Dear Mr. Trump,

I don’t enjoy the fact that I am writing this, that I am giving you further validation in your popularity-seeking game that you have played incredibly well thus far in the primaries. You probably gain three years on your life every time you see your name written in print somewhere. But I have sat by these last few months and watched in horror as you moved up in the polls and as you gained more and more delegates, and now, I need to speak. Because enough is enough.

Here are the facts: you will, in all likelihood, win the Republican nomination in the primary. You will also potentially win the presidency. You will have done so by purporting a platform that lacks any real depth or knowledge about the political sphere, by creating and fostering a hatred and a fear that is eroding our country day by day. You will step into the Oval Office and it will be wallpapered with the lies you told to get yourself there.

A funny thing about truth – I don’t think you actually know what it means. Every word that leaves your mouth is coated in layers of falsity, and the strength of your conviction is somehow enough for your followers to buy into these lies you’re spreading. Your campaign is drenched in so much untruth that it would take me a novel to unpack every false portion of your speech, and so I want to focus on one thing: your opposition to Islam.

And here’s where I come into this story, Mr. Trump, because it seems rather clear to me that you have never interacted with Muslims in your life. You’ve seen the extremists on your television screen, you’ve seen women in hijabs and associated that automatically with repression. You have watched men kill in the name of Islam, and you latched on to that tired, blatantly untrue stereotype that Islam is therefore a religion of hate, a religion of violence, a religion that is inherently against America.

I, on the other hand, have interacted with Muslims. A great deal of them, in fact. I spent ten days in Turkey, a place that perhaps you have noticed has been in the news recently due to the terrorist attacks occurring there. Or maybe you have not noticed, because you also appear hell-bent on remaining as oblivious to anything other than yourself. But here’s a funny thing about Turkey, Mr. Trump: it’s filled with Muslims. You wander the streets of Istanbul, or Cappadocia, or Izmir, and you will be a lone bystander among a sea of women in hijabs. The call to prayer will echo throughout the city five times a day. There will be a mosque on every corner.

Does that frighten you?

It shouldn’t.

Because, you see, it was also as I walked those streets that I encountered some of the kindest, most giving people that exist in this world. I sat on the steps of a mosque, and a woman struck up conversation with me almost immediately, even despite the fact that I didn’t speak Turkish. Once my guide helped to translate, she gave me a brilliant smile and hugged me and said, “You’re so sweet.” The Turkish people opened their homes to us, and they gave us food and wonderful conversation. In one home, we had an in-depth discussion (with a translator helping guide us) about the aftermath of 9/11 and how Turkish Muslims felt – sorrowful, sympathetic, devastated – as they watched those terrorists commit such atrocities in the name of their religion. A woman who I had known for merely an hour gave me the scarf off of her own head, which she had made herself, because I told her it was beautiful.

Do these people frighten you? How can you fear something if you know nothing about it? I sat in the Turkish summer heat and watched a man I barely knew, who had opened up his home to me, a random American, shed tears over the tragedy of 9/11. Does that really indicate a hatred of America?

Islam is a beautiful faith. I remember telling my mother, upon my return to the States, that it was what religion was supposed to be, in my mind; it is not simply an aspect of them, but it is them. It is wholly integrated into their lives. As the call to prayer echoes throughout the city, it serves as a reminder of their faith.

Mr. Trump, you are breeding a fear and an animosity that is not only detrimental to the Muslims of America, but the entire country, and by extension, the world. You are facilitating this culture of hatred and it will merely metastasize into other realms of our nation. People are brawling at your rallies – fighting fellow Trump supporters, mind you – and people are buying into your close-minded, ignorant, uneducated views with a zeal that is horrifying to watch.

I am scared of your America, Mr. Trump. I am scared of this chaos and anarchy you are encouraging in your supporters. It starts here, with Muslims – but where does it end? How far will you go in this quest to “make America great again” – a phrase that can be read as “cleansing” America?

You’re frightened of Muslims, Mr. Trump?

Well, I’m frightened of you. And I know that if I needed to, I could find solace in the Muslims of the world. So what does that say about you?