I can no longer go to the movie theaters anymore without feeling like the event in Aurora, Colorado, will occur again. I don't feel safe.
We teach our preschoolers how to hide if they're in the bathrooms and there is a person with a gun on campus. They don't feel safe.
In Charleston last year, Black churchgoers invited Dylann Roof into their Bible study meeting, and he—with all the white supremacy and pro-KKK mindset—would later kill nine of them. Even in their own place of worship, they were not safe.
We deem some of these events as hate crimes, terrorist attacks, but rarely domestic terrorism. Are we, as a nation, too afraid to name white American perpetrators as domestic terrorists? Since the horrendous terrorist attack on 9/11 that left our nation mourning and devastated, America has developed a mindset that is anti-Muslim when it really should be anti-extremist.
In the wake of the Orlando shooting, many Muslims were afraid of the repercussions and backlash they would receive following the news that the terrorist, who called 911 and pledged allegiance to ISIS before opening fire, was someone affiliated with their religion of Islam. They mourned in the form of prayer and offered their condolences. American-Muslims among us are just that, Americans. They don't like what's happening in the world just as much as us, but they have it 10-times worse.
On another note, why is it that the Western world is so fixated on terrorist attacks that happen in developed countries, but when it happens in a developing country, it seems as if Westerners turn a blind eye?
Just now, ISIS has claimed responsibility for killing 125 people in Baghdad as families gathered at the end of the day to break their fast and celebrate Ramadan. ISIS threatens all of human existence, not just the lives of those in the Western world. The lives lost in Baghdad are not worth less than the lives lost in the Orlando attack here at home because they were all human. They all had a purpose, a reason to live and love, and that was all taken away from them because of the acts of a extremists.
It is difficult to feel safe in any place in the world right now. If you turn on the news, there's probably a story on the newest terrorist attack or a follow-up on a shooting somewhere. It is mind-blowing how numb we have become to watching or reading the news, talking to our friends about it for a week or so, feeling remorse and then moving onto the next tragedy.
Our morale must be stronger than our fear, and one example of this is the movement in Paris after the bombing for Parisians alike to go outside and defiantly show ISIS that they were not frightened. The hashtag #JeSuisEnTerrasse became popular on social media to exemplify Parisians' resolve.
ISIS wants our fear to turn into hatred and prejudice, so people will have a reason to join them. We must not give into this. We must stand with our fellow humans who are against these extremists, as well. We will find a way to defeat ISIS' tactics, and one day, we will feel safe again.
