As violence rages across the world, as news pours in of more shootings, more killings, more bombings, eyes seek a target to blame. It is human nature to attempt to find an explanation for what we perceive as unusual or wrong, yet often the correct answers come only when logic prevails. In such a heated time, emotion has overwhelmed many senses, and the accusing fingers point towards a group of people: Muslims.
Yet demonizing a group won’t do anything but breed more fear, and fear is a very, very dangerous emotion when paired with action. Frequently we hear calls to ban Muslims, to implement Muslim databases, to close mosques, to ban Muslim items that represent faith, such as hijabs. We hear calls to exclude Muslims in the fear that one might be a terrorist; we witness insistence that we bomb cities with innocent civilians in case a terrorist cell might dwell there. But this is wrong. This is not right, not fair, and most certainly not humane.
How can we expect bombs, discrimination, threats to stop the endless cycle of hatred? More violence cannot solve more violence. I wish for the world to be careful, to think logically about the actions we take. You begin using the enemy’s tactics and there’s no difference between you and them. Act like them and you will become them. The enemy right now embodies prejudice, discrimination, willful ignorance. Yet we are now doing the same. That’s what destroying us, what’s delivering more members to the very group we seek to eliminate.
Why don’t they consider me human? Why don’t they understand that we have very real feelings and needs and dreams too? Why do they blame us for something we did not do, for something we do not condone? I don’t give a flying flip what those terrorists claim to be; they are not Muslim. They do not follow the teachings of Islam, so they cannot be Muslim. In fact, they go against the teachings of every established religion in the world.
Don’t you understand? In the same way we do not hate all Germans for the crimes of the Nazis, in the same way we do not condemn all Christians for the atrocities committed by the KKK and the Westboro Baptist Church, in the same way we do not blame all Europeans for the brutality shown by Christopher Columbus and countless others from Europe…so must we not blame all Muslims for the terrorism committed by ISIL or Al-Qaeda.
I am Muslim. I support LGBT rights, I support women’s rights. Allow me to repeat: I am Muslim. And I support human rights. Nowhere in the Qu’ran does it tell me not to do this. Nowhere does it tell me to kill those who don’t follow my religion; in fact, a main tenant of Islam, as with many religions, is thou shalt not kill. Understand this. Until the media or presidential candidates or world leaders or even the average person has read every inch of the Qu’ran, they can’t say anything about what Islam represents because they don't know.
Please. I can’t—I don’t want to have to keep walking out of the room when the news is on; I don’t want to have to keep avoiding news sites or presidential debates. I just want what is promised me as a person: the right to be judged by my own actions and not by those who pretend to be like me. The right to be looked at as human and the rights that come with being human.
I beg the world: please do not take action fueled by blind emotion. I understand the anger, I understand the terror. But we cannot douse the flame of violence with a flood of fury and fear. ISIL aims to turn us against each other; we cannot stand united if we argue amongst ourselves. The rejection of Syrian refugees, the proposed ban on Muslim immigrants, the suggested Muslim database, the attacks on mosques and those of faith, the heightened Islamaphobia…they are winning if we allow it to continue.
Don’t you get it? You’re treating Muslims as if they are dirt, judging us based on actions that are not ours, actions we do not agree with. Do you know what that breeds? It certainly isn’t safety—it’s resentment. ISIL intends the world to turn on Muslims, thus delivering Muslims straight to ISIL. They want us to validate their claim that ISIL is the only safe place for Muslims, and you know what we're doing? We're proving them right. And it isn’t fair.
You want to know what the Qu’ran promotes? It preaches equality for all people. It demands respect for women and kindness for animals. It asks for a gift to the poor on a regular basis. It requests that we pray and remember God at least five times a day. It encourages us to treat enemies with kindness, to never leave a neighbor hungry or thirsty when we have something to give, to want for friends what we want for ourselves. It endorses us to keep ourselves and our environment clean. Most importantly, it insists that we do not force our God, our religion, upon others.
I am not a threat to my country, no matter what lovely Donald Trump espouses or charming Ben Carson promotes or delightful Ted Cruz endorses. I love my country. It is mine, just as it is yours. No one can sit there, judging us without even knowing us, and tell us we don’t. They don’t have the right. This is my country. I would never want to harm it, ever. Nor would I want to harm any other country. I am certain—absolutely certain—that over a billion other Muslims would agree.
What people don't understand is that you can’t learn about my religion through the media, from politicians. Those people, too, bring their own stereotypes, their own prejudices, to what they deliver. They don’t know my religion at all. You can’t even learn about my religion from majority Muslim countries, because the people who run them only desire power, so they’ll twist religion(s) to fit their own agenda. They’ll manipulate it to carry acts of evil or miseducation. But that’s all people see, all people trust, and it baffles me. How could they not know how biased the media is, how fallible? The media is run by people, politicians are people, and they are corruptible and capable of prejudice, some quite obviously so.
Yeah, it feels like the world is crumbling, but we cannot allow ourselves to further its destruction. We are not broken, we are bruised. They have not won yet, and we do not intend to lose. But in the meantime, I do not want to fear those who claim themselves as the “good guys.” I do not want to fear for those being harassed and attacked for their belief system. How twisted is that, to attack someone over what resides in their own head, their own heart? How hateful do you have to be to belittle, degrade, scorn people just because they aren't like you?
I remember…I got into a fight with some people on the Internet (a verifiable black hole of everything disgusting about the human race) over my religion. These people hadn’t even read the Qu’ran, yet they accused me of supporting matricide and pedophilia simply because I was Muslim. One even hoped that people like me would die, and the more evolved race would reign alone one day. This guy, who was supposed to be 'more evolved' than I, was wishing death upon me for believing in something he didn’t. How horribly ironic.
I am not the epitome of evil simply because I am Muslim. Every religion comes with fanatics whose beliefs do not reflect the feelings of the majority. I'm so tired of saying that and having no one listen. I'm tired of people pretending to listen, of people lying to my face, and then turning around and ignoring everything said, every piece of evidence against their misguided and deep-held prejudice, and continuing to do what they're doing.
And no, I don't want your sympathy, I don't want your pity; it is wasted with inaction. I don't want freebies and I don't want handouts; I have two legs and I'll walk on my own. I want what our constitution promises: the chance to be judged by my own actions and for my worth to be recieved as anyone else's would. Any who advocate to deny Muslims this fundamental right does not deserve to call him or herself a decent human being. So don't get all high and mighty on me. Don't pretend you're trying to protect yourself and your family, as if I don't desire the same, as if millions of Muslims all over the world don't want the same. Don't act like you're doing something right by putting down an entire group of people.
No one deserves to feel like less than human, less than a living being. I exist, don't I? I live, don't I? I love my family, hate my enemies, inhale oxygen, bleed blood, laugh and cry. Don't you, too? So aren't we the same? Forget religion, forget which holy book we follow...aren't we the same?
How's this for perspective: when you bomb me, my body is destroyed just like yours; my blood will water the street among the smoking husk of my home. But perhaps that's what these Islamaphobes want, isn't it? When these people witness the broken bodies of those like me, when they see emaciated figures, desperate eyes; when they observe the glistening blood that runs red through the destruction of denial: perhaps then they will be satisfied. Perhaps then they will feel vindicated. After all...we are monsters, are we not?
And aren't we taught as young children to celebrate when the villain is defeated?
We Muslims are your allies, likely your most valuable, in the fight against ISIL. Why, then, are there those who insist we are at fault? Why, then, am I scared for those who follow my religion? When, then, am I scared for my family? Ah, yes. It's because although we aid in the fight against terrorism, there are few who know about our help, and even fewer who recognize it. So we are pasted onto a dartboard and the world is given an invitation to shoot.
But I am American. I am Muslim. I am Muslim and I stand for peace. I am Muslim and I love animals. I am Muslim and I support human rights. I am Muslim and I, like over a billion others, am not a terrorist. Hear that? I am Muslim, and I am not a terrorist.
So go ahead. Take aim. But remember this: a shot, once fired, cannot be taken back, so tread carefully with your ammunition.