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JLeslie's avatar

If you were (or are) a Muslim in America would you be thinking about leaving?

Asked by JLeslie (65743points) December 6th, 2015 from iPhone

Leaving out of fear the country is becoming anti-Muslim. Or, at minimum not go into Mosques, not show any outward indications of being Muslim, and not tell people so fast that you are Muslim.

Many many Jewish people I know don’t advertise they are Jewish. They don’t put mezuzahs on their front door, but would if they felt completely safe. I would. Not because I am religious, but because I am Jewish. My FIL gave us money for one when we got married and I never bought one. I guess I could have one on an inside door? At the time, since I’m not religious, I felt like it just wasn’t me to have a religious symbol, but now I like the idea only because I care more about the tradition and my Jewish identity. Many Jews also feel vulnerable in a synagogue.

Many Jewish people who came to America 70+ years ago did their best to blend in and “be American.” Some even changed their last name to try to conceal their Jewish identity, or at minimum for their names to sound more familiar.

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7 Answers

kritiper's avatar

Hell, no. This is the place to be and far better than anywhere else. I would keep living life as I need to, living the dream here in the good ol’ USA! I think the country is becoming more accepting of Muslims, although there are still those here who don’t want to be accepting of Muslims (or anything/anyone else, really).

SQUEEKY2's avatar

And if I was born there and lived there my whole life, where should I go just because I am muslim type thing??
Is America becoming that ignorant that they are blaming all muslims for a few idiots?
As a Canadian I see all them good ole red neck shoot em up for us citizens are you all that way?

JLeslie's avatar

@SQUEEKY2 I think you are missing the point of the question. The German Jews were born in Germany, same with the Polish Jews. The Danish Jews, thank goodness, most of them left the country at least temporarily with the help of the government, Sweden, and local citizens. I’m not saying America is turning into Nazi Germany, it’s just a question of how uneasy Muslims might be feeling.

I’m not suggesting they should leave, I have no problem with Muslims in my country. My experience is different than @kritiper in that growing up 30ish 40ish years ago no one I knew cared if one of our friends was Muslim. We didn’t care what religion anyone was.

kritiper's avatar

@SQUEEKY2 It’s not that all of America is (always was, not just “becoming”) ignorant and intolerant, but in this part of western rural Republican America, we seem to have lots of major (obvious) and minor (not so obvious by varying degrees)“skin-heads” and other types of small-minded Chicken Littles, who like to categorize all sorts of different people into some sort of seemingly dangerous genre. Jews, Blacks, Muslims, Catholics, democrats, tree huggers, ...

elbanditoroso's avatar

I can’t speak for Muslims, of course.

But to answer your second paragraph – I’m Jewish, have mezuzahs on both front and back doors. Living in suburban Atlanta, where I’m surrounded by Baptists and other groups. I put them up the day I moved in and have never had a moment’s fear or regret about doing so.

Frankly, most people don’t even notice a Mezuzah.

I think to some degree, fear is self-propelled. If your Jewish friends want to be fearful for some reason or another, then they choose to do things that reflect that fear. I don’t choose to live that way.

flutherother's avatar

I don’t think so. Where would I go?

JLeslie's avatar

@elbanditoroso I agree some of it is self propelled. That’s kind of the Q at it’s core. Are Muslims beginning to feel less safe, or less able to practice their religion? It doesn’t matter how real the danger is or isn’t.

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