The time you were treated like a terrorist
OP - July 17, 2016, 03:08 PM
Hello everyone, I would like to hear about possible experiences of being treated like either a terrorist and/or terrorist sympathiser. Firstly let me point out that I don't truly consider myself an ex Muslim as I was never raised in the religion in the first place (not taught Arabic, Quran, prayer, nothing). Only as a teenager, some of my older siblings began to get into it and tried to influence me.
So last November, I went to pick up the keys to the new flat I was going to rent. Now, I had been staying at a friend's empty house for about a week beforehand, therefore had no internet, had a new phone and phone number but due to being busy with packing, I hadn't had time to give out my new number to my friends. I was basically cut off from the world due to being too busy to deal with anyone.
Monday 16 November was the first chance I'd had to catch up with what was going on in the world. I picked up a copy of the Metro and read it while sitting having a cup of coffee, while waiting for the estate agent's office to open. And I read about the terrorist attack in Bataclan. I sat there for a long while feeling so sickened and heartbroken at reading this. I even cry at poignant moments Disney movies, so you can imagine what effect a real life thing like this had on me.
Later, I was in front of the estate agent ready to sign my contract and she looked me up and down, sneering, and out of the blue, brought up the terrorist attacks. I wasn't ready for it, I wasn't expecting it. I was just there to sign my contract and get my keys. I was shocked and surprised, gave a brief response, indicating that I had only just heard of it this morning. She looked at me disgustedly and disbelievingly. The implication was clear: I was one of those terrorists, or at the very least, a sympathiser. We are all the same, obviously. Never mind that it is only my surname that is Arabic (my heritage is mixed). Maybe she expected me to apologise.
A couple of years before that, a Catholic friend texted me about a terrorist attack (honestly, they are so frequent, I forget which one it even was now). And I kind of felt the accusatory undertone in that text, as if I was somehow responsible, or complicit in it. There are other small incidents like this, but those two are the ones I remember the most.
I realise these experiences are extremely mild compared to what many other people have to go through, especially ladies wearing the headscarf, for example. But I would like to hear of other people's experiences, maybe even commiserate together.
I lost myself
I think I need someone in here?
I know I'm sane
But still my daemon calls me
Topic: The time you were treated like a terrorist