As salamu alaykum brother,

 

Shokran for writing to our live session. I am sorry to hear what you went through brother.  People can be so cruel. What you described can be classified as a mild form of bullying.  The classmate who challenged you appeared to feel a sense of entitlement and power.  It was an illusion.  She tried to make you look foolish but what your classmate did, was made herself look ridiculous, not you.

 

Culture and Expectations

 

Just because a person is of a certain ethnicity/race/culture does not mean they must know the language. There are a lot of people who have parents who are from other countries and speak different languages.  Their children however, are not always fluent in both languages and that is okay.

 

You are Romanian and Arab.  Be proud of both your heritages.  There is no need for you to speak fluent Arabic to prove your ethnicity.  The important thing is that you can speak Romanian because that is where you live now.  If you want to You do not have to prove anything to anyone.  When situations like this arise, it hurts.  We do not truly know the motive of the one who is doing the bullying. Usually the best course of action is to either ignore the person or to briefly tell them you have not used the Arabic language in a long time and are not fluent. However, it is really none of their business. You do not have to prove anything to anyone.

 

Discrimination & Bullying

 

You may feel discriminated against for being Arab, which may be true I do not know.  What more than likely happened was the girl was just trying to intimidate you to make you feel bad. Who knows, perhaps she was jealous of your dual ethnicity and wished she was of two different unique cultures.

 

Brother try not to take it to heart. Chances are, when you go back, it will be all forgotten about.  Her response was rude true indeed but in situations like this it is best not to respond as it just feeds into the situation. If you must respond just be polite (I know it’s hard) because the last thing a provocateur wants is a polite response.  They are eagerly looking for you to get upset and lash out.  This feeds into, and escalates the situation. When you respond in a way that closes the situation (yes your right, you have a good point, thank you for your concern), the person usually stops as there is no argument to defend. The only exception is if there is ever a physical confrontation.  In this case you have every right to defend yourself and you should.

 

This situation however seems like some very childish behavior from her part and insha’Allah it will be forgotten about when you go back.  If she continues to harass and bully you brother, please do inform someone at the school or at home of the situation. You deserve to learn in a peaceful non-threatening environment.  We wish you the best.