By: Mary Kenah (Loyola Senior)
Islamophobic and anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise over the last two months in the United States, and Loyola’s Jewish and Muslim students are consequently feeling uneasy and unsafe.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations encountered 2,171 reports of Islamophobia from October 7 to December 2, a 172% increase from a similar two-month period from last year. The Anti-Defamation League received 2,031 reports of anti-Semitic incidents between October 7 and December 7, a 337% increase from the same period in 2022.
While most incidents reported to CAIR and the ADL fall short of hate crime designations, the number of hate crimes has still grown in 2023. At least 69 hate crimes involving religion have been reported to the Chicago Police Department this year, a 68.3% increase from last year.
The rise in religious-based hate crime has extended to Chicago’s suburbs and Loyola’s campus too. On October 16, a 6-year-old Palestinian boy named Wadea al-Fayoume was tragically murdered in Plainfield by his landlord. Wadea’s murderer shouted “you Muslims must die,” before killing him and injuring his mother. Loyola Campus Ministry’s Muslim Chaplain, Omer Mozaffar, shared in an interview that one of Wadea’s family members is a student at Loyola.
Many other Loyola students have also experienced personal tragedies in the last two months. Mozaffar said, “There are [students] who’ve experienced insane or ridiculous numbers of casualties in their family out of Gaza.”
As a result of this devastating increase in loss, Mozaffar’s role as chaplain has taken on a new face. He now works many more hours than usual to support students who are grieving personal losses, feeling overwhelmed, and experiencing hate. Since October 7, he said he has had more students come to him for guidance than ever before.
Mozaffar said that among these students, concern for the plight of Palestinians has been stronger than fear of Islamophobia.
Students have experienced an elevated amount of Islamophobia in recent weeks, and Mozaffar said, “Everything has skyrocketed in terms of numbers [of Islamophobia].” Mozaffar added, though, that the emotions related to the loss experienced by students have overshadowed an awareness of this increase in Islamophobia.
For students, Mozaffar said, “The dominant feeling has been numbness or guilt. It could be that that has been such a dominant feeling that they’re not even noticing Islamophobia except when it’s right in their face.”
A 21-year-old Jewish student and senior at Loyola said she has struggled to notice explicit cases of hate related to her identity too. She said, “Over the past month for me personally, I feel like I’m more aware of [being Jewish] than I was, but I mean, I was always aware.”
When it comes to telling people she is Jewish, she said, “I’ve always been not 100% like, ‘woo hoo!’ to tell people that I’m Jewish, so in that aspect it hasn’t really changed much. I’m not ashamed, but I’m conscious of who I tell because there’s been a lot of history and people make comments and I’ve gotten that my whole life.”
Like this student, a 21-year-old Loyola senior and hijabi Muslim said she is no stranger to negative comments about her identity, especially as they relate to the hijab. While she said, “I feel very comfortable, proud, and happy to wear [the hijab],” she has recently had to make adjustments to her daily routine to ensure her safety as she wears it.
She said, “Since October, I have started to be extra careful and cautious with where I go. I would avoid going to places by myself. I would only go to my classes. For the whole month me and my family stopped shopping in malls. I cut many hours of my work because I did not want to deal with any kind of Islamophobia after the event of October 7th and the misrepresented information the media had to cover.”
She recognized that these modifications are connected not just to her identity as a hijabi and a Muslim, but as a Palestinian as well. She grew up and lived in Palestine for 14 years and said, “All my beliefs, manners, character, discipline, and respect is based on the knowledge I gained in Palestine. What does being a Palestinian mean to me? It’s like the air I breathe.”
Amidst this time of rising hate and fear exist these moments of pride and joy too. The Muslim Loyola senior recently welcomed her grandparents’ safe return to Chicago from Ramallah, Palestine. The Jewish Loyola senior looks forward to spending Hanukkah with her family.
Chaplain Mozaffar has worked closely with administration to ensure that these times of strife are recognized and moments of joy are protected for Loyola students. He urged students to stay active, establish goals, and use common sense as they navigate this time.
