To the Editor:

When I first heard the news about six weeks ago that a group of Muslim neighbors here in Newton had organized this City’s first official festival in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid Al-Adha, my heart soared.

I am a 48-year-old Muslim American and have spent a lifetime living in some of the most diverse cities of our nation, but it was in my family’s “chosen” city of Newton, Massachusetts, that for the first time ever, I was given the opportunity to celebrate my holiday with my non-Muslim friends and neighbors with the explicit public support of our collective local civic institutions. While I personally had a conflict with the day of the celebration, I joyfully and with full trust gave a small gift of financial support for the celebration.

Sadly, I also feared that there would be a backlash to this celebration, and this fear unfortunately ended up getting validated, as expressed in the Newton Beacon headline: “Group blasts City Hall for allowing Eid celebration at War Memorial Auditorium.”

The article described concerns from Newton residents and other concerned nonresidents who felt that holding the Eid celebration at the War Memorial was inappropriate, particularly at a time when many Jewish residents are feeling vulnerable because of rising antisemitism.

And yet, reading the article left me with a different kind of pain: Why is it so hard for Muslims to simply enjoy a moment of celebration without it inevitably being linked to allegations of terrorism?

Whether intended or not, this letter left me feeling that my presence as a Muslim in Newton was somehow suspect—something requiring special scrutiny. I have spent the past 12 hours poking at that Newton Beacon article about this letter like an open wound, just to feel the hurt. But I think it’s time to delete that file and focus on the future.

When I was 9 years old in suburban New York, I remember feeling heartsick and scared when our local newspaper published a multi-page, full-color weekend feature about a white nationalist in our hometown. I felt viscerally sure that this 30-year-old man hated me, a little brown girl, and my fear was enough for me to not want to go out in public.

My parents calmed me down by reminding me that while this article highlighted one bad egg, we were surrounded by good people who liked, loved or respected us for the individual human beings we were, and not the assumptions that people made based on our identity labels. Who knew that I would need to call those exact words to myself more than 40 years later, in order to derive the exact same comfort?

But the good news is that it was true in Somers, N.Y., in 1987—and I know it is true in Newton, Mass., in 2026. I know this because I live it every day: The fact of the matter is, I missed Newton’s Eid celebration because I was attending the bat mitzvah of the daughter of a dear friend at a local synagogue. And the Newton that I know and love is one where these relationships across identity differences are the norm.

I spend many of my working hours supporting young people through interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue programs. Again and again, I have watched young people not just from Newton, but from across Greater Boston, learn from one another, work together and build genuine friendships.

And in my non-professional daily life, I volunteer my time and energy with fellow Newtonians making real progress on a variety of issues to tangibly make Newton a better and safer place for all of its diverse constituents, through Newton Conversations and Families Organizing for Racial Justice and even the Newton Free Library’s English Language Learner program.

This is the Newton that I know, and love.

This past May’s Eid celebration was one small expression of that aspiration, and I know it will not be the last.

Runa Islam
Newtonville

Board President, Mosaic: Interfaith Youth Action