This evening, I attended Leila Fadel’s keynote speech on reporting on the Muslim community in the American media. Leila Fadel is an NPR journalist who reports on stories that pertain to diversity groups in the nation. Many of her stories pertain to Islamic communities in the United States. Fadel was very interesting in her reporting perspective because she was formerly an international correspondent for these diverse community groups and has since come to the United States to write honest stories about the Islamic community groups. It is evident that Fadel is passionate about telling the stories of diverse community groups in the United States. She shares the truth behind the stories that she reports on, which is a truth that many viewers/listeners would not hear without her reporting.
I learned a lot from Fadel sharing some of the stories she has reported. One of the stories that stood out to me was about two sisters that lived in the Bay area and were Muslim. One of the sisters was a 23-year-old teacher. On 9/11, the woman walked into her classroom and it was vandalized with derogatory words like “ISIS” and “terrorist” and other related terms that were very hurtful to the young teacher. She was asked if she wanted to switch schools. She stated, “I am not the problem.” The woman was part of an Islamic community that was praying in a barn because they could not get the community to support their group building a small mosque. The community said they could not build a mosque because of environmental concerns. This young woman’s story demonstrates to me the struggles that those in this community experience. It is easy to overlook the challenges that diverse community groups like this Islamic community and this Islamic woman experience because the vast majority of us in America do not experience the same challenges. However, it is wrong to overlook the issue of what Fadel described as the the demonization of Islam. Fadel’s speech was eye-opening and made me realize there is sometimes a lack of honest coverage for pertinent issues in our society.