Muslim Hip-Hop Group Dance to Sway Islamophobia

WMDP

Female Muslim hip-hop group dances to battle misconceptions about Muslim women.

Amirah Sackett, an American following the Islamic faith and a hip hop dancer with a number of awards under her feet, dances wearing the hijab. Her purpose: change the way the non-Muslims view Islam. She also wishes to smash ^[1] a number of stereotypes via performance. She has her own female only Muslim dance group, satirically-and aptly-named We're Muslim Don't Panic ^[2] o r simply WMDP. The group's catchy performances is making the audience -Muslim and non-Muslim- dance to the tunes they have composed and also tackling the number of misconceptions which about about Muslim women.

Sackett founded WMDP in 2011, a tumultuous year for Islam and Muslims. France ^[3] had forbid students to wear the hijab to school. The cloth represents morality and modesty in Islamic tradition. The reason for her founding of the dance group was because she wanted to shift conversation terms. To her, while western governments regarded the burka, hijab and niqab as a barrier to empowerment and freedom, the strictures about forbidding to wear them is doing the opposite- the French government actually controlled what Muslim women in France wants to wear.

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All women hiphop group "We're Muslim Don't Panic" breaks. it. down. in niqab and sneakers https://t.co/asIRlIzdaH pic.twitter.com/P788nfY5Hu ^[4]^[5]

— Priscilla Frank (@badgirlpripri) May 25, 2016 ^[6]

Sackett soon teamed up with two other dancers- Khadijah and Iman, to create WMDP, a performance group comprising three women which executes perfectly choreographed hip hop numbers, all wearing high tops and niqab. According to Sackett, she wanted to reverse the script. In a magazine interview, she said that her intention is to educate others and mirror the beauty in Muslim women. She admitted that like as in other parts of the world, Muslim women are oppressed too.

Khadijah, Sackett's group member, said that she likes to wear the hijab and thus wear one. She also said that she feels beautiful both with and without wearing the hijab. She told the interviewer that boys were more attracted to her when she was not wearing the garment and she did not like it. Only after wearing the hijab, did they regarded her as a regular person.

Islamophobia is now rampant all around the world. The United States alone has documented approximately 120 anti-Muslim acts ^[7]. Incidences are a regular occurrence even in 2016. Political parties are jumping on the hate bandwagon too. Donald Trump, the presidential candidate from the Republican Party, told voters the false story about U.S. General John Joseph Pershing targeting Muslims at the time of Philippine-American War. The bullets were falsely told and being dipped in blood collected from pigs.