Boston Bombings: Muslim Americans Fear Reprisals

As the investigation into who was behind the Boston bombings goes on, Muslim communities are braced for a backlash should the perpetrator share their faith.

The day after the Boston Marathon Bombings, Yusef was treated differently.

The 10-year-old went to his Ohio-area school and was surprised by a question from a classmate, according to his family. While the class was discussing the explosions, the classmate is said to have asked: “Does that mean Yusef is going to blow up the school?”

A confused Yusef, whose family asked that his last name not be used, says he repeated the classmate’s question. But the teacher apparently only heard Yusef’s end of the exchange, a misunderstanding that resulted in detention and having his locker searched.

This story is exactly what Anum Hussain feared when she first heard of the bombings. Hussain is a regional director with the Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament and teaches Muslim youth about bullying.

Having grown up in the aftermath of 9/11, Hussain worries that this generation of Muslims could be bullied because of the blasts – especially if the person responsible is a Muslim.

“The sad truth is that regardless of the facts, people are already getting unfairly stereotyped,” says Hussain.

“We’re all on the edge of our seats praying that the person who did these acts isn’t a Muslim. We’re tired of being blamed for the actions of one person.”

It’s a sentiment shared by many, especially among Arab, African, Asian and Sikh Americans. As the FBI investigation inches closer to finding a suspect, these communities fear a new wave of ethnically charged violence and harassment.

Some Muslims see progress in the way they are treated, and are heartened by the official response to the Boston attacks, which has used language with care and deliberation.

“It starts with the leadership of the country, if they are being able to do this slowly, it will trickle down to the people,” one woman at a meeting of the Islamic Society of Northeastern University told the BBC.

“Even news and online articles are starting to tone down a little from a few years ago. People are starting to understand that not all Muslims are bad.”

But others are concerned that the good work of the past few years could be quickly undone if the bomber is Muslim.

“Despite some of the headway and normalcy achieved since 9/11, it could be extinguished in an instant if the perpetrator fits the caricature of a terrorist,” says Khaled Beydoun, a critical race studies fellow at UCLA School of Law.

When Beydoun heard about the Boston attacks, he was worried about a friend who was running in the marathon. But a familiar fear crept into his mind as he thought about who was responsible for the attacks.

From crises such as the Newtown shootings to the blasts in Boston, Beydoun has always worried about the national reaction if the perpetrator is a Muslim or “looks” Muslim.

“It’s part of this collective consciousness that Muslims and Arab-Americans experience in any time of crisis,” says Beydoun.

He thinks that white suspects are treated differently to suspects from minority groups.

“With a white American versus an Arab or Muslim American, we know from previous incidences that a white terrorist will be framed as an individual aberration,” he says.

“Whereas a culprit who is an Arab, Muslim or black American will vilify an entire community of people.”