Muslims in a Bible Belt town hold their breath
It was here, in this midsize college town in the dead center of Tennessee, that a right-wing effort to ban Islamic law found one of its first sponsors. Here, too, a congressman co-sponsored a plan to “defund Muslim ‘refugees’ ” and local residents sued to block construction of the only mosque, a fight that ended at the Supreme Court.
The town’s Muslims carried on through all of that, teaching at college, filling people’s prescriptions and filling their tanks, raising their children, saying their prayers, contributing to the civic life in a city of 126,000. They felt the familiar grief and fear of reprisal last year when a Muslim man killed four Marines in Chattanooga, 90 minutes away.
Now Donald Trump — a man who has repeatedly cast doubt on the patriotism of Muslims — is the president-elect, and he has selected a national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who believes Islam is an existential threat to America. And a deep unease has again seeped into the daily life of many Muslims here, a community of about 1,500.
There have been a smattering of post-election harassments and insults — at schools, in parking lots, on the road — but nothing to take to the police or put Murfreesboro back in the national headlines.
“Right now, we’re hoping that it’s going to be calm,” said Saleh Sbenaty, an engineering professor at Middle Tennessee State University, and one of the founders of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.
“But we don’t know if it’s the calm before the storm, or the calm after the storm.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/muslims-in-a-bible-belt-town-hold-their-breath/ar-BBxAsNr?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=edgsp
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