Student Union
- By Megan Hatch
Young Muslims Challenge Traditional Stereotypes
Young Muslims like Humaira Akram are using social media to show the Islamic culture’s younger side.
“Gen Z Muslims have changed or progressed Muslim culture in today’s society by being more vocal, using their social media platforms to advocate for justice and being open-minded,” said Akram, a student at Brooklyn College in New York.
Akram and others say they think many non-Muslims see violence and sexism as stereotypes. But younger Muslims are eager to move beyond that, she said.
“They are eager to learn and succeed, while speaking up against misconceptions and raising awareness for future generations, speaking up against injustice, and using their voice to make a change,” Akram said.
The conservative religious regimes in Iran and Saudi Arabia compel women to wear head coverings and keep them subservient to men. In other Islamic countries such as Afghanistan, head covering is a cultural practice rather than mandated by law.
Other Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia, Turkey and Syria, have made greater strides in women’s rights, with more women attending university and holding senior government positions. Afghanistan's parliament, according to Human Rights Watch, "has a higher percentage of women than does the U.S. Congress."
And in a world that has doubled its population since 1960, the largest Islamic country — Indonesia — cut its fertility rate by half after the government promoted the use of birth control. Indonesia is among the four largest nations in the world after China, India and the United States.
Clearing up misconceptions
According to the website Teaching Tolerance, stereotypes and misconceptions about Muslims include extreme sexism and violence.
Social media influencers Zahra Hashimee and Sabina Hanan use TikTok and YouTube to bring attention to the Muslim culture and address these misconceptions.
Hashimee shares with viewers why she wears a hijab and how she gets her hair cut. She also explains the holy month of Ramadan in 60 seconds.
Hanan answers users’ comments and questions about Islam and the Muslim culture, and posts positive messages on Instagram in Arabic.
Public office and activism
Young Muslims have also seen new representation in government positions.
Last year at age 21, Bushra Amiwala was elected to the Skokie School District 73.5 Board of Education in Illinois when she was only a junior at DePaul University. She is one of the youngest Muslim elected officials in the United States.
The U.S. also saw its first two Muslim congresswomen in 2019 —Ilhan Omar from Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib from Michigan.
In a recent poll, 90% of members of Generation Z overall support the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and worldwide protests against racism, according to Business Insider. Gen Z'ers are also more progressive than earlier generations, according to a Pew Research study.
BLM is a decentralized movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against Black people, according to Black Lives Matter.com.
Muslims constitute 1% of the U.S. population, and at least 42% are under 30, categorized as Gen Z and millennials, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.
“During this time of change as the Black Lives Matter movement treads on, it is extremely important for Gen Z Muslims to speak up against injustice and use their voice to make a change,” Akram said.
Isha Fazili, a student at New York University, said she looks up to Gen Z Muslims like Riz Ahmed, a British Pakistani Muslim actor, rapper, and activist, who has an Emmy Award for his role in the HBO series “The Night Of” and has performed in front of sold-out crowds at Coachella and Webster Hall, two popular music events.
“We challenge the idea that Muslims are a monolith. We defy stereotypes and seek to remedy issues such as racism and colorism within our communities. We are fashionable, charitable, intelligent, talented, passionate,” Fazili said.
Other Gen Z Muslims like Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh have created an online platform for other Gen Z Muslims. Al-Khatahtbeh is the founder of Muslim.co, a new digital publication for Gen Z Muslims within the ummah — a community of Muslims brought together regardless of race, gender, sect or practice of their faith.
Gen Z'er Haniah Ahmed studies at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Canada and said she believes Gen Z Muslims celebrate the culture in a way that is more liberating and accepting.
“Gen Z Muslims have been able to tie together Muslim and non-Muslim culture, like Western ideals and Muslim ideals, without sacrificing their beliefs, making Islam more approachable and relatable,” Ahmed said. “Gen Z Muslims, for example, have tied together the rights of women that the Quran has stated and Western feminism to make Islam more understandable and approachable and relatable."
She added, “Gen Z Muslims have also changed Islamic culture to become more liberal in such a way that Muslims are now proud to express themselves in whatever way they see fit, especially in ways that are directly tied to the arts and music sectors.”
Love and marriage
Traditional Islam has encouraged Muslims to marry within their faith. Younger Muslims are changing this, said Hanna El-Mohandess, a Gen Z Muslim studying at Emerson College.
“Nowadays, there are many Muslim women who are with guys who aren't Muslim, because a lot of those circumstantial rulings, like arranged marriages and marriage laws, no longer exist,” she said.
Imran Muthuvappa, a Gen Z Muslim student at the University of Albany, said the internet has allowed other younger Muslims to become stricter in their faith.
“In my own personal circle, a lot of people are becoming even more strict about their faith due to the fact that they now have support systems through the internet. I feel that with a lot of the people that I surround myself with, they have progressively felt less pressured to conform to Western standards,” Muthuvappa said.
Ahmed said changing minds over a generation takes time.
“I believe the actual Muslim faith and belief system has not changed. But the individuals who previously made the belief system come across as limiting and unaccepting and are being slowly pushed aside,” Ahmed said.
“Gen Z Muslims with progressive views of Islam are starting to take a stand in leading the Muslim youth by understanding that religion is an extremely unique path for every person,” said Ahmed. “Something which their ancestors did not understand, as they thought religion is extremely black and white.”
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Lily Meskers faced an unexpected choice in the lead-up to the first major election she can vote in.
The 19-year-old University of Montana sprinter was among college athletes in the state who received an inquiry from Montana Together asking if she was interested in a name, image and likeness deal to support Sen. Jon Tester, a three-term Democrat seeking re-election. The group, which is not affiliated with the Tester campaign, offered from $400 to $2,400 to athletes willing to produce video endorsements.
Meskers, who is from Colorado but registered to vote in Montana, decided against the deal because she disagrees with Tester's votes on legislation involving transgender athletes in sports.
"I was like, OK, I believe that this is a political move to try to gain back some voters that he might have lost," Meskers said. "And me being a female student-athlete myself, I was not going to give my endorsement to someone who I felt didn't have the same support for me."
Professional athletes such as LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick and Stephen Curry have taken high-profile stances on hot-button topics and political campaigns in recent years, but college athletes are far less outspoken — even if money is available, according to experts in the NIL field. Being outwardly political can reflect on their school or endanger potential endorsement deals from brands that don't want controversy. It can certainly establish a public image for an athlete — for better or for worse — or lead to tensions with teammates and coaches who might not feel the same way.
There are examples of political activism by college athletes: A Texas Tech kicker revealed his support for former President Donald Trump on a shirt under his uniform at a game last week and a handful of Nebraska athletes a few days ago teamed up in a campaign ad against an abortion measure on the Tuesday's ballot.
Still, such steps are considered rare.
"It can be viewed as risky and there may be people telling them just don't even take that chance because they haven't made it yet," said Lauren Walsh, who started a sports branding agency 15 years ago. She said there is often too much to lose for themselves, their handlers and in some cases, their families.
"And these individuals still have to figure out what they're going to do with the rest of their lives, even those that do end up getting drafted," she added.
College coaches are not always as reticent. Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl has used social media to make it clear he does not support Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic opponent in next week's presidential election. Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy once caused a stir with a star player for wearing a shirt promoting a far-right news outlet.
Blake Lawrence, co-founder of the NIL platform Opendorse, noted that this is the first presidential election in the NIL era, which began in July 2021. He said athletes are flocking to opportunities to help increase voter turnout in the 18-to-24 age demographic, adding that one of his company's partners has had 86 athletes post social media messages encouraging turnout through the first half of the week.
He said athletes are shying away from endorsing specific candidates or causes that are considered partisan.
"Student-athletes are, for the most part, still developing their confidence in endorsing any type of product or service," he said. "So if they are hesitant to put their weight behind supporting a local restaurant or an e-commerce product, then they are certainly going to be hesitant to use their social channels in a political way."
Giving athletes a voice
Many college athletes have opted to focus on drumming up turnout in a non-partisan manner or simply using their platforms to take stands that are not directly political in nature. Some of those efforts can be found in battleground states.
A progressive group called NextGen America said it had signed players in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia to encourage voting among young people. Another organization, The Team, said it prepped 27 college athletes in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan to lead volunteer voter participation opportunities for students. The organization also said it got more than 625 coaches to sign a nonpartisan pledge to get their athletes registered to vote.
The Team's executive director is Joe Kennedy, a former coach who coordinated championship visits and other sporting events at the White House during President Barack Obama's administration. In early October, it hosted a Zoom event during which panelists such as NCAA President Charlie Baker and WNBA players Nneka Ogwumike and Natasha Cloud gave college athletes advice about using their platforms on campus.
In its early days, The Team seized upon momentum from the record turnout seen in the 2020 election. The NCAA that year said Division I athletes could have Election Day off from practice and play to vote. Lisa Kay Solomon, founder of the All Vote No Play campaign, said even if the athletes don't immediately take stands on controversial issues, it's important for them to learn how.
"It is a lot to ask our young people to feel capable and confident on skills they've never had a chance to practice," Solomon said. "We have to model what it means to practice taking risks, practice standing up for yourself, practice pausing to think about what are the values that you care about — not what social media is feeding into your brain, but what do you care about and how do you express that? And how do you do it in a way that honors the kind of future that you want to be a part of?"
Shut up and play?
Two years ago, Tennessee-Martin quarterback Dresser Winn said he would support a candidate in a local district attorney general race in what experts said was very likely the first political NIL deal by a college athlete.
There have been very few since.
The public criticism and fallout for athletes who speak out on politics or social issue can be sharp. Kaepernick, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, hasn't played in an NFL game since January 2017, not long after he began kneeling during the national anthem at games.
Meskers, the Montana sprinter, said political endorsements through NIL deals could create problems for athletes and their schools.
"I just think that NIL is going to run into a lot of trouble and a lot of struggles if they continue to let athletes do political endorsements," she said. "I just think it's messy. But I stand by NIL as a whole. I think it's really hard as a student athlete to create a financial income and support yourself."
Walsh said it's easier for wealthy and veteran stars like James and Ogwumike to take stands. James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, started More Than a Vote — an organization with a mission to "educate, energize and protect Black voters" — in 2020. He has passed the leadership to Ogwumike, who just finished her 13th year in the WNBA and also is the president of the Women's National Basketball Players Association. More than a Vote is focused on women's rights and reproductive freedom this year.
"They have very established brands," Walsh said. "They know who they are and they know what their political stance is. They know that they have a really strong following that -- there's always going to be haters, but they're also always going to have that strong following of people who listen to everything that they have to say."
Andra Gillespie, an associate professor at Emory University who teaches African American politics, also said it is rare that a college athlete would make a significant impact with a political stand simply because they tend to have a more regional platform than national. Even celebrities like Taylor Swift and Eminem are better at increasing turnout than championing candidates.
"They are certainly very beneficial in helping to drive up turnout among their fans," Gillespie said. "The data is less conclusive about whether or not they're persuasive – are they the ones who are going to persuade you to vote for a particular candidate?"
Athletes as influencers
Still, campaigns know young voters are critical this election cycle, and athletes offer an effective and familiar voice to reach them.
Political and social topics are not often broached, but this week six Nebraska athletes — five softball players and a volleyball player — appeared in an ad paid for by the group Protect Women and Children involving two initiatives about abortion laws on Tuesday's ballot.
The female athletes backed Initiative 434, which would amend the state constitution to prohibit abortions after the first trimester, with exceptions. Star softball player Jordy Bahl said on social media that the athletes were not paid.
A University of Montana spokesperson said two athletes initially agreed to take part in the NIL deal backing Tester. The school said one withdrew and the other declined to be interviewed.
For Meskers, deciding against the offer boiled down to Tester twice voting against proposals to bar federal funds from going to schools that allow transgender athletes to play women's sports, a prominent GOP campaign topic. Tester's campaign said the proposals were amendments to government spending packages, and he didn't want to play a role in derailing them as government shutdowns loomed.
"As a former public school teacher and school board member, Jon Tester believes these decisions should be made at the local level," a Tester spokesperson said. "He has never voted to allow men to compete against women."
Meskers said she believes using influence as college athletes is good and she is in favor of NIL. She just doesn't think the two should mix specifically for supporting candidates.
"I think especially as student athletes, we do have such a big voice and we do have a platform to use," she said. "So I think if you're encouraging people to do their civic duties and get up and go (vote), I think that's a great thing."
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