A New Zealand mosque is part of a lingering trauma for American Muslims: NPR

Over the weekend, Muslim mental health professionals quickly organized a webinar to share tips on how to deal with trauma after the terrorist attacks in New Zealand on Friday. A white supremacist killed at least 50 people while they were praying in two mosques.

Psychiatrists and spiritual leaders gave advice on personal care and how to help young Muslims to work during this time.

"The concern of everyone working in the field of mental health and the community is:" What will be the long-term impact of this persistent exposure to the trauma our children are currently experiencing? "said Dr. Farha Abbasi, a psychiatrist from Michigan State University.

This trauma did not start on Friday.

In the United States, while many young Muslims were crying over the loss of life and hate that motivated the killings, they said they were not surprised. They are a generation that has been raised on an endless stream of anti-Muslim rhetoric since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

For most of their lives, if not all of their lives, the United States has been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq; Elected representatives from all walks of life questioned their patriotism and their loyalty. At the same time, mass violence has become almost banal, with schools in the United States organizing mass-fire exercises for children and, in recent years, an increasing number of hate crimes against American Muslims, and Other minorities.

"Every day, more and more Muslims are dying, whether by these terrorists, in the name of terrorism or as part of the war on terror, but the internalisation of this trauma is worrying me," Abbasi said. . Because Muslim life, she said, can give the impression that she is worthless for others.

"We already know that trauma can be very disruptive – it's as if your story is interrupted – suddenly it takes away your sense of security, your sense of predictability, but it can also affect your ability to trust. to build relationships, connect, and feel very isolated and disconnected. "

Abbasi reports statistics showing that young Muslims feel more alienated. Muslim parents report that the number of children being bullied in kindergarten to grade 12 schools was almost double that of Jewish children, and more than double and triple the rates for children. Protestant and Catholic children, respectively. In some cases, bullying comes from teachers. A poll by the Pew Research Center found that about two-thirds of Muslims do not think other Americans view them as a mainstream.

"After September 11, more concerted efforts were made to demonize Muslims and make each other a kind of foreign and enemy threat," said Kameelah Moumin Rashad . She is the founder of the Muslim Wellness Foundation, which promotes healing and emotional health in Muslim American communities.

This message is what the 15 to 20 year old she advises have heard all their life.

"Unfortunately for them, it seems banal," she said. "Extremely horrible events such as we have seen in Christchurch, New Zealand, daily micro-attacks and invalidations of their identity, so I am very proud of the resistance of American Muslim youth, and I am also very concerned by the attack of the daily erosion of their humanity ".

Every day, these young people are asked to prove their worth and their humanity, she said. Many American Muslim adults are young: at least 35% of them are between 18 and 29 years old. Many people have multiple identities marginalized and threatened by white supremacy: black Muslims, gay Muslims, undocumented Muslims.

Islamophobia is "always present"

It's all too familiar to Nayab Khan. She is 22 years old and studying at the University of Pennsylvania.

"I only lived in a time when Islamophobia, anti-Muslim rhetoric, is still there, everywhere I go," she said. "It's the eighth year, to be called a terrorist for the first time, or the shooting that took place a few days ago."

Daily aggression has shaped its identity. She goes to the convenience store near her apartment and someone shouts, "Go back to your country". she gets on the train, a woman shouts at her. This is part of being visibly Muslim. This is a Pakistani American woman who wears religious headgear, the hijab.

"It's very exhausting and very hardworking always, one must always explain," she said. "And two, trying to normalize, when in reality I'm Muslim and I'm different and that's who I am."

So now, Khan is active on campus with the Muslim Students Association. She organized a vigil after the Christchurch bombings and formed coalitions with other groups fighting against white supremacy, xenophobia and racism.

Noor Bowman, 17, of Philadelphia, says the anti-Muslim information barely records it.

"As a young person, they shape your experience and your vision of the world around you," she said. "I'm so used to it that when people mention it, I say to myself," Oh, I have micro-attacks and different things. "But unfortunately, that's part of everyday life."

Things like people calling pejorative names for an Arab – she's African-American. Telling him to go back home – she's from Philadelphia. She learned to be resilient.

"Hatred against Muslims and other minorities has always been there, you know, since September 11. And for people of color … almost always here, in this country," she said. "But I think there are times in history – and I think it's just history that repeats itself – things change in our environment or [in the] political climate where hate is exacerbated or emboldened. "

This moment, she says, is now. At school, she took on the role of someone who expresses herself when her identity as a black Muslim woman is demonized or questioned.

"I am definitely an ambassador and not because I have to be, but because I want to be," she said. "I am very virulent in defending some of the things that are in our textbooks [or] our teachers say that these are mistakes or mistakes, "she said. I am more than happy to be the ambassador and say: "Hey, that does not fit", because if not, who will be? "