November 13th

“Wear a Hijab to Work Day”

November 13th 2006

 

Well if you haven’t heard of the shooting let me fill you in. Fremont, California: a young Afghan women named Alia Ansari,was shot and killled about a week ago. The part that makes the story even worst is that Alia was murdered while walking to pick up her children from school and she was walking with one of her youngest child and she was murdered right in front of her 3 year old daughter. Alia wore the scarf on her head (Hijaab) that Muslim women wear and it is believed that, that may be the reason she was killed. But the family is not saying that was the reason why she was murdered nor are they saying that it is a hate crime because they do not want to make any false accusations without having any proof. An investigation is going on to see whether or not it is a hate crime. Family and friends have no idea why else anyone would want to kill Alia Ansari.

“ Local Muslim leaders and the victim’s relatives attributed blame to an American culture of violence, propagated through movies and video games that reward players for killing. In addition, they said things such as talk radio, politicians and religious zealotry by some Christians had focused on Muslims since the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Justice will not be served by merely catching the killer,” said Hassan Ansari. “We have to figure out how to stop these kinds of things from happening. … American society is what feeds people’s ignorance.”

“Mostly it’s the fault of the media, because they show Muslims in such a way that people hate them,” said Feraidoon Mojadedi, owner of the Rumi Bookstore in Little Kabul. “People are dying all over the world, but what did she have to do with it? She’s a housewife, a mother of children.”

Three women at the Islamic Society of the East Bay said they would continue to wear head scarves even if the killing was a hate crime. “Even if they wiped out everyone on Earth, I would not remove the hijab,” said Suzanne Azim, 43, a Hayward resident. “

This probably isn’t the first time but I am hoping that something like this will never ever happen again. There are many things that I may dislike, but the word hate is such a strong word that can bring about so many disappointments, so the words hate and crime together is just such a horrible combination. Apparently our world has way too much hate in it right now. But something that I read that definitely made me get a little bit of relief and again see a bit of light shining on was this:

” Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine if graffiti near the crime scene is related to the murder. At least five places have been tagged, and four include the acronyms for Afghan gangs.Greg Roth, the pastor at Centerville Presbyterian Church on Central Avenue, discovered Ansari’s name and the letters “R.I.P.” spray painted on the church when he arrived for Sunday services.

“Usually we would paint graffiti out immediately to try to discourage people from doing that, but we were going to leave it for at least a week and show our compassion for the community and our outrage at this event,” Roth told KCBS reporter Dave Padilla. “

That little thing that the pastor did really did I don’t know it was just, :). I mean to see that he was willing to cope with that it gives a little hope. Maybe we all can try to get along and we can see how even if one group decides to act out of ignorance or do something that is out of anger, on the contrary there can be some people that will try to be patient. And that truly does say something and conveys a pretty strong message.

The main purpose of “Wear a Hijab to Work Day” is to remember Alia Ansari. And,

” “I’m not going to say that this is a hate crime until the police come back and tell us what it is, but one of the things that we can do as a community is to make sure that different women and diverse cultures are comfortable in any clothing that they chose to wear and that is what this day is for,” said Fremont City Councilwoman Anu Natarajan. “

We should keep the family of Alia Ansari in our thoughts, and try to not forget her.