It looks like death threats towards American-Muslim kids like me, and it looks like real violence against many people. I tweeted on December 10th of 2018 in response to a death threatthat, вЂњwhen you support Islamophobic candidates, normalize Islamophobia, and buy into Islamophobic myths, that has consequences. As a teenager, IвЂ™ve had to reconcile speaking my truth with worrying those who care about me, and IвЂ™ve come to silently wonder if maybe these messages arenвЂ™t just threats. As a coping mechanism, I typically brush off the vitriol as irrelevant, as failed attempts at humor, but thereвЂ™s always a part of me that wonders if they mean it. It feels as if my last name is a magnet for death threats, bigoted trolling, and inane callousness. Ten years later, I still havenвЂ™t watched the video and the comparisons to the caricature of dead terrorists have since subsided however, that same toxic internet culture, rampant with explicit and implicit anti-Muslim bigotry, has gone nowhere.ДЄs a now twenty-year-old American-Muslim that is characteristically outspoken, IвЂ™ve almost accepted online hatred as normal because it is seemingly so inescapable. In 2009, Jeff DunhamвЂ™s вЂњAchmed the Dead TerroristвЂќ was the ninth most-watched video of all time on YouTube.

Growing up, though, introducing myself would often be met with вЂњAhmed? Like Achmed the Dead Terrorist?вЂќ I had never seen the video that they were referencing, but that didnвЂ™t change the fact that a comedianвЂ™s distasteful attempt at social commentary began to shape my coming of age. My name is Ziad Ahmed, and IвЂ™m unapologetically American-Muslim. I donвЂ™t remember when my name became an invitation to compare me to a puppet terrorist, but perhaps thatвЂ™s because it still feels like yesterday.

Achmed the dead terrorist video