Image of Islam hurts

Terrorist. Bomb. Threat. ISIS. Violence. These are just a few of the words that come to people’s minds when they think about Muslims. With the constant uproar of attacks around the world made by extremists, all Muslims are seen as the same– terrorists.

Living as an American Muslim, I see the hatred in people’s eyes when they talk about us. It’s so sad to see that people who don’t even know me already dislike me because of what a few Muslims do. It’s true that there have been major attacks in different countries that involved Muslims, but those are extremists. We don’t define Buddhists as murderers, yet there are monks that constantly kill families and burn down mosques. We don’t define Christians as kidnappers and sex traffickers, yet the Lord’s Resistance Army is involved in abducting small children and marrying off young girls. So why is it when there are extreme Muslims that commit these acts, people define all Muslims as terrorists?

The Public Religion Research Institute polled Americans with the question, “When people claim to be Muslim/Christian and commit acts of violence in the name of Islam/Christianity, do you believe they really are Muslim/Christian, or not?” The results were quite shocking, but expected. Americans tended to lean towards the idea that those who committed violent acts in the name of Christianity were not true Christians, which nearly doubled their willingness “to make the same distinction for Muslims.”  

The hypocrisy that arises is just astounding and downright disappointing. For college, I applied to many schools outside of Texas, but I feared leaving Houston because of the hatred against Muslims. Thankfully, I live in a city that is very diverse and I haven’t met anyone that has discriminated me in any way. The fact that a huge reason that I didn’t want to leave my home was because of religious persecution is not right. My parents chose to move from Pakistan to America in order to give my siblings and me a better life, but how is living in fear of being an accused terrorist a better life?

What people don’t realize is that ISIS is not only made of Muslims, yet people like Ted Cruz want more intense surveillance of Muslims. It’s completely frustrating to see what this world has come to. My family and I don’t have anything to do with ISIS, yet in the eyes of our presidential candidates we are merely pawns of ISIS that want to create massive destruction wherever we go. My family and I just want to live our lives to the fullest and become the best versions of ourselves. We’re humans too. Just like everyone else we’ve got two eyes, two ears, a nose, a heart, a brain, etc. Having a different faith than others shouldn’t be the deciding factor on whether people like me or not. Basing likes and dislikes on people solely on the fact that they’re part of a different religion is absurd. Next year, I’ll be attending Houston Baptist University and I’ll have to take Christian classes, which is perfectly alright with me. It isn’t a big deal to me, so then why is Islam a big deal to a lot of other people?

One reason that I think makes people fear Muslims is due to their ignorance of the religion. Constantly, people are bombarded with only a miniscule section of Muslims that deal with mass murders, bomb threats, etc. Living in an area that consists of very few to zero Muslims, seeing this type of portrayal of Muslims, and seeing the way that presidential candidates talk about us, I can somewhat understand where Islamophobia comes from. If they’re only exposed to news of radical Islamist, of course they’re going to view the entire people as crazy. What I don’t and will not justify is people’s’ need to act on those fears such as putting severed pig heads on the doorsteps of a masjid or shooting people because they’re Muslim or even burning down masjids. What happened to freedom of religion? What happened to believing in whatever faith that I choose? I don’t need to be “intensely surveilled” just because I am Muslim. People should also be looking at the good that Muslims have done. Whether it’s through the army or the police force, there are many Muslims that put their lives on the line in order to protect Americans.

I wish that this chaos would stop and I am hoping that in the near future it’ll cease to exist. I don’t want my children to be ashamed of their religion. I want them to understand that just because they’re Muslims, it doesn’t mean that they are terrorists.