When we first entered this bookstore the environment seemed welcoming enough— that is until we started asking the owner questions for our project. Immediately he displayed signs of discomfort and a clear reluctance to give away any personal information. Instead he directed us to the store’s book catalog and told us to consult his website for any information we might want. You might wonder, why is it that he felt he couldn’t talk to us?

The unwillingness of this particular bookstore’s owner to participate in our exploration of the bookstores of N.Y.C. cannot be understood without placing it within the context of Trump’s America.

During the 2016 presidential election, the U.S. media began being flooded by unprecedented amounts of anti-Muslim sentiments. People started revealing their contempt for their Muslim neighbors as they rallied behind the new face of America: Donald Trump. Now with Trump in the presidency, the people in America are faced with a great divide in their differing views. Muslims, along with many other marginalized groups, live in fear of what might occur next in Trump’s America.

With President Trump’s “Muslim Ban,” animosity toward the Muslim community became a cruel reality. This ban immediately turned previously legal green card and visa holders into illegal travelers. The executive order barred immigration from seven Muslim majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen. Every one of these countries but Iran belong to the Arab League and are Arabic-speaking countries. This ban hurts Arab communities like Bay Ridge where the Syrian population is huge. Residents live in fear of their future and their ability to sponsor family trying to escape the horrifying conditions of war-torn Syria. In Trump’s America, members of these communities feel attacked and are afraid to own their Muslim identity. This bookstore still exists here in N.Y.C. today only because the Muslim community of the city is so large and united through associations like the Arab American Association of New York. This small bookstore stands to serve a need in its community rather than to generate a large profit. With Trump raising anti-Muslim feelings in America, this bookstore stands to educate anyone who finds themselves within its walls to what the fundamental principles of Islam truly are.

With all this in mind, we can understand why the owner of an Arab-Muslim bookstore may not want to divulge any information about his business. We don’t know his personal story and how Trump’s policies have affected him or his family.  Perhaps he was afraid of drawing any outside attention or of releasing information that could potentially hurt his family or his business. As far as he was concerned, he already had the customer base he needed— leaders of local mosques. Members of the Arab community already know of his business, as his store is one of the few Arabic bookstores left in New York City, and he had no need for us to share his story.