TheBrief

SPOTLIGHT

TRENDING

LAW
Japans Supreme Court
upheld a 19th century
law on Dec. 15 forcing
married couples to
share the same last
name. Critics called it
a setback for womens
rights in a patriarchal
society where studies
show married women
opt to take the
husbands name 96%
of the time.

L A W : A P ; J U S T I C E : R E U T E R S; F A I T H : G E T T Y I M A G E S; A L I : C O U R T E S Y O F YA Z M I N A L I

JUSTICE
Executions in the
U.S. fell to their
lowest total in almost
25 years in 2015,
according to the Death
Penalty Information
Center, and the
number of death
sentences decreased
by a third. Shortages
of lethal-injection
drugs are said to be
one factor.

HATEFUL
RESPONSE
Police have started
investigating several
anti-Muslim attacks
since the Paris
terrorism on Nov. 13.

What its like

to be Muslim
in America,
post-Paris
For the First time in her
life, Yazmin Ali is afraid to leave
her house in a cookie-cutter subdivision outside Fredericksburg,
Va. The reason: shes Muslim and
wears a hijab.
It doesnt matter that Ali, 34,
was born and raised in Florida, that
her mother is a Cuban-American
evangelical Christian, that she has a
masters degree or that she learned
Arabic only through a State Department scholarship. After terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino,
Calif., she began noticing more
dirty looks from strangers. When
it was raining recently and she offered to let other parents shelter
in her car at her kids bus stop, she
says, they said no.
Four days after the Paris
attacks, protesters disrupted a
public meeting to discuss a new
Islamic center in Alis hometown,
shouting, Every Muslim is a terrorist! Then a man with a Confederate flag showed up to protest
a coat drive for Syrian refugees. Ali
started disguising her hijab under
a winter hat and scarf. I had a
really long, good cry, she says.

Pflugerville, Texas
Vandals tore up
pages of the Quran
and covered them
with feces at a
mosque entrance.

Yazmin Ali: Because I have

kids, Im fearful of something
happening to me.
These are difficult times for
American Muslims. According to
one tally, there have been 38 antiIslamic attacks in the U.S. since
the Paris terrorism. The trend was
also bad in 2014, with the FBI reporting that hate crimes decreased
for all categories of victims except
Muslims.
Since the Paris attacks, Ali has
started to organize a self-defense
class for fellow Muslim women,
and shes pushing her mosque to
display the U.S. and Virginia flags.
But she still plans to take Christmas cookies to her neighbors and
keep wearing her hijab. To take
it off almost means Ive allowed
hate to permeate and penetrate my
identity, she says.
elizabeth dias

Philadelphia
A severed pigs
head was tossed
at a mosque from a
passing pickup truck.
Bloomington, Ind.
An Indiana University
student allegedly
attacked a Muslim
woman at a caf,
choking her and
removing her scarf.
Grand Forks, N.D.
A Somali restaurant
was defaced with a
Nazi-style symbol.
Days later it was
torched with a
Molotov cocktail.
Coachella, Calif.
A 23-year-old man
faces hate-crime,
arson and burglary
charges for allegedly
firebombing a
mosque before the
start of afternoon
prayer.

TODAY IN B.S.

FAITH
Mother Teresa is to
be made a saint now
that Pope Francis has
approved her second
miracle, involving the
healing of a Brazilian
mans brain infection
11 years after her
death. The celebrated
missionary, who died
in 1997, is expected
to be canonized in
September.

No, antidepressants during pregnancy do

not dramatically increase autism risk
headlines screamed the
alarming results: a large study in
JAMA Pediatrics reported an 87%
increased risk of autism among
children born to women taking
antidepressants. But 87% higher
than what? About 1% of babies
worldwide are born with autism.
And while an 87% increase in relative risk sounds like a lot, it rep-

resents a tiny absolute increase in

risk. The study also couldnt establish for sure whether the drugsor
the depression that made them
necessarywere responsible
for the autism link. Moms-to-be
should weigh the need to treat
their depression against the small
chance that the drugs could affect
the fetus.alice park
23

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