“I don’t get looked like as a normal person who’s just trying to protect themselves,” said Muhammad, who emigrated from Turkey as a baby with her family, who are Kurds, and is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
American Muslims like Muhammad say they own guns for the same reasons as anyone else: for protection, for hunting and sport shooting, for gun and rifle collections or for their work.
They also cite another factor: fear of persecution, at a time when hate crimes against Muslims have soared to their highest levels since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
For Muhammad, owning a gun was a matter of feeling safe: She said she decided to buy a pistol after a frightening encounter with a stranger in the parking lot of the grocery store where she worked in Columbus.
“I just felt defenseless,” she recalled. “I did not feel like I could protect myself. It took a toll on me even until today. I’m overcautious, always watching my back.”
She goes to the gun range once a week.
“People stare at me and look me up and down, kind of like: ‘What are you doing owning a gun? We know what you people do with the guns,'” she said. “I walk into the place and I feel like an alien.”
But owning a gun is no assurance of security. Muslim gun owners are viewed with suspicion by gun stores, ranges and clubs, and occasionally met with harassment.
A Pew Research Center survey of American Muslims last year found that nearly half said they had experienced discrimination: 32 percent reported being treated with suspicion; 19 percent said they had been called offensive names; and 6 percent said they had been physically threatened or attacked.
Muslims represent about 1 percent of the U.S. population,
