Happy Eid al-Fitr from a Former Islamophobic Christian!
By: Devin Whitlock
Tags: Islam, Politics, Christianity, Islamophobia, Religion

Happy Eid al-Fitr! We may be covering events in July, and Eid took place in June this year, but it has taken place in July in years past, and if that seems “weird” to anyone, I defy that person to explain to me how the date for Easter is determined!

Eid marks the end of Ramadan, and is one of the few religious holidays where fasting is prohibited. Having a good time is encouraged! I wish I had more authority to speak on the rich history, culture, and tradition of it, but I wasted too much of my life making the typical white person mistake of treating my minority friends like my own personal Google.

I first learned of this holiday in seventh grade when I did a class project on it with my best friend, who is Muslim. This was the same friend who introduced me to comics in fifth grade. I owe him a lot.

He stayed friends with me even after I subjected him to appalling questions about Islam in an attempt to fact check outright lies I heard from several Christian pulpits. I don’t recall any of those pastors or preachers issuing apologies, corrections, or retractions after I explained to them that they were wrong.

In the wake of 9/11, I willfully forgot everything my friend had taught me. One Sunday, I went to see a missionary speak. I should’ve known better than to listen to someone talk about Islam whose job description was basically “get people to stop believing in Islam.” He covered a lot of subjects, including the history of the croissant, which he reframed as a victory of Christianity over Islam. My only takeaway now is not to trust a church that serves croissants.

A majority of white evangelicals think Muslims don’t belong in America, and that’s not just a statement of fact, it’s a headline from Christianity Today from 2017! It’s about the same percentage of white evangelicals that continues to support Donald Trump as president, surprising no one. The people trying to turn this country into a Christian theocracy are scaring people with the term Sharia law, deem Islam a false religion, and paint it as imperialistic while sending missionaries all over the world to convert people. Islam gave the world math and astronomy, and American Evangelical Christianity denies geology and archaeology.

I’m half tempted to convert to Islam to spite these people. The mosque would be justifiably worried that I’m an undercover FBI agent, and if I managed to get through the conversion process, I’d probably be followed by an FBI agent. Converting to Islam would make me less likely to engage in terrorism, as this country has had act after act of terror performed by white men, and none of them have identified as Muslim.

People trying to cover up their own racism have asked me, “How can you as a gay man support a religion that persecutes homosexuals?” I have known gay Muslims, trans Muslims, and queer Muslims, and unlike my gay Buddhist, Catholic, and Christian friends, they have had the decency to leave me the hell alone about their personal faith. Seriously, everyone, stop trying to convert me. I’m glad you found something that works for you, keep it to yourself.

The most conservative Muslim friend I have reacted to my coming out by apologizing for anything homophobic he might have done while we were growing up, despite being owed an apology for my shitty behavior, and that is a damn better reaction than I got from any relative and more understanding and compassion than I have received from almost every non-gay Christian I’ve ever told.

I thought it would be a stretch to talk about this tonight, but of course July was a horrible month. On July 1, it was reported the first Muslim American running for State Senate in Virginia was threatened with lynching. One of the first Muslim women elected to Congress was singled out by a racist president with a racist chant delivered by his racist followers, the beginning of his energizing his base for reelection. A New Jersey school board member targeted Muslim congresswomen in hateful Facebook posts. A woman who spread rumors that Obama was a Muslim was nominated to be Treasury Department spokesperson. A man who compared Muslim women to mailboxes and bank robbers became the new British Prime Minister. Hell, while I’m standing here, news could break of something far worse.

I subjected myself to all of the second Democratic primary debates this past month, and among twenty candidates across two nights, the only one to even mention ending the Muslim ban was Beto Fucking O’Rourke. Ramy was robbed at the Emmy nominations, though it was one of the best shows of the year. There was no news about Ms. Marvel at San Diego Comic Con, though Kamala Khan deserves a place in the MCU. [Note: It has since been announced that this character is getting her own television series and will play a large role in the Marvel’s Avengers video game.] I don’t have time to get into the treatment of Black Muslims or how no white people in this country know what Sikhism is.

It doesn’t stop in the United States, either. Palestine and Gaza deserve to be free. India and Europe are persecuting Muslims. The Chinese government is separating families and putting Muslim children behind electric fences. I know that we are not blameless in this regard, which is one more reason why we need to end concentration camps in America. And I will stop calling them concentration camps when we stop putting people in cages because of their minority status in the first place. Will that stop the hand wringing over semantics? When they cease to exist, I promise to never use the term concentration camp ever again.

I’d like to propose we start holding Christians to the same standard they want to hold Muslims. As long as a woman can’t wear a head scarf or a man can’t wear a kufi without getting sidelong glances, anyone wearing a cross should be suspect. It may not be much more effective than calling our elected officials but it will make me feel pretty fucking good. But I know violence isn’t the answer if only because it’s too easy.

Mike Pence is one of the main reasons Donald Trump has evangelical support in the first place, and he stands idly by as the president incites hate crimes. If he were to commit an act of violence, he would suffer no consequences. Establishment Democrats would respond with a finger wag and an angry glare.

I’ve had a short temper when dealing with these people because I’m angry at myself and who I used to be. I hurt too many people for too long, and realized that too late. The Islamophobes who follow the current president are happy to hurt people, and I’m sure some don’t think they hurt enough. I wish I could provide hope or a solution, but I am already accused of having a white savior complex enough, and not without reason.

We need to abolish ICE and the prison-industrial complex, lift the Muslim ban, and remind people that “religious liberty” does not extend only to white men who think women and queer people don’t deserve rights and the earth is only six thousand years old. On July 30, Muslim Palestinian-American Ibraheem Samirah, a delegate to the Virginia General Assembly, disrupted a speech from Donald Trump with a sign that read in part “Deport Hate.” As he later wrote in The Atlantic, “We need to do what’s right for our communities instead of what is polite to the powerful.”