Danya Wazwaz
10-26-2015
“My story to write, not yours”
I am a Muslim
And proud of it too, yet people try to make me feel as if I shouldn’t be
But give me one good, actual reason why I shouldn’t be?
I am Palestinian
And with this scarf, I’ll show off my pride
Because I have got nothing to hide
Nothing on me that I don’t want to share without the feeling of being blessed
Now I know there will always be one person
That one person, who would love to hate
To push me down. And I know there is one of you here
But to be honest, I don’t care
You think that you know me,
Know what my life consists of, know what I’ve been through.
But don’t start walking away yet
Because I have a lot to tell you.
Palestinian, and Muslim
I never thought that being who I am,
Who I was born to be, would be shot with bullets
Bullets of hate, bullets of ignorance
On the news, “ISIS attacks again”
But I am not ISIS. And I am not a terrorist
Yet why do you still see me as one?
I got spit on, I got pushed
I got flicked off so many times it doesn’t even surprise me anymore
I remember as a kid, wearing my palestinian cap smiling
And a man in his car passed by, and said to me,
Get the F out of our country and die in yours you terrorist
But I obviously didn’t know what that meant. What first grader would?
In my old schools, I have always been around muslims
Not as many non-muslims
But that doesn’t mean that I was immune to hate
Because hate is everywhere
Whether in the biased american media
Or through the mouth of ignorant human beings
Hate is, and will always be near me
But my armor still hasn’t worn down
Because being a Palestinian Muslim is still who I am,
and who I will be even in my grave
And sure, the hate towards me was bad
But not as bad as others
Man gets pushed in front of an upcoming subway
Because woman thought he looked muslim
She thought.
We’re told as kids,
Think before you act
But what they should’ve said,
“Is your action going to hurt anyone?”
She probably thought “he’s a muslim, so I should push him”
What she should’ve thought, was if I push him
he’ll get hurt
The reason she did it.
Revenge for 9/11
It’s funny how the world accuses all of us muslims as being terrorists because of 9/11
I’m not Osama Bin Laden, I’m not related to him
Every muslim I know, isn’t him, or was related to him
So why must we suffer from his attacks?
The world thinks that most terrorists are muslims
But you only think that because almost every terrorist group, or attack
That you see on the news, is titled as
“Muslims strike again”
But I have a fact that will surprise you,
that I know a lot of you won’t believe
But of the 1.7 billion muslims,
and the 100,000 al qaeda members,
and the 31,500 Isis members,
Those 2 “islamic” terrorist groups only consists of 0.00007735294% of the whole Islamic population
So are we the real problem?
I do have a simple question.
Why can’t we be us, but you can be you?
Why can’t I be me, and figure out my full self
Without you labeling me.
With a barcode of hate
Each line and each number, representing
What I am not.
Why can’t I read my Quran in peace,
pray without your spit landing in my face
Walk in the halls, without the worry
Of what could happen to me
Everyday i walk in the school
I always try to enter or at least pass by door 3
My friend asks me why,
And I say it’s because it is the only place
Where I can find my flag, where I can look at it
And think maybe I do belong here
But then I go into the cafeteria,
and see the Israeli flag instead of Palestine’s
and think maybe not.
But I will not give up.
I will fight and speak for my country and religion
For my people until my final breath
In your opinion, can you honestly say
that you knew most of the stuff, that I have just said
I will always be here for my country.
If you can fight for yours, I can fight for mine
And think to yourself, if you have ever,
or thought of telling someone non-american
“Go back to your country”
Realize that the reason they can’t go back to their country,
is because their country is being bombed, slaughtered by yours
So yeah. I’ll go back to my country, but why don’t you get it out of it first?
Now I’m going to sign-off with something I tell myself,
every single day, if I i’m alive the next morning.
“I will yell if I can, for the justice of my people
If I can’t yell, I’ll whisper
I’ll whisper if I can, for the justice of my people
If I can’t whisper, that’s fine
Because if 9/11 deserves a moment of silence,
Then Palestine deserves us to never speak again.” -Danya Wazwaz
Add Media
Style