Mohammad Yousuf is from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He is a student in Arizona University and a staunch follower of Islam. He prays five times a day, even if it costs him his class. He is a devoted Muslim, never missed the fasts of Ramzan and supports beard for Muslims. He’s gone to US for his studies. Now, he’s started missing classes too frequently – sometimes for prayers…sometimes for attending the meetings of Islamist guests who used to visit the university to speak on the role of Islam in the world, which sometime is open for the debate.

However, the post 9/11 era started a new western outlook to the Islamic world. After that, there was a tint of suspicion, which always hovers over the Muslim community in the US. Now Yousuf’s activities are under scan because of his behavior that US of A considers as budding of Islamist extremism and thus a threat. Yousuf’s activities raise his teachers’ concerns because of the new regulations to the universities to tackle the extremism make teachers more vigil and the signs, as they say, shown by Yousuf makes him prone to Al-Qaeda influence and to be picked up for suicide bombing.

The guidelines to the universities are yet another step to darken the clouds of Islamophobia. This is a futile exercise, awkward and more intended to estrange Islam. By doing so, knowingly (or unknowingly), US and the west are becoming more vulnerable to Jihad because here the strategy is to divide than to win the hearts and minds of students – potentially the best way to put off the conflict forever – who can fell to Jihad.

Strict Visa restriction and censorship in US have dented its repute in the Islamic world and the result is witnessed in the form of decline in the flux of students to US. Now, the students from Islamic world opt for Australia to US as a favorite destination for further studies. Yes, Australia, they say, offers something unique and different…different in terms of freedom of thought, expression, and except these university officials make Muslims feel comfortable. The universities in Australia offer prayer rooms, theme parks and restaurants with food certified as “halal” and cooked in accordance with the Islamic dietary law. Additionally, difference between the two, of course, is of welcoming smiles and suspicion.

With all this, there appears difference in the number of students that are increasing in Australia and decreasing in US. Now, Yousuf doesn’t want to stay in US for the further studies. He doesn’t want to be under the suspicious eyes and last but not the least is, he doesn’t find US adaptable anymore. Yousuf also now preferred to go Australia for his post graduation studies. For the familiarity, some of his friends are already staying there, and here adaptability is the prominent feature.

The crux of the matter is in the fact that Islamophobia myth is more destroying the US than sidelining Islam. With the reducing flux of students, US is losing some valuable dollars that these foreign students add to its economy. US is losing to this myth and days are not far when Islamophobia will become a name associated with US destruction. This is evident with the scuffle of a bond between the United States and the Arab world and lot more is yet to come...