Letter to the Editor – We are not a threat

Nowadays there’s a lot to hear about Islam and Muslims. They are being called TERRORISTS, MURDERERS, HARDCORE HATERS, CLOSE MINDED TOWEL HEADS and such, but how much of this is true?

I’m a Muslim and an American citizen; I wasn’t born a Muslim and to be honest, before I became a Muslim I thought they are just a bunch of terrorists running around with guns and swords looking for non-Muslims to kill, exactly like those who treated TAHERA AHMAD like an ISIS fighter and made that poor woman feel so humiliated just because of her religion.

But we are better than this. America was based upon freedom and our founding fathers thought of this country as a place in which every man and woman can live freely and peacefully no matter what they race or skin color or religion is.

To judge someone or something, the first requirement is to know what you are talking about and most of us don’t know the first thing about Islam.

The main idea based on which American people hate and fear Islam and Muslims is JIHAD. It’s defined as the Muslim’s will to fight everybody who is not a Muslim and being allowed to kill them but in fact Jihad is all about defense; If someone attacks Muslims or their country, they have to defend themselves and that’s called Jihad. In Islam, you are NOT ALLOWED TO ATTACK another person or group or country if they haven’t attacked you first. There are instances of such unprovoked attacks but Islam says that’s a sin.

On the other hand, we Americans have the same strategy in dealing with our enemies, if someone attacks us we fight back and defend our home, our loved ones and our freedom.

But the thing I want to emphasize here is the American way. We are a nation of intelligent freethinker patriots, we do what we think is right and nobody can force us otherwise, so why do we let a few haters who are looking for any excuse they can find to divide our nation into different sects and groups and take advantage of the situation, drive us apart with lies? Why don’t we go after the truth? Why don’t we pay enough attention to our brothers and sisters in American Muslim community to see they are not terrorists? Why don’t we see that they are Americans just like the rest of us and the only thing they want is to live peacefully and freely?

I say let’s stop this hateful language. We should realize there are violent people in any race, religion or country and if there are Muslims who would kill other people for what they have said or drawn, there are Christians who would kill just for fun also. This doesn’t mean Muslims are terrorists just as it doesn’t mean Christians are.

We are all American citizens, let’s stop killing, hurting, hating and humiliating each other and start acting like Americans, tolerant, patient, strong and free.