• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

  • News
  • Features
  • Sports
  • A&E
  • Op/Ed
  • Multimedia
  • About

Outrage in response tothe UK’s “National Punish a Muslim Day”

May 4, 2018 by Avi Cantor Leave a Comment

Sanaa Scott-Wheeler

Staff Writer

Photo Courtesy of Sanaa Scott-Wheeler

In the weeks leading up to April 3rd,  a flyer appeared on social media platforms advertising that day  as “National Punish a Muslim Day.”

The flyer originated from the United Kingdom, and there were many acts of violence that occurred there. However, there was also great concern about attacks in the United States, especially due to Trump’s anti-Muslim policies., and

While no SLA students were attacked on this day, the event prompted reflection on the Muslim student body. “Punish A Muslim Day” is an extreme example of the microaggression and prejudice they deal with on a daily basis. Sophomore Naseem Hameid, who is American-born with family from Palestine, reported that ¨I thought national punish a Muslim day was stupid and when you think about it, it was disrespectful.”

¨People preach about respecting one another but at the same time will disrespect someone just like them¨.

Sophomore Koule Doucoure, who moved to Philadelphia from Niger in 2015, was also freaked out by the ¨event¨.

¨At first I was like, I´m not going to school. I told my cousin and she said ´you´re just going to give up your religion to something like this?´ When I came to school I was a little scared but I know the SLA community wouldn’t allow that to happen.¨

Most people find comfort in how diverse SLA is and that there is a little bit of everyone here so there are shared experiences.  One of the biggest fears on April 3rd was alienation. For years, Muslims in Philadelphia have tried to coexist with everyone else, to only receive backlash.

Sophomore Samera Baksh, who is Bengali-American, told the story of her family’s first experiences in the United States as an example.

¨When my mom came to America a month later it was 9/11 so she would come out of the house and people would yell ¨oh you f*cking terrorist¨ ¨you muslim¨ ¨go back to your country¨ my mom would try to act American so she wouldn’t wear cultural clothes or the hijab — my mom is light skinned so she could pass as American.¨

When Hameid was asked if he had ever been discriminated against because of his religion, his response was  ¨In middle school they would call me slurs like ´sand nigger´ ´bomber´ ´terrorist´¨.

Baksh has not been targeted in the same way, but still remains wary about what could happen. ¨I´ve never been scared here because I need to show people who I am, but I was scared for my mom wherever she goes,” Baksh said, “She takes my brother and I’m scared for them to hurt him too.¨

Freshman Ami Doumbia says ¨Usually most schools are afraid to talk about these types of things because they don´t wanna step on toes or because or because they don´t  know enough, but that’s not helping anybody I believe that if SLA opened itself up to these types of conversations, like we do with other subjects (such as sexuality, race etc.) we can thrive more than we already do.¨

Many students reported that they had never or rarely experienced microaggression in the SLA community, however by giving the Muslim community at SLA more positive recognition, we can set an example for other schools in the city while making our school a safer Haven.

Filed Under: Features

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

* Copy This Password *

* Type Or Paste Password Here *

95,359 Spam Comments Blocked so far by Spam Free Wordpress

Primary Sidebar

FacebookInstagramTwitter Snapchat

Features

Wardrobe of SLA

By Harper Leary Staff Writer Philadelphia is a diverse city, and the student population of Science Leadership Academy reflects that fact— not just with their identities, but also with their fashion choices. If you walk down the hallways of SLA, your head will turn every which way to get a glimpse of all the different […]

How the Pandemic has Changed Live Events

By Maya Smelser & Anouk Ghosh-Poulshock Staff Writers Everyone remembers their first concert. But when the pandemic hit, many tours were canceled or rescheduled. There was a hiatus from live music as people adjusted to their new lives– so many teens missed out on their early concert experiences..  In the past few months, however, concerts […]

How Are SLA Students Are Dealing With Their Last Quarter?

Leticia Desouza Staff Writer After a long yet quick year at SLA, students from different grades have experienced many new things they weren’t able to experience during the 2020-2021 online academic year. After almost 10 months of being back in school, students have encountered difficulties and new experiences that further molded how the rest of […]

Philadelphia High Schools Now Starting At 9am

Lia Dunakin Staff Writer The School District of Philadelphia recently announced that all Philly high schools will start their instructional day at 9AM beginning in the 2022-2023 school year.  The reason given for this huge change is simply, sleep. Teenagers tend to get tired later  at night, and starting school at early hours can be […]

Shared Facilities: SLA, and Benjamin Franklin High School Encounters

Andre Doyle, Cameron Booker, & Leticia Desouza Staff Writers SLA and Ben Franklin began their co-location in the Fall of 2019 — but only this year have the two schools started to truly operate in the same space.  Not all of the facilities are used by both schools — most academic spaces are entirely separate. […]

Copyright © 2022 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in