The room is so quiet, one can hear a pin drop. The silence is peppered only by an occasional cough here, a whisper of Arabic from barely audible lips. As the Imam, the religious leader, finishes up prayer, the silence is broken. Announcements made over a microphone are intermingled with the sound of dozens of bare feet shuffling on carpet, heading outside the prayer hall, where they’ll put on their shoes and exit.

One of the pairs of feet belongs to Ovais Panjwani, a computer science major at UT Austin. He grabs his shoes and his backpack, and exits the mosque. Seeing his friends outside, he starts talking about final exams and plans for the upcoming mosque fundraisers.

Panjwani, a practicing Muslim, comes to the mosque every Friday for jummah, the weekly Islamic service that includes a short sermon and prayers. His religion teaches him love and peace, he said.

“Being a Muslim in Texas for me means just spreading as much kindness as I can,” Panjwani said. “To anyone that I know or anyone that I meet, [I] act kind and have compassion towards that person.”

Panjwani’s account of Islam differs from mainstream media’s portrayal of it, however, where the rhetoric is increasingly Islamophobic. The Oxford dictionary defines Islamophobia as the dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force. And there is proof that Islamophobia is increasing. According to a YouGov poll done last year, 55% of Americans surveyed had an unfavorable opinion of Islam.   

“The rhetoric that is out there today is much greater than it was post 9/11,” Sheikh Umer Ismail, the Imam of Nueces Mosque, said. “They weren’t inciting people against Muslims, they weren’t insulting Muslims, they weren’t saying the sort of hateful things that we’re hearing today.”

Ismail came to Austin shortly after 9/11, and has served as the Imam for Nueces Mosque, the mosque located in west campus, which caters to many Muslim students.

“Today it seems like instead of progressing, we’re regressing, and it seems like we’re going back to the Civil Rights Era,” Ismail said.  “And it’s the Muslims and other minorities that are the target.”

According to several news media analysis, hate crimes against Muslims has tripled in the 3 months since the November Paris attacks and the December San Bernardino attacks, with 38 attacks being reported. Dozens more Muslim Americans have stated being the brunt of mental and emotional harassment.

The attacks come at a time where anti-Muslim sentiment is being spoken on the political front more than ever before, according to Pew Research Center. In the recent election cycle, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” and claimed U.S. General John Pershing executed Muslims with “bullets dipped in pigs blood” (for Muslims, eating pork is a sin and coming in contact with pigs blood is unholy).  Another Republican presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, called on law enforcement to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods.”

Ismail himself has been the victim of such harassment. One day, he was walking back into his apartment complex rolling a carry-on, as he had just returned from the airport. As he got near his door, he said, two individuals sitting on a picnic table asked him if he had a bomb in his suitcase.

“I just couldn’t believe my eyes that they would say something like that,” Ismail said.

For Ismail, it’s the allowance of hateful comments from presidential candidates that’s encouraging Islamophobic sentiments.

“Politicians are becoming enablers to Islamophobia, even though they may not be held legally responsible for it, but they don’t realize that people are losing that sense of accountability when it comes to Islamophobic events and incidents,” Ismail said.

“Now it seems like all of a sudden its okay to insult people publically and to say, I’ll pay for your fine or legal costs if you hit somebody. That is something that I don’t think politicians even 50 60 years ago would have said.”

Panjwani agrees, but believes that Muslims do have a responsibility in combating Islamophobia.

“I remember growing up there wasn’t that many Muslim voices in the media in the public running for congress or for the senate or anything like that,” Panjwani said. “We weren’t putting ourselves out there. And now because of the Islamophobic rhetoric we have to put ourselves out there, we’re forced to do it, which is a good thing. We get to show who we are and we get to show people who we are.”

Ismail believes a combination of Muslims and people of other faiths speaking out and connecting with one another will improve the situation.

“What is needed the most is people coming together and acquainting themselves with each other, and sometimes it just takes 5 minutes to get to know somebody and all the fear you had of that particular race or community will be gone,” Ismail said.

Panjwani invites anyone who is curious about Islam or Muslims to come visit the student-run mosque located in West campus.

“Our doors are open. If you want to come by and talk to a Muslim, you’re more than welcome. Nueces Mosque is open for you to come in,” Panjwani said.