I want to start by telling a story: A few months ago, I was on a plane to Las Vegas. It was a last minute flight, on an airline I’d never flown before. I was flying from Boston to Las Vegas, not that that hold any importance to the story. Regardless of where the flight was going, or coming from. It’s one I will never forget. For a few reasons; (1) it was the first time I had booked a flight the day before getting on the plane, (2) I was tired, I had pulled three all-nighters that week, and I was going to see my mom, so I was pretty excited, (3) and most importantly, this flight was the first time I truly noticed myself falling victim to the one thing I thought I was above; fear of a fellow human being due to their “appearance.”

I got on the plane, and next to me were a man and his son, who I immediately assumed were Muslim. I was uncomfortable with this. My thoughts started racing, and I began to assume these two people were dangerous and a threat to my safety. I reminded myself countless times that these people had gone through security just as I had. At the same time, I was mentally slapping myself in the face for even thinking this in the first place.

An hour or so into the flight, the man next to me pulled out, what I assume was a Quran. I realized then, yes this man, and most likely his son were Muslim, however, up until then, I had no reason to assume they were Muslim, or that they were dangerous. This man spent the remainder of the flight reading from his prayer book in a very peaceful, non-disruptive way.

After landing, I exited the plane, and went on to find the gate for my connecting flight. The whole time, still mentally slapping myself in the face for how ignorant I had just been.

I don’t tell this story as a way of getting it off my chest or making myself feel better. I tell this story because I feel there’s an important message here, which I’d like to share. There are a few things that went wrong here, more than a few actually, but I’m just going to share a few of them.

First, one cannot know if a person is Muslim, simply by looking at them. It is a religion. There is no physical appearance a person can see and say, “oh yes, that guy over there? He’s a Muslim.” That does not exist. So, I never should have assumed, even to begin with, that these two individuals were Islamic.

Second, who am I to determine that this person is dangerous? There’s this stereotype, I’m sure we’re all aware of, that tells us Muslim Americans are terrorists. Well, that certainly isn’t true. I’ve known many people who follow Islam, who are nothing close to being a terrorist, or even remotely dangerous.

Lastly, this guy was a peaceful person, flying from one place to another. It’s not fair to anyone that based on appearance, another human being is less trusting, or is fearful.

For most Americans, when we think of Muslims, we immediately think of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This is pretty reasonable, but what’s not reasonable, is to assume that all Muslims, or people we may perceive as Muslim, are dangerous, just as the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center. We can’t let the past dictate how we treat people in the future.

That attack was carried out by extremists. And, news flash, there are extremists in many other religions as well. Let’s look to Christianity for an example; the Westboro Baptist Church is a great one. We, here in the US know that their hate speech isn’t representative of Christians everywhere. So, why assume all Muslims are violent and dangerous people?

Here’s my answer: In the United States, we are surrounded by Christians daily. We see that the average Christian is peaceful, and loving. We don’t see the same thing when it comes to Muslims. Most of us aren’t surrounded by Muslims in our everyday lives, so the only thing many of us know is the political slander we here from politicians, and the media.

Currently, we have very conservative politicians talking about how terrible it would be to let refugees into our country because it would be like allowing terrorists into our home. We can’t let these people, who clearly have very narrow-minded views of the world, dictate how we see things.

Now, I’m not blaming the politicians and their words, for my ignorance, or anyone else’s. What I’m trying to say is that we need to stop taking what the news tells us, and a handful of politicians’ opinions, as fact. We need to go out and explore, educate, and learn about the world around us. We all need to understand, and whole-heartedly accept, that people lead different lives, they practice other religions, and they might even look a little different. But, that doesn’t mean they are dangerous people.