Excluded: Islamophobia prevents some students from finding community in sports culture

Excluded: Islamophobia prevents some students from finding community in sports culture

On Sept. 11, 2021, three Muslim students wearing the hijab sat in the bleachers of the Ohio State-Oregon home football game with their peers. During the game, spectators in their section showed hostility toward them, and as it gradually worsened, they left the game early to avoid further harassment.

Excited to meet two of her friends, Stella Aboshahba wrapped her hijab around her head before leaving her family’s house to enjoy an Ohio State football game on Sept. 11, 2021.

Because of the threat of hostility toward Muslims around the mark of the 2001 attack, Aboshahba’s mother told her to stay home, but she reassured her mother that everything would be OK.

“As Muslim women, we’ve kind of gotten used to the dirty looks, and we prepare for what’s supposed to happen on 9/11,” Aboshahba, a second-year in health sciences, said.

For these three students, it was their very first Ohio State football game. Her two friends, one of whom was Khadijah Tounkara, a second-year in geographic information sciences, said they had a bad feeling the moment they arrived at the Ohio State-Oregon game.

“I started feeling uncomfortable the second we parked at Buckeye Lot,” Tounkara said. “One of the things I noticed was we were getting a couple of dirty looks.”

The women said students wearing the hijab are normally found on campus, but on Sept. 11, they saw none. Tounkara said students usually say hello and interact with other students on campus, but no one said anything to them.

After the game began, Aboshahba said spectators in their section began to chant “F— Osama” right in front of them. She said she thought it was normal and part of football culture to chant that, particularly on that day. Some people began to give disapproving looks at the chant, she said, but still others in her section joined in.

“It opened up my eyes because I feel like I was a little bit naive to think that our own peers, people we go to school with, would think like that and want to say stuff like that,” Aboshahba said. “That’s just what’s been making me really upset.”

“It opened up my eyes because I feel like I was a little bit naive to think that our own peers, people we go to school with, would think like that and want to say stuff like that.”

As the chants went on, Aboshahba said she called a friend, wondering if any other section was chanting the same thing. She said she had a feeling they were being targeted when she learned her friend did not hear the chant in her section. 

With Ohio State losing, the three students left at the beginning of the fourth quarter, worried the hostility of the crowd would worsen as attitudes toward the game soured.

This type of incident is not uncommon. A 2020 survey from the Council of American-Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR, found nearly four in 10 Muslim college students experienced harassment or discrimination based on their religious identity, and over 73 percent experienced a form of verbal or written harassment or discrimination. 

Experts interviewed by The Lantern also said that the environment around sports-related events, including football, can enable this type of harassment.

Islamophobia is defined as the “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against Islam or people who practice Islam,” according to Merriam-Webster. 

At Ohio State, hate crimes like these are handled by the Office of Student Life and the Office of Institutional Equity. Although the students reported this incident, after investigation, university officials said they were ultimately unable to do anything about it. 

University spokesperson Ben Johnson said there is no place for hate at Ohio State or anywhere, and that upon review, the university was unable to identify the individuals who were accused of harassment. 

“The university strives to create a diverse, inclusive, and respectful community, and emphatically rejects racism and religious intolerance of any kind,” Johnson said in an email. “Individuals are strongly encouraged to report instances of discrimination and harassment to the Office of Institutional Equity.”

Prevalence of Islamophobia in America

The Ohio State ROTC raises the American Flag before the Ohio State-Maryland game Oct. 9, 2021. Ohio State won 66-17.

Christian Harsa | Special Projects Director

There are approximately 1.9 billion Muslims in the world and 3.85 million in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center, making up an estimated 1.1 percent of America’s population in 2020. According to data obtained from CAIR-Ohio, there are at least 100,000 Muslims in the Columbus metropolitan area. In all, about 1 percent of Muslims in America live in Ohio.

In Beydoun’s book, he describes Islamophobia as “not an entirely new form of bigotry, but rather a new system that is squarely rooted in, tied to, and informed by the body of misrepresentation and stereotypes of Islam and Muslims shaped by Orientalism.” He defines Orientalism as “a master discourse that positions Islam—a faith, people, and imagined geographic sphere—as the civilization foil to the West.”

Beydoun said what happened to the three students is not surprising. Beydoun said this was an act of private Islamophobia, which he defined in his book as “the fear, suspicion, and violent targeting of Muslims by private actors.” The spectators harassing their Muslim peers, in this case, serve as these private actors. 

Beydoun said numerous high-profile, anti-Muslim hate crimes are characteristic of private Islamophobia, such as the Chapel Hill shooting in 2015 where three Muslims were murdered in their home due to a “parking dispute.”

Beydoun also wrote in his book that the private targeting of Muslim Americans increased by “a staggering 584 percent from 2014 to 2016.”

Beydoun said Islamophobia was made more resilient and justifiable within the public sphere during former President Donald Trump’s presidency. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Trump “trafficked in anti-Muslim rhetoric” throughout his campaign, from the Muslim travel ban preventing visitors, immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries, to lack of response to hate crimes targeting Muslims.

For example, according to CAIR-New York’s 2017 civil rights data, anti-Muslim hate crimes increased by up to 74 percent in New York State after Trump’s election.

Marcus Horton | Web Editor

Whitney Siddiqi, outreach and government affairs director at CAIR-Ohio, said over 350 Muslims in Ohio contacted CAIR for legal help in 2021, some of which was discrimination-related.

Whitney Siddiqi, the outreach and government affairs director at CAIR-Ohio.

Courtesy of Whitney Siddiqi

Ohio State’s investigation into the chanting incident

Following the incident at the Ohio State football game, one of the targeted students filed a complaint and talked to Danny Glassmann, the dean of students and associate vice president for student engagement and support, on Sept. 16, 2021.

Ten days after the incident, Joseph Espinoza, a civil rights intake coordinator with the Office of Institutional Equity, emailed the students, sharing resources and options for them regarding the situation, according to an email obtained by The Lantern.

On Oct. 1, 2021, Aboshahba said she filed her report with the Office of Institutional Equity. She said all three students had separate meetings with Glassmann during the investigation.

She said Glassmann said the incident was unacceptable and the university did not tolerate it.

“I am very sorry that you and your friends experienced what you did and glad that you reached out to me for support,” Glassmann said in an email to Aboshahba obtained by The Lantern. “I wanted to follow-up to make sure that I sent you some of the resources that we discussed. Please let me know if you need any assistance with these.”

Glassmann said it is a staff or faculty member’s responsibility to take action if they learn of any incidents of discrimination or harassment reported to them.

“We need to make sure that our students know there are resources to support them and ways to report,” Glassmann said. “I would encourage anyone if they have an incident of any discrimination, harassment, they report that and they know there are resources to help support them in the Office of Student Life.”

The students said Glassmann believes this incident happened due to a number of things, including irresponsible drinking. When Glassmann was asked if the students could have been targeted for being Muslims, he said he was not the correct person to ask.

Aboshahba said this occurrence had nothing to do with drinking but had to do with Islamophobia and prejudice from peers. The students said they hope the university will address Islamophobia directly.

When a student files a report, Molly Peirano, director of engagement at the Office of Institutional Equity, said the office’s first priority is to check in with the complainant. Then, a civil rights intake coordinator will do outreach to the individual or individuals to focus on immediate safety and how they can support them.

“We always want to offer that support to individuals recognizing the impact that it has had on that person,” Peirano said.

Then, the office looks at the facts presented and assesses what resolution options may be available, based on the information given, before finding an informal solution or opening an investigation.

There is no set time frame from when a student files a report to when the informal solution is presented or an investigation is started, Johnson said in an email.

If an investigation is opened, Peirano said a trained civil rights investigator will look into the matter and start by meeting the impacted person or people and asking for evidence, such as names of those allegedly involved, videos, pictures and text messages.

They then look to interview the alleged person and any witnesses available, Peirano said. After gathering information, it goes to a hearing to determine a policy violation. If a policy has been violated, the case goes to a sanctioning process for the offending parties.

Peirano said there are key things they look for when identifying a suspect, such as a name, what they’re involved in and where they live. Without specific details and a name, it can make it difficult to identify the person, Peirano said. She said if there’s no way to find the suspect, they try to find other solutions.

“We still may try to do some broader education, because even though we can’t do an investigation, we still want to help that community recognize what our expectations are,” Peirano said. “And so sometimes we can do a broader education-based resolution so that we’re still able to do something, even if we can’t determine the identity.”

The incident with the students at Ohio State resulted in an investigation, and civil rights investigator Courtney Johnson reached out to them for information on the parties involved, Aboshahba said.

Aboshahba said they provided as much information as they could to the Office of Institutional Equity, from photos of the stadium and who they said began the “F— Osama” chant, to a video of the chanting and the section, row and seat numbers where the students sat.

On Oct. 19, 2021, Aboshahba said she got a call from Courtney Johnson saying the case was dismissed due to lack of evidence.

Aboshahba was also issued a letter of dismissal from the Office of Institutional Equity. She said Courtney Johnson said the letter was “confidential,” so Aboshahba declined to share the letter with The Lantern.

Courtney Johnson was unavailable to comment and directed The Lantern to university spokesperson Ben Johnson.

Islamophobia in sports culture

The Ohio Stadium before kickoff during the Ohio State-Purdue game Nov. 13, 2021. Ohio State won 59-31.

Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor

“These clusters of things going on that give people these visceral feelings, things like the playing of the national anthem, the presentation of the American flag, respect given to the military in the case of this incident, remembrance of 9/11 and crowd chants overall, where people get swept up in emotions,” Knoester said. “They also have a sense of what’s appropriate or inappropriate in a particular setting and seem willing to really act in ways that can be really problematic.”

Knoester said sports-related mistreatment is common, whether one is heavily immersed in sports settings or not. He said sports offer opportunities to feel included or excluded within the culture.

“My research suggests that sports-related mistreatment is broadly understood. We ask people about their experiences of hate speech, prejudice, or discrimination. Various forms of psychological, emotional and physical abuse are quite common,” Knoester said about his research on sports-related mistreatment.

“About 40 percent of adults in the U.S. say that they’ve been mistreated in their sports interactions.”

In his research, Knoester said in an email he found that of the survey participants who reported mistreatment, more than half said they were a victim of hate speech, such as negative words related to race — people of color were especially likely to report sports-related mistreatment based on race, including such hate speech, he said.

In an instance similar to what happened to the students at Ohio State, Dave Zirin, an American political sportswriter, said he had an awakening after attending a college basketball game. During a timeout, one team’s mascot beat up someone dressed in an “Arab costume” as entertainment while the crowd chanted “USA! USA!”

This happened during the first Gulf War in 1991, 10 years before the 9/11 attacks.

Zirin said he went to the basketball game to get his mind off of what happened to his best friend, who is a Muslim, at a rally against the Gulf War. He said his friend got his legs hit with a baton by a pro-war counterprotester who called him a slur.

“I kind of wanted to clear my head a little bit. To me, sports has been the safe space to do that. And so then to have this kind of racist, militaristic pantomime show itself on the court was really jarring,” Zirin said.

A lot of anti-Muslim hate crimes and speech in sports settings are very common, Beydoun said, yet unaccounted for.

“When spectators and fans see visible Muslims in the crowds, and there’s that sort of cultural war percolating and looming above the stadium, they see the enemy,” Beydoun said.

Beydoun said the incident at Ohio State on Sept. 11 intersected with the U.S. removing its troops from Afghanistan, and in a modern context, Muslims are directly implicated because they were targets during the Afghanistan War. The U.S. military departed Afghanistan Aug. 30, 2021, 12 days before the 9/11 anniversary.

White supremacy and a “distorted” sense of patriotism play a part in sports culture, Beydoun said. He said it enables fans to engage in political speech, regardless of whether it qualifies as hatred. The “F— Osama” chant was hate speech, Beydoun said.

“It’s directed specifically at individuals, for no other reason than the religious or ethnic identity, which qualifies as hate speech intending to harm in physical ways or to harm by way of emotional trauma,” Beydoun said. “Scholars would call this hate speech. But the bigot, in their minds, would say, ‘This is legitimate political speech that we should have the right.’ ”

Reducing exclusion in sports culture

When asked how incidents like the one at the Ohio State football game can be prevented, Tounkara said she doesn’t believe the way people treat Muslims will change.

“People are very, very ignorant. They’re not open-minded; they just have this mindset. It’s like tunnel vision,” Tounkara said. “So, I don’t think anything’s going to change, if I’m being honest.”

Aboshahba said this event has impacted her, similar to events that have affected many other Muslims who were very young during the 9/11 attacks, or even born after it.

“9/11 changed how the world views Muslims on the news and other ethnic groups. I wasn’t even born when it happened,” Aboshahba said. “But when Muslims in our generation try to talk about it, people kind of be like, ‘Oh, well leave the day for mourning, leave the day for the lives lost,’ when nobody wants to mourn the Muslims, too.”

Tounkara said it is upsetting to have to be cautious of violence against Muslims, particularly on Sept. 11, knowing that an incident like this could happen.

“Nowadays, people are still being targeted for something that has nothing to do with them,” Tounkara said. “Like, it’s not even what our religion is about. It has nothing to do with this.”

If the three students were not in the section wearing the hijab that day, Aboshahba said this wouldn’t have happened.

According to a survey conducted by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, 46 percent of American Muslim women are likely to wear the hijab, a visible symbol that makes their faith known to others, in public at all times. Durya Nadeem-Khan, a fourth-year in biology and public affairs, said it takes a lot of strength to don the hijab, and those who wear it should be applauded.

“Whether it be like people telling me directly to go back to my country, or just being appalled by the fact that I wasn’t oppressed as a Muslim woman, they made it clear that being a proud minority contributing to society was a paradox in their eyes,” Nadeem-Khan said. “The hijab is a physical representation of the religion. And it takes a lot of guts.”

Nadeem-Khan said the university should be sensitive to the experiences of Muslim students in general, following the advocacy of the last president of Undergraduate Student Government, Roaya Higazi, a Muslim woman wearing the hijab.

Roaya Higazi, a 2021 alumna, was the first USG president wearing the hijab at Ohio State.

Courtesy Jacob Chang

“If we aren’t going to fix these investigation systems, are we still going to make sure that the mental, social and emotional well-being of Muslim students on campus is being cared for?”

The discussion of Muslim student representation was something she took very seriously as president, but there is still institutional weight that needs to be carried, Higazi said.

“This is just evidence that representation only goes so far. It doesn’t necessarily change our lived experiences day to day,” Higazi said. “I think that there’s still a lot of legwork that Ohio State has to do to actually make the lived experiences of Muslim students on campus a lot safer and more equitable.”

Nadeem-Khan said the administration, first and foremost, should have addressed the incident that happened and stood behind its promotion of a Buckeye community.

“As OSU students, they have the right of protection and respect from other Buckeyes on campus,” Nadeem-Khan said. “I feel like OSU admin should stand behind their statement of diversity, inclusion, safety, Buckeye family and tradition. That all ties together when an individual who identifies as a Buckeye is then targeted or hurt in other parts of their identity.”

Correction: This story previously misstated that more than half of Knoester’s total survey participants reported they were victims of hate speech. The story has been updated to reflect that more than half of the people who initially reported sports-related mistreatment also reported being victims of hate speech.

Words by Mariyam Muhammad

Artwork by Marcy Paredes

Web Design by Marcus Horton