In life we are not always judged based on who we are, as what we do, how we think and what kind of a person we are. Often we are perceived based on our more obvious, quick but shallow, and stereotypical characteristics rather than our personal and more defining qualities such as honesty, integrity, neatness, sharpness, intelligence, objectivity, and fairness. Many people experience that their skin color says a lot about them before they even get a chance to introduce themselves. Others are evaluated by their height, weight, physical appearance and some by their religion. I belong in the last category. I am part of the group where I’m mostly looked at, judged, and perceived because my name indicates my religious belief/background. This is not about people being biased, this is not about them being unfriendly or being cruel. This is simply based on stereotyping. I have always felt a lot of pressure because of my name and how it quickly builds an image about me in the observer’s head.

In this day and age is not that easy to have a name that clearly proves you’re a Muslim when Muslims are often negatively portrayed because of all the political and social disasters that have been related to Islam and Muslims. It’s not easy being a Muslim who is extremely in favor of western and especially American ideas of personal freedom, freedom of speech, secularism, capitalism and democracy because for the most part people create the image that they want to create in their heads about me. We all do that. We always take things the way we want to rather than taking them they way they are. I have always wanted to be able to introduce myself based on my personal qualities and other significant characteristics but my name is always steps ahead of me in making sure that people get a good sense of who I am. It’s not that I am unhappy with my name and my identity it’s just that I hate when people generalize.

Despite all the obstacles that I have faced because of my name specially in the post-9/11 America, I was never discouraged and never felt that there is nothing I can do. My goal in life is to make sure that I create such an outstanding image about myself that I would be breaking all the stereotypes about my religious background. I wouldn’t want to be affiliated with the people who although they are the minority, they represent almost the entire Muslim population. I am ethical, and I stand by my moral standards that my parents brought me up to. Ultimately the image of a good citizen is what I want to portray and not my name’s affiliation with somebody who’s biggest accomplishment was taking the live’s innocent people and giving himself a lot of credit for fulfilling his religious duties.