2021 America in Review
By Mahasin D. Shamsid-Deen
Chicago, IL

Americans struggled in 2021 to be a nation serving its republic, while struggling to overcome its lower instincts. In 2021, Sound Vision launched daily news through Muslim Network TV, which offered substantive reporting and analysis, along with a daily MNTV newsletter and a new parenting newsletter ”Muslim Home”.
Insurgency & Voting rights
• On January 6th, a mob of Trump supporters breached the halls of the United States Congress, attempting to stop US lawmakers from certifying the Electoral College vote to declare a new Democratic president.
• This Republican siege lasted over three hours and resulted in the death of five people, injured about 140 police officers, prompted six police officers to commit suicide, and started a year-long claim of election misgivings. These false claims of election irregularities prompted Republican lawmakers in 19 states to pass laws that repeal, challenge, or make it more difficult for Americans to vote, especially ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities and immigrants. In November, Republicans blocked a floor vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would have strengthened sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
• As Muslims, we know the practice of Mashura (consultation for consensus) instituted during the age of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, nurtures higher thinking and teaches us how we can contribute to the running of the affairs in Muslim society. As the events related to the insurrection and voting challenges unfolded, MNTV daily news and programs offered insight and analysis through shows like Mujahid Talks: An Eye Witness to Jan 6 Attack on Capitol Hill.
The Covid-19 Virus
• By far, the most repeated story during 2021 was the continuing Covid-19 crisis. Although vaccines were approved, even for children, some Americans rejected the vaccine, which caused the development and spread of variants that inhibited Covid-19 eradication and control.
MNTV examined the topic with shows like What's Up, Doc? COVID Vaccine, It's Worth a Shot.
• In Islam, our fellow citizens have rights over us, so we practice social responsibility to not spread or subject ourselves to catch Covid-19 by our own actions or inactions. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, instructed us, “When you hear that (a plague) is in a land, do not go to it, and if it occurs in a land that you are already in, then do not leave it, fleeing from it.”
• The Covid-19 crisis still prompted a rise in violence against people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, prompting US Congress to pass a bill in May that gave grants to governments to prevent hate crimes.
Children
• The most shocking story of 2021 was the discovery of the remains of 215 children buried at a residential school for Native children in British Columbia, Canada. These schools in Canada and the US, most of which are now closed, were rife with horrific physical, sexual, verbal, and emotional abuse directed at Indigenous Canadian and Native American children, who were forcibly taken away from their families by the Canadian and American governments.
• Texas outlawed abortions past six weeks and instituted a whistleblower provision for citizens to report and sue those who perform abortions.
• As the year ended, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking as an accomplice of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
• As Muslims we understand that our children are an amanah to us given by Allah, The Most High, and it is our duty to nurture, protect, educate and even advocate for them. Muhammad, the prophet instructs us “Fear Allah and treat your children fairly.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim). MNTV shows Muslim Lens: US and Canada Search For Children's Remains Buried In Residential Schools; or UN This Week: January was Slavery & Human Trafficking Prevention Month examined these issues.
Islamophobia
• Islamophobia continued to strain the Muslim community with mysterious deaths of Muslim Marine Raheel Siddiqui and Imam Mohamed Hassan Ahmad in Ohio.
o A series of Islamophobic incidents also marked the year:
o A man who rubbed ham on a Qur’an receiving no jail time
o Islamic Center of San Francisco vandalized
o Muslim women in India unknowingly put on a dating app
o A sixth grader dehumanized and humiliated by her teacher
o A Quebec Muslim teacher losing job for wearing headscarf
o A dead carcass placed in front of a mosque, also in Quebec.
• A study revealed that Muslims suffered health issues after Trump’s Muslim ban and Americans’ view of Muslims in 2021 is more negative than 2001 after the 9/11 attacks.
• Severe depression led two Muslim boys in Texas to a murder-suicide of their whole family.
• The Qur’an tells us that we will surely be tested in this life and that we must endure it with patience and constancy. MNTV daily news and shows reported these incidents and addressed them in episodes like, Canada Today: Spike in Youth Suicide with Imam Uddin & Rufaida Mohammed or Justice For All Now: Struggles of Muslim Ban.
Controversies and Struggles
• Religious leaders in Milwaukee called for the removal of an elected official tied to anti-Muslim hate groups.
• Congresswoman Ilhan Omar came under attack and was called a ‘terrorist’ by Republican colleague Lauren Boebert.
• Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old from Illinois who traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin with an AR-style automatic rifle and killed two BLM rally attendees was acquitted of murder.
• Opposition to teaching Critical Race Theory, which addresses how American racist institutions shaped politics, life, and culture were all issues Americans could not agree upon in 2021.
• The arrival of Afghan refugees after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years afforded Mosques and Islamic centers around the nation to offer charitable deeds. MNTV’s Cultural snippets: Taliban is on the doors of Kabul as Major Cities Fall in Afghanistan and Critical Talk - Critical Race Theory provided valuable insights.
Cultural accountability
• 2021 saw the groundbreaking election of the first woman as Vice President of the US who was from both African and Asian descent.
• Juneteenth became a national holiday.
• Schools and military bases changed their names away from Confederate generals, and the confederate statue in Virginia’s capital was removed.
• Derek Chauvin, the police officer responsible for the death of George Floyd, was convicted.
• A guilty verdict was issued for the three white men from Georgia who hunted and killed Ahmaud Aubrey, a young African-American man.
• A Virginia jury found the organizers of the 2017 ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville liable for damages and ordered them to pay $25 million to the victims.
• After waiting more than three decades, the US House committee voted and approved legislation to create a commission to study slavery reparations for Black citizens in the US.
Achievements
• Besides the challenges, controversies and institutional growth, 2021 had positive gains. In 2021 a vaccine for malaria was developed and approved.
In the Muslim community, Stafford County paid $500K to a Muslim nonprofit after trying to block construction of a cemetery
• Abdul-Razak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for literature.
• Senate confirmed Rashad Hussain as ambassador-at-large for the International Religious Freedom Commission
• Lisa Khan was named chair of the Federal Trade commission
Michigan State Rep. Abdullah Hammoud became the first Arab-American and Muslim mayor-elect of Dearborn
• Hamtramck Michigan made history as the first known city in the US with a government made up entirely of Muslims.
• Reports on these and other achievements were on MNTV daily news and shows like Analysis on Charity Award for Muslim American Law Enforcement Association.
Surely Allah is The Best Knower and The Best to Guide us in all affairs as we complete 2021 and move forward to 2022.
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