The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Opinion
Wednesday, February 25, 2015 — 5A

T

he night of Tuesday, Feb.
9, Deah Barakat, age
23, his wife Yusor Abu-

Salha, age 21,
and her sister,
Razan
Abu-

Salha, age 19,
were
killed

execution-
style by Craig
Stephen
Hicks.
Hicks

was
indicted

in the triple
homicide,
allegedly over
a parking dispute. However,
many
people,
including
the

families of Deah, Yusor and
Razan, believe that the shootings
were a hate-crime due to the
victims’ Muslim faith.

I will start by saying I do not

claim that the actions of Hicks
were due to him being an atheist
or that somehow atheism is fun-
damentally violent or hateful. To
do that would be stooping down
to the level to those who claim
that Islam is inherently violent,
and I know what it feels like to be
stereotyped and labeled based on
the actions of someone else.

I would like you to step into my

world as a Muslim-American in
the aftermath of this event.

On Wednesday morning, I

woke up to texts about how Deah,
Yusor and Razan were killed
from my friends and family who
were upset and shocked at the
heinous crime and lack of media
coverage. I saw tweets and Face-
book posts by Muslims pressur-
ing the media to cover the story
and read the media coverage
that called the incident a sim-
ple “parking dispute.” Despite
the shock, I dragged myself out
of bed, put on my “Respect my
Choice” T-shirt with a hijab logo
on it, and walked out of my room
with a brave face.

I would not let hate change me.
That night, the University’s

Muslim Student Association held
a candlelight vigil where people
expressed their mourning, shock
and frustration with the media
coverage. There was support
from people from all different
faiths, proving to me that there
were others who could under-
stand why this was so heart-
breaking. And while the media
still debates whether Islamo-
phobia exists, I can tell you that
at the vigil, a place where people
should have their time to mourn,
hagglers yelled slurs like, “Is that
ISIS?” It added insult to injury;
needless to say, I wasn’t com-
pletely surprised.

And then Thursday came, and

it felt like a second blow. I could
not focus on any of my classes,
and yet it seemed like there
weren’t many who understood
why this hit me so hard. I could
have sat out of class or explained
why I didn’t finish my homework
in time, but the fear that no one
would understand overwhelmed
me. Why I would feel so upset
by an event that is only consid-
ered a hate-crime by those who
choose to believe it is something
I could not bear to explain, and
so I stayed silent.

I spent the day scrolling

through articles and pictures of
the newly wedded couple and
Razan, who was the same age
as me. I thought of my broth-
ers, friends and family members,
thinking about their similarities
and the bright futures that had
been lost.

Today, I look back at these

events and tell you that all they
have done is made me more aware
of some crucial realities.

I thought long and hard about

my own identity and my place in
America, the country I was born
and raised in.
The
media

portrayal of
these events
claimed that
this
was
a

parking dis-
pute,
and

newscast-
ers
spent

their
time

interviewing
Hicks’
wife

instead of the family of the vic-
tims. I could not help but feel a
lump in my throat. These were
people that looked so similar to
me, and yet there seemed to be
little sympathy. Instead, another
round of public debates.

As if something deep inside

me had been uncovered, I
thought to myself, “Where do I
exist?” Am I the enemy in sight
of the eyehole of the American
sniper? Am I the woman hid-
den behind a veil of oppression?
Maybe I’m one of those name-
less characters screaming in a
foreign language in the back-
ground of an action scene.

Am I a suspected terrorist or a

moderate Muslim who seems to
be somewhere silently floating in
the midst? If you could point me
to one American television show
or movie that has a portrayal of
the happy Muslim neighbor, I
would be more than happy to
watch it. Is the media trying to
ignore that an educated, practic-
ing, American Muslim can pos-
sibly be a part of society?

Am I to sit silently while the

media tries to push me aside and
make me feel like I just do not
belong here?

Or maybe I will have hope that

people will see these problems for
what they really are: a product of
misconceptions.

Regardless of whether or not

you believe that this was a hate
crime, there have been several
after the shooting that paint a
larger picture of hate-driven
crimes against Muslims and
Arab-Americans. On Monday,
Feb. 16, a man in Houston was
charged with arson in an Islam-
ic center and on Thursday, Feb.
12 an Arab-American man was
beaten at a Kroger in Dearborn.
These are just a few of the recent
hate crimes against Muslims,
crimes that are five times more
common now than they were
before Sept. 11, 2001.

The idea that Islam is inher-

ently violent or anti-Western is
one that incites hatred of Mus-
lims. The only way to combat
these ideas is by combating the
ignorance
surrounding
these

claims.
I’ve

heard
too

many
times

about people
that
simply

“aren’t sure”
what Islam is
really about.
They
take

the words of
people
who

pull excerpts
of the Quran

out of context or claim that some-
how the one person or even one
government is representative of
every Muslim. People must learn
to separate Islam from terrorism
if the hatred against innocent
Muslims is to cease.

I could go on to say that the

lesson I learned from the death
of Deah, Yusor and Razan is
that it’s solely Muslims who face
these obstacles, but the great-
er reality is that we should be
working toward a society with-
out hate on all levels. Islamo-
phobia isn’t just a problem for
Muslims the same way that
racism is not just a problem for
Black Americans. It affects us
all, and ignoring it as a prob-
lem only allows more and more
people to be hurt. The only way
to combat these hate crimes is to
stand up against them regard-
less of the victim.

I will stand with you. Won’t

you stand with me?


—Rabab Jafri can be reached

at rfjafri@umich.edu

RABAB
JAFRI

Stand with me

Am I a suspected

terrorist or a moderate
Muslim who seems to
be somewhere silently
floating in the midst?

On Monday, the University

Medical
School
Information

Services rolled out its imple-
mentation of AirWatch, a mobile
device
management
system

being used to secure personal
cell phones of employees and
students. Numerous high-profile
losses of protected health infor-
mation at other institutions —
and the inevitable lawsuits that
followed — were cited as pre-
cipitating factors leading to our
health system’s adoption of the
security software.

AirWatch aims to prevent sen-

sitive data from falling into the
wrong hands by providing the
ability to remotely wipe a device
that has been lost or stolen, as
well as the means to constantly
monitor whether a device has
been compromised. The software
requires full administrator access
to one’s phone to do so; permis-
sions granted to the AirWatch
Agent application are broad,
including the ability to determine
the device’s precise location,
directly call phone numbers and
even take pictures and videos.
MSIS maintains that our version
of AirWatch “does not collect
any data related to phone calls,
texts, location or web browsing,”
because “these capabilities have
been disabled.”

Questions
about
AirWatch

have been raised by medical stu-
dents, many of whom learned
about the decision to support the
software on a Friday, only three
days before the platform’s offi-
cial Monday launch. Confusion
regarding the scope of surveil-
lance, access to tracked infor-
mation and the possibility of
uninstallation reigned, but one of
the most commonly voiced con-
cerns was simply, “Do I need to
install AirWatch?”

Announcements
included

phrases such as “deadline for

enrolling” without pointing out
that participation is strictly vol-
untary; users who do not install
the monitoring package will still
be able to access their UMHS
e-mail accounts through their
devices’ web browsers.

An important concept in medi-

cine is the right to an informed
decision, one which can only be
made after understanding all of
the relevant facts about each of
the options available, without
being coerced or rushed. It isn’t
necessary for the health care
provider to agree with the deci-
sion, as each patient makes each
choice within the context of his
or her own value system; hence,
there are no “right” or “wrong”
options. Similarly, the crux of
issues surrounding privacy and
technology resides in supply-
ing the end user with enough
information to weigh costs and
benefits before arriving at an
informed decision.

Patient data should be protect-

ed, but at what cost to the securi-
ty of employee and student data?
The large number of medical stu-
dents who change their names on
Facebook during the residency
application cycle indicates that
privacy remains a major concern
— if we are so guarded about the
information that we have chosen
to share online, why would we
not also wish to protect our pri-
vate texts and e-mails?

We live in a time when the

nature
of
the
relationship

between
citizens,
companies

and government over communi-
cations is in a state of constant
flux; in the last few days alone,
headlines
have
been
awash

with revelations that computer
manufacturing
giant
Lenovo

intentionally packaged a major
security flaw into its new laptops,
while ongoing revelations about
the extent of NSA surveillance

continue to astound in both vol-
ume and audacity.

As consumers and responsible

citizens, we must take active
steps to protect our privacy. This
can be difficult in the mobile
device domain, as the only way
to truly ensure that one’s data is
completely safe is to not own a
cellular phone in the first place.
Obviously for many people this
is not a viable option, so every
day we make tradeoffs, judging
which risks we deem accept-
able. We may still choose to talk
where we can be overheard,
or text where our screens can
be read over our shoulders or
e-mail knowing the messages
can be intercepted.

Some users will trust Air-

Watch,
acknowledging
the

potential privacy compromises
that it presents in favor of the
convenience of accessing e-mail
on their own devices. Others
will opt not to install AirWatch,
choosing instead to check their
mail with their phones’ web
browsers while relying upon
their pagers to communicate
urgent messages. A few may
even decide to use entirely sep-
arate devices for personal and
professional business.

There
are
no
“right”
or

“wrong” options, as each choice
is made in the context of the end
user’s individual value system.
Moving forward, it’s important
that we focus on seeking student
input about changes related to our
school’s information technology
policies, in addition to continuing
to supply users with the informa-
tion necessary to make informed
decisions regarding their privacy,
without being coerced or rushed.

Special thanks to Erin Conrad

for contributing to this article.


Mike Yee is a fourth

year medical student.

MIKE YEE | VIEWPOINT

Who watches the Airwatchers?

E-mail HEidi at HEidimaE@umicH.Edu
HEIDI LIU

Are you too cool for school? Do you

neglect homework assignments to discuss
news that’s near and dear to your heart?

Could skipping class to scuriously
write an 800-word viewpoint be in

your very near future?

If so, the The Michigan Daily opinion section is

the place for you!

Join us for Editboard every Monday and Wednes-
day evening at 6 p.m. in the Student Publications

Building located at 420 Maynard Street.

For more info, email tothedaily@umich.edu.