: For Muslim Students, School After 9/11 Will Never Be The Same

One year ago, Muslim students heading for college had a whole different set of challeges ahead of them – dealing with the pressures of dating and drinking, finding places on campus to perform daily prayers, eating Halal food, and struggling to wear the hijab on campus without harassment. Those things, however, must seem like easy challenges when compared to the post 9/11 spotlight that awaits Muslim college students as universities begin another school year. As embattled Muslim student groups mobilized in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, they received everything from protection offers from non-Muslim colleagues to accusations of support for terrorism. From that point forward, any campus events that involved Muslims – for example, the closing of a mosque on the Shaw University campus – took on new political overtones. Last school year closed with a furor around Harvard graduate Zayed Yasin’s “My American Jihad” commencement speech. The new school year hasn’t even begun yet, and an uproar at UNC regarding the assigning of a book on the Qur’an (despite protests and a lawsuit, a judge OK’d the assignment), unfortunately sets the tone for a hostile rentry into the new school year.

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.