How do you know somebody is a Muslim?

Submitted by Romesh Chander (United States), May 18, 2005 at 18:19

CAIR cries out regarding Hate Crimes against Muslims in US. To hate a muslim and commit a crime against a muslim, first one must recognize somebody as a Muslim. How do you do that? Not all muslim men have beards or wear arab dresses (actually, it is hard to find anybody in US wearing an Arab dress) or wear special caps or wear turbans or other some distinguishing features. Has anybody seen a muslim wearing a turban in US? I have seen some people wearing turbans in US; but they are all SIKHS (and their religion has absolute nothing in common with Islam). Some people in US have beards like asian and arab muslims have, but most of them are Jews.

Rarely, one finds a muslim woman wearing Burqa in US. So, how do you recognize a woman to be a muslim?. Lot of women in US wear baggy pants, very loose shirts, and some sort of long cloth as a headgear. But they can be Hindu women, Sikh women and muslim women.

Could CAIR explain to all of us how to recognize a person as a muslim?

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