By definition, terrorism is the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way to achieve a political goal. Now, here’s the definition of humanity: by definition, humanity is the quality or state of being kind to other people or to animals. How can we actually define a terrorist as being a human? Merriam-Webster certainly doesn’t believe so and neither should we.

As a society our goal is not to provide here in the hearts of other nations or groups of people, but instead to embrace each other. Our first problem is labeling groups of people as terrorists. For example, the Muslim culture. I don’t understand how many times people will be told this, just because a person is a Muslim, does not believe they are a terrorist. Just because a person is brown, does not mean they are a terrorist. A terrorist is a person who is programmed through their brain and hearts to strike fear and hatred into the hearts of all people. By labeling Muslims as terrorists we are literally doing exactly what the terrorists want from us. They don’t care if we attack them, or if we kill them, they want us to fear them and they want us to think of other cultures and religions as evil.

Combating terrorism does not begin or end by sending more and more troops each day into the Middle Eastern countries. Instead, combating terrorism begins from the fundamental belief that not all Muslims are terrorists. If we don’t begin to believe in this initiative, terrorism will continue to grow and spread throughout the world. This fundamental belief is what will help rid the world of terror, not combat troops going in every day and losing their lives over this. As many troops as we send in, the more terrorists we cannot find. Much like the Vietnamese War, terrorists use guerilla warfare. They literally have the home-field advantage, while we’re foreigners to the area, they know every in and out there could possibly be over there.

Another thing is, terrorists can be anyone, it’s not just that terrorists originate from the Middle East, the United States has had domestic terrorists. Once again, I don’t understand how many times people have to be told this, but not all Muslims or not all people of certain cultures or religions should be labeled terrorists or any hate group or terror group for the matter.

So a little personal story to add to this, I came to this country in 2002 as an immigrant from India. I was only 6 years old when I came, but the time that I did come here, it was the worst time in United States history. As you may know, 9/11 was the year prior and at a very young age, I too was labeled as a foreigner and even terrorist. I learned at a very young age exactly what those words meant, even though I didn’t understand, I learned how to adapt to those names. There was no way to fight it, but only to adapt. As humans, if we continue to label people as terrorists, we’re not only helping the terrorists win, but also literally devastating the lives of the innocent.