Here's a little more about my story and myself:
Faheed Aseery was checking text messages between sets on the leg press machine in his local YMCA when another patron approached him. Aseery looked up at the buff, white-haired man to find a sour look on his face. “He told me to put my phone away,” Aseery said, “But I knew he was wishing I would just go away.”
As a Saudi Arabian immigrant, Aseery had already had a handful of similar encounters with older, usually-less educated and male members of American society in his five years in the country. “You can just tell,” Aseery said, “It’s something about the way they come up to you, the way they look at you, like you’re not worth their attention.” Aseery couldn’t take it that time. He confronted the man and the situation escalated to a near-shouting match in which the stranger complained about Middle Easterners being allowed in the YMCA, and Aseery called the man racist and invited him to take physical blows. Thinking better of it, eventually the two both walked away.
This is one example of the racial and religious tension increasing now, as 1.7 million Muslim immigrants assimilate to American society. According to data from the Pew Research Center, more than half of Americans are concerned about Islamic extremism and wary of Muslims, with Republicans and members of the older generations harboring the greatest fears. These concerns spring from feelings of threat, social psychologists say.
This 3179-word reported story features interviews with social scientists Eliot Smith (Indiana University) and Walter Stephan (New Mexico State University), Muslim immigrant Fahad Aseery (Fishers, Ind.), convert to Islam Bobby Ellis (Frankfort, KY.) and white Americans José Gaitan and Brian Brinkman (Muncie, Ind.) and Brandy Grayson (Blackford County, Ind.) Production of graphics of using the extensive data available from the Pew Research Center may begin now. Photos are available upon request.
As a writer, I have experience covering these themes for local media. In 2012, I wrote about a Middle Eastern cultural celebration held on Ball State University’s campus. The article was published in the Ball State Daily News. In 2012, I wrote an in-depth piece on “dreamers,” Hispanic youth who have been raised in the United States but lack citizenship. This piece was published in The Herald-Times a newspaper based in Bloomington, Ind., and was picked up by the Associated Press, distributed nationally, and even translated into Spanish. I also co-wrote an investigative piece on homelessness and its effects on community non-profits for The Herald-Times, for which my colleague and I mined hours’ worth of bookings data at the local jail. The piece was also used by the AP and won a regional journalism award for investigative reporting.
As a Saudi Arabian immigrant, Aseery had already had a handful of similar encounters with older, usually-less educated and male members of American society in his five years in the country. “You can just tell,” Aseery said, “It’s something about the way they come up to you, the way they look at you, like you’re not worth their attention.” Aseery couldn’t take it that time. He confronted the man and the situation escalated to a near-shouting match in which the stranger complained about Middle Easterners being allowed in the YMCA, and Aseery called the man racist and invited him to take physical blows. Thinking better of it, eventually the two both walked away.
This is one example of the racial and religious tension increasing now, as 1.7 million Muslim immigrants assimilate to American society. According to data from the Pew Research Center, more than half of Americans are concerned about Islamic extremism and wary of Muslims, with Republicans and members of the older generations harboring the greatest fears. These concerns spring from feelings of threat, social psychologists say.
This 3179-word reported story features interviews with social scientists Eliot Smith (Indiana University) and Walter Stephan (New Mexico State University), Muslim immigrant Fahad Aseery (Fishers, Ind.), convert to Islam Bobby Ellis (Frankfort, KY.) and white Americans José Gaitan and Brian Brinkman (Muncie, Ind.) and Brandy Grayson (Blackford County, Ind.) Production of graphics of using the extensive data available from the Pew Research Center may begin now. Photos are available upon request.
As a writer, I have experience covering these themes for local media. In 2012, I wrote about a Middle Eastern cultural celebration held on Ball State University’s campus. The article was published in the Ball State Daily News. In 2012, I wrote an in-depth piece on “dreamers,” Hispanic youth who have been raised in the United States but lack citizenship. This piece was published in The Herald-Times a newspaper based in Bloomington, Ind., and was picked up by the Associated Press, distributed nationally, and even translated into Spanish. I also co-wrote an investigative piece on homelessness and its effects on community non-profits for The Herald-Times, for which my colleague and I mined hours’ worth of bookings data at the local jail. The piece was also used by the AP and won a regional journalism award for investigative reporting.
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