take part in a discussion

label – n. a word or phrase that describes or identifies something or someone

gay nightclub -- n. a place that offers entertainment and drinks and serves lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people

diversity – n. the quality or state of having many different forms, types, ideas

definitely – adv. without doubt

reconcile – v. to cause people or groups to become friendly again after an argument or disagreement

mosque² – n. an Islamic religious center

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。

3 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

7 Amended   

adj. 修正的 动词amend的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He asked to see the amended version. 他要求看修订本。
• He amended his speech by making some additions and deletions. 他对讲稿作了些增删修改。