Here's a little test for you: What comes to mind when you read this short description?
She earned her first college degree in liberal arts when she was only 17. Now she is 18 and pursuing a bachelors degree in biochemistry. She is one of the freshman representatives of the Levermore Global Scholars, does organic chemistry research, writes for an online social content platform, and holds an e-board position in one of the many clubs she's in.
Is she hardworking? Determined? Successful?
How about a terrorist?
Unfortunately, for many people, reading one extra sentence can change their entire point of view on this girl. Here is that one extra sentence:
She wears a hijab.
Well, that girl is me, and I am labeled a terrorist by society.
Anti-Muslim bigotry has been on the rise all over Europe and America ever since the Paris attacks occurred on November 13th, 2015. It's the worst it's ever been, even since 9/11. To sum it all up for you, here's a compilation of some of the attacks that have recently been carried out in the name of Islamophobia.
A Muslim woman was shot at as she left a mosque in Florida. Another woman was nearly run over.
A hijab-wearing woman was pushed in the way of an oncoming train.
A Muslim woman was on her way to pick her children up from school when she was attacked by two men. They shouted anti-Muslim slurs at her, kicked her, punched her, robbed her, and ripped her hijab off.
A Muslim taxi driver in Pittsburgh was shot in the back by a passenger he picked up.
A Muslim teenager in Seattle was thrown to his death from the sixth floor of a building. (A Gofundme has been set up if you would like to donate to his family.)
A mosque in California was firebombed.
A woman in California threw her coffee at Muslim men praying in a park.
A Muslim store owner in Astoria was beaten in an alleged hate crime.
A Muslim family's home in Orlando was shot into.
A French mayor wants to ban Islam in France.
A great-grandmother sent a letter to an Islamic School claiming that "All Muslims worship Satan."
A sixth grade Muslim girl was punched and called "ISIS" by her schoolmates. (Something very similar happened to me when I was in the sixth grade over seven years ago.)
A Muslim man was thrown off a coach bus after passengers complained he looked "shifty."
A Muslim man and his wife were closing their store when a dozen men shouted "ISIS" at them and attacked.
A feces-covered Quran was left outside a mosque in Texas.
I would go on, but the sad truth is that there are hundreds of crimes against Muslims just like these and even worse. Are they all not terrorist attacks? You see, when upset people are not informed about a certain group of people correctly, they will assume things and they will take action based on false assumptions and extreme ignorance.
What do I mean by extreme ignorance? How about that time a Latino student was spit on because someone thought he was a Muslim? How about that time a Christian Uber driver was attacked because his passenger mistook him for a Muslim? How about that time people mistook passages from the Bible as passages from the Quran?
It is also important to bring up the fact that Sikhism and Islam are two completely different religions because Islamophobes don't seem to understand that. Sikh fans were recently denied entry to Chargers Stadium because of their turbans. Sikh temples have also been vandalized with anti-ISIS graffiti. A 12 year-old Sikh boy was recently arrested, kept by police and interrogated for 3 days because his classmates joked that a power pack in his book bag looked like a bomb.
We also have Donald Trump to thank for his recent call to ban Muslims from entering America. Trump fails to realize that ISIS has killed more Muslims than non-Muslims. He also fails to realize that the Syrian refugees he's planning to ban from the U.S. are running from ISIS. My dad, aunt, and uncle were firsthand victims of 9/11. They were all running from the terrorists that you identify them with. Did you know that, Trump, or will you continue to generalize all Muslims as extremists? If that's the case, then it technically means you are giving us the right to label all whites as extremists, since, you know, you're white and you're an extremist.
Why am I constantly being told to go back to my country? I was born here. Where else am I supposed to go? Why am I being called a terrorist on a Saturday afternoon if all I'm doing is eating mac and cheese in my pajamas? Why are people claiming that Muslims are doing nothing to combat this war on terror if:
1.5 million Muslims signed a document issued by 70,000 Muslim clerics protesting terrorist activity.
More than 120 Muslim scholars have teamed up and written an 18-page open letter to ISIS denouncing their twisted, barbaric ideology.
A group of Muslims aiming to raise $50,000 for the families of the victims of the San Bernardino shooting raised over $215,000.
Recent research has shown that predominantly Muslim countries have expressed their disdain for ISIS.
It's time to stop blaming an entire group of people for the actions of a few individuals. Generalization is not okay. We don't blame all of Christianity for the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church or the KKK, so why are we blaming all of Islam for the actions of ISIS?
Say it with me: All Muslims are not terrorists.
"But all terrorists are Muslim," you say.
Actually, only 6% of the terrorist attacks carried out from 1980-2005 were religiously motivated. That means a whopping 94 percent of terrorist attacks have nothing to do with extremists in Islam.
The number dips even lower for Europe, where less than 2% of terrorist attacks were religiously motivated.
Do you know what that means? 98% of these terrorist attacks had nothing to do with any form of religion, so don't you dare associate me with terrorists.
Not in my name.
Say it with me: All Muslims are not terrorists.
