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Tolerance Is An American Tradition

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 30, 2007

Attending the most diverse school in the county, I witness the beauty of tolerance on a daily basis.

After reading the Oct. 20 letters to the editor regarding referee Steve Richardson's decision to ban 15-year-old Iman Khalil from playing in a soccer game because of the head scarf she wore, I am appalled that adults in our community cannot embrace the diversity of immigrants, as the students at my high school are able to do.

In those letters I saw examples of the prejudice, close-mindedness, ignorance and intolerance that continue to plague our nation. Of the four letters published, three of them made the same point: Immigrants to America must conform to the 'American way of life.' They both imply and explicitly state that Khalil's act of wearing a head scarf while playing soccer contradicts this American way of life, and as such, it was right of Richardson to prohibit it.

America is a land of immigrants. Even the 'whitest' John Smith can trace his origins back to another country. The first immigrants were settlers who came to the New World to escape religious persecution in England. In America, they were free to practice their religion without fear of discrimination, and as more and more such groups began to escape oppression in their homeland for the religious freedom of America, it became a land filled with diverse faiths, cultures, and traditions. And from this diversity arose a fundamental aspect of American life: tolerance.

Despite the current global political climate, America remains the most powerful, influential, and respected country in the world. Our reputation for freedom and acceptance is unmatched. When our citizens support such open displays of bigotry, what kind of a hypocritical message are we sending to the world?

The real American culture is the combination of all the different practices and beliefs of its people. The real American way of life is embracing them. If Richardson was really standing up for American culture, as the first letter states, he would have allowed Khalil to wear her head scarf (especially since higher authorities informed him that wearing a head scarf was not against the rules of the game).

The traditions of Muslims are as much a part of American culture as are the traditions of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and all the other religions and ethnicities that make up this great land.

Can we truly call ourselves 'American' if we do not embrace our differences? Can we, as citizens blessed with a Constitution that guarantees freedom of expression, truly condone the actions of a man who infringed upon that basic right? Can we, as the descendants of immigrants ourselves, consciously demand that a fellow American immigrant conform to 'our' way of life?

Because the last time I checked, it was Iman Khalil's way of life as well.

Shreya Murhty is a student at King High School in Tampa.

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