With anti-Muslim hate crimes five times more frequent than they were 15 years ago, some South Asians in the United States are anxious about a Trump administration, NBC News reported.
"One of [President-elect Donald] Trump's biggest promises was tighter restrictions in allowing Muslims entry into this country," blogger Nabela Noor posted on her Facebook page early Wednesday.
"My mother, who has only known American soil for most of her life, and Muslims all throughout the country, may now have to live in fear instead of freedom."
Simran Jeet Singh, a Sikh American and senior religion fellow at The Sikh Coalition, said the anxiety is understandable.
"Being perceived as the enemy for the last 15 years, at least we've already come to be hyper-vigilant," Singh, who is also an assistant professor of religion at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, told NBC News.
"Sikhs, Muslims, South Asians, Arab Americans — we already have this radar on us constantly, where we're looking around, making sure that people aren't trying to harm us because of our appearance."
Others posted their worries on Twitter.
Trump offered a controversial temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States in December 2015 – amending the proposal in October to call for "extreme vetting" of people from countries with Islamic radicals or terrorist activity.
"If people are continuing to get the message about our next president of the United States, that it's okay to target people based on their religious identity or how they appear, then who knows to what degree and in what sorts of ways this xenophobia will manifest itself," Singh told NBC News.
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