{"id":690,"date":"2023-12-22T18:09:24","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T18:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/?p=690"},"modified":"2023-12-22T18:09:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T18:09:24","slug":"the-loss-of-belonging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/2023\/12\/the-loss-of-belonging\/","title":{"rendered":"The Loss of Belonging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Resurging Islamophobia in response to the conflict in Gaza has Nour Bilal reconsidering<\/em> her newfound sense of home in the US<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Abigail Bennett<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nour Bilal’s past experiences with the police in her home country of Syria have all led her to deeply distrust state-imposed authority at any level; so it was much to her own surprise that she made the decision to join the police academy after resettling as a refugee in Salt Lake City, Utah. While Nour intrinsically understands the well-founded feelings of fear and intimidation refugees have towards the police, she believes that fostering a genuine trust for the police is essential for refugees to completely acclimate to their new homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything I went through in Syria led me to not trust authority,\u201d said Nour. \u201cPolice, guns, it all means trouble. I brought that attitude with me to the US. We all did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nour and her family were the first Syrian refugees to be resettled in Salt Lake City, Utah after fleeing the civil war in 2014. The Assad regime unfoundedly arrested Nour\u2019s father on two separate occasions and continued to harass the family in the ensuing months. The family sought asylum in the United States; when they learned they\u2019d be going to Utah, they had to Google the unfamiliar name in order to learn about their new home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nour and her sister Yasmin have both described acclimating to Salt Lake City as isolating, awkward and confusing. Their initial experiences within the community were uncomfortable and the two women can readily recall specific instances in which they felt their identity was called into question after arriving in Utah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis man asked me, \u2018What is this piece of tissue on your head?\u2019\u201d said Nour. \u201cMy English wasn\u2019t as good then, so I couldn\u2019t respond in the way I would have wanted to. But that made an impression on my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember I wanted to try out for my high school\u2019s drill team,\u201d said Yasmin. \u201cThe coach looked up and down at me and told me I wouldn\u2019t fit the uniform. It was like she was telling me you are not supposed to be here, this is not for you – because of your hijab, you can\u2019t do certain things. She didn\u2019t care to see other options that might work for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two sisters pushed through these preliminary tensions, and as the Muslim population within the city began to grow, Salt Lake became more like a home to them. Nour made the decision to join the SLC police academy and is now a recent graduate of the program; she will be sworn in as a full-time officer in March of next year. Yasmin was married in March and is expecting her first child, a baby boy due within the coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the recent conflict in Gaza has now undeniably stirred up Islamophobic sentiments across the United States and Salt Lake City is certainly not exempt from such resurging tensions. Nour has described the overall response to the war as overwhelmingly biased and says the lack of communal support in Utah is starkly apparent. This new wave of hostilities has left her feeling that her place in the local community is precarious, regressing even, and her uncertainty about Salt Lake and the greater United States as trustworthy entities has resurfaced. Furthermore, the enthusiasm she felt for her upcoming professional milestone of joining the police force has been greatly diminished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has changed, I don\u2019t feel seen and respected by our city,\u201d said Nour. \u201cLiving in Utah, I feel very unvalued as a member of the community and now as a first responder. I worked to be a first responder for this community, but I don\u2019t feel now that this community has my back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to her work at the police department, Nour regularly volunteers for a local SLC non-profit, Emerald Project, whose mission is to combat Islamophobia and the misrepresentation of Muslims in public discourse by fostering conversations, specifically between local youth in the Salt Lake community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did a couple rallies to support Palestine and no city representatives showed up,\u201d said Nour. \u201cThey just lit up the Utah Capitol with Israel\u2019s flag colors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worn the keffiyeh scarf as a hijabi in public twice,\u201d said Nour. \u201cBoth times I\u2019ve told myself, \u2018Be ready for anything.\u2019 You might be attacked, you might have someone throwing a racist comment at you. I hate that I feel that fear. But the world right now is this side or that side. And freedom of speech, that\u2019s all just written stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nour has also said that the ongoing conflict in Gaza feels awfully reminiscent of the Syrian civil war she fled from. The unrelenting news of attacks on Palestinian civilians has been triggering and distressing for her, consuming her daily thoughts. Both Nour and Yasmin have expressed their complete solidarity for the Palestinian people, while also acknowledging that the conflict has brought their own experiences to the forefront and forced them to revisit prior traumas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels like I\u2019m reliving the war in Syria,\u201d said Nour. \u201cIt put me back ten years. We didn\u2019t have an outside enemy that was occupying us; ours was a civil war, brothers killing each other, neighbors killing each other. So it was different. But this still feels similar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conflict Nour and Yasmin have experienced is distinctly unlike the situation in Gaza, in terms of historical dimensions and overall political dynamics. However, there is clearly such an unwavering consensus of support for Palestinians from fellow Muslims, as well as a tendency for the global community to view all Muslims as a homogeneous entity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not from Palestine but having my fellow brothers and sisters in Palestine go through that, I count myself as one of them,\u201d said Nour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPalestine is not just for Palestinians, they tie all Muslims to the whole thing,\u201d said Yasmin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since moving to Baton Rouge, Louisiana with her new husband, Yasmin feels a bit more removed from the activity that her sister Nour so thrives in. Yasmin has said she feels lonely in her new environment and that the tragedies she sees unfolding in Gaza have taken a toll on her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really felt like I don\u2019t want to live here anymore,\u201d said Yasmin. \u201cI think about the unfair treatment for people who aren\u2019t white and how our taxes are funding this genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not yet fully acclimated to her new home, Yasmin doesn\u2019t have much to distract her from the onslaught of war-related information. She\u2019s constantly on social media and left to think about what sort of future her son will have in this country that she\u2019s so thoroughly disenchanted with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as the sisters are both highly immersed in any bit of news that comes out of Gaza, they both have said that they try to step back at times and limit their intake of such horrifying updates. They agree that because they haven\u2019t healed from their own traumas, taking on a new one is taxing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs much as we hate what we\u2019re seeing, as much as it\u2019s testing our faith, God is watching,\u201d said Nour. \u201cEven the people I see on the news who are holding their dead family, these people are still praying. Their faith is still holding up so strongly. We all pray that God gives us the faith of the Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Resurging Islamophobia in response to the conflict in Gaza has Nour Bilal reconsidering her newfound sense of home in the US By Abigail Bennett Nour Bilal’s past experiences with the police in her home country of Syria have all led…<\/p>\n

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