In 2012 the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter became a popular outlet to discuss the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Since then it has taken off and become more than a hashtag, embodying a form of resistance with respect to the dehumanization of black lives in America. A little over a month ago the hashtag was repurposed for a new movement — #MuslimLivesMatter — when three Muslim students were murdered in their University of North Carolina dorm room. The hashtag took off and demanded that the media give attention to the story.

In the days that followed, Muslim activists on social media brought attention to an onslaught of other crimes against Muslims committed in the West, from Alberta, to Kansas City, to Louisville, to Dallas and even locally here, in Dearborn. A man was assaulted while buying groceries with his two daughters, who wore the Muslim head covering, the hijab.

To me, Dearborn had grown to become a safe haven from the rising Islamophobia that is being fostered in contemporary American society. It hosts one of the largest Muslim populations in the West, and I see women like my mother wear their religion proudly and fearlessly in the form of a hijab. When hearing about the attack I was shocked that the place I call my hometown was the setting for yet another hate crime against Muslims. I was even more shocked and disappointed by the silence from mainstream media, especially since it was coming off the heels of the Chapel Hill shooting.

Sadly, attacks like these are far too common in this day and age, so it’s naïve to expect every story to be given national attention. However, when I turn on the TV and see phrases like “radical Islam” being thrown, and the contexts they exists in, it’s clear that the current dominant discourse prefers to portray Muslims as savage, barbaric and inhumane. Any narrative to the contrary is dismissed as a random act of violence unrelated to the Islamophobia pervasive in and perpetuated by the mainstream media.

The current dominant discourse surrounding Muslim Americans — and Muslims in general — plays a large role in fostering Islamophobia, which we can see has real, violent consequences.

The Chapel Hill shooting was not a random parking dispute. It is representative of a growing pattern of hate crimes committed — and subsequently ignored — by the mainstream media.