Yesterday, on July 4, 2016, the United States celebrated its 240th birthday. On that day, nearly a quarter of a millennium ago, our Founding Fathers were fearless freedom fighters who stood up to tyranny by signing the Declaration of Independence. However, without a doubt, if they were alive today, the fearful oppression they would see would make them ashamed of their legacy.

On July 3, a Emirati business-man, Ahmed al-Menhali, was brutally subdued by Ohio police after a call came from the family of a desk receptionist of the hotel Mr. al-Menhali was presumably staying at. According to The New York Times, they called 911 claiming their family member who worked at the hotel heard him speaking in Arabic "pledging his allegiance or something to ISIS".

The family member also informed the police that the Arab guest was wearing the traditional white headdress and gown of the United Arab Emirates. The caller said the receptionist she did not see any weapons on the man.

In response, the police quickly sent a team over to the hotel, and, with weapons drawn, pinned down Mr. al-Menhali, and frisked him for weapons. The whole thing can be seen in the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz9Ku6QnGAc

In response, the embassy of the United Arab Emirates issued a travel warning that people should avoid wearing the traditional garments in the United States. Imagine that: being a country people cannot safely and freely wear what they want in fear of being roughly handled by the authorities.

The police and the mayor of Avon, Ohio publicly apologized for the incident. Which is only fair since Mr. al-Menhali had to be brought to the hospital for minor injuries, and has been reportedly been suffering from nightmares since the incident.

This event is a clear manifestation of the Islamophobia that has been steadily tightening its vice-like grip around Americans since the rise of ISIS, mass shootings in the name of radical Islam, and fear-mongering candidates such as Donald Trump.

One only has to look at how this started when a woman, who apparently does not have any real knowledge of Arabic, claimed the Middle Eastern guest was pledging allegiance to ISIS. After that, she locked herself in the bathroom. Other than that, surprisingly little information is given about the caller. According to Channel 5 news, the city may press charges against the woman who made the false accusations.

Even though the police aren't entirely at fault, they acknowledge that they can learn from this experience. On the one hand, the callers were quite panicked, and the police had a duty to calm them. On the other hand, they could have thought critically about the scenario. For example, is it really likely that someone would pledge allegiance to ISIS in the hotel lobby of a small town in Ohio? If they really wanted to terrorize people, wouldn't they do it somewhere a bit more populated?

The xenophobia and Islamophobia infecting Americans right now is the antithesis of what our Founding Fathers stood for 240 years ago. They fought for our right of freedom of expression among other rights, yet here is living proof of a man who cannot speak his native tongue or wear the clothes of his culture without ignorantly being persecuted.