"America the Brave Still Fears What We Don't Know"

Everything in our world is separated into groups. Movies, books and music are categorized by genres, stars are grouped into galaxies and people are grouped based on their prominent characteristics. Each group is analyzed and then labeled. In high school, the football players are labeled cool, while the cheerleaders and dancers are pretty and the kids who enjoy learning are nerds. Whether your label is justified or not, each person and each group has more value than a single word can express.

In the United States, I became aware that each person in the Muslim group has the label of a terrorist. Many of my teachers only explained the few violent practices of the Muslim culture and failed to express how beautiful and empowering their deep devotion to themselves, their families and their God truly is. My peers have honestly felt threatened in the presence of a Muslim individual. Millions of hate-crimes have been committed against those peaceful people. I saw a woman in the airport refuse to board a plane simply because a Muslim family was also on the flight. The idea that everyone in the Muslim culture has terrible intentions is heartbreaking, angering and nowhere close to the truth.

In the class I have been teaching, the students have welcomed me and expressed great amounts of love to everyone in the room.  A very intelligent boy who sits in the back of the class, named Zaki is filled with so much compassion and love it is inspiring. Zaki is always excited to learn and is very close to being fluent in English. Every time we learn a new subject, Zaki absorbs the information quickly and then helps his friends understand too. Zaki is patient and humble, he never acts as though he is superior and he helps others simply out of kindness. Zaki explained to me, it is his dream to travel to New York. He aspires to become fluent in English and do any work that will help him get to the United States. Zaki has ambitious goals and in many ways I want to help him reach the. I hope that Zaki gets the opportunity to see the New York City lights at night. I want him to be able to swim in the deep oceans and summit high Rocky Mountain peaks. I think Zaki deserves the opportunity to be surrounded by people who speak the language he has been working so hard to learn. I believe Zaki would love to experience all of the amazing opportunities presented in the U.S, although, if he ever were to go, I would fear for his well-being. Since Zaki is from a Muslim country, he would have great difficulties even entering the United States. Then, in the country Zaki or any other Muslim individual would be hated and feared. He would not be given equal opportunity because he is labeled a “terrorist.” This reality confuses me beyond words. How could you possibly look at a child like Zaki and call them such a malicious word? The idea that Americans could see Zaki and hate him without ever giving him a chance breaks my heart.

I think that the only way this irrational fear will cease to exist is if Americans decide to become more open-minded. People would have to stop just saying they are not racist and truly attempt to understand others before making any judgments or assumptions.  I hope someday Americans will have the courage and the wisdom to look beyond the label of terrorist and accept Muslims as an equal and beautiful group.