The Sept. 11 terrorist attack was the largest single loss of life in the United States since the Battle of Antietam during the Civil War, and it has cultivated a fear and loss of security unlike any our generation has experienced.
In the past two weeks, those intense emotions have turned into hostility targeted at Americans with Middle Eastern heritage, especially Muslim and Arab communities. Though the anger, pain and frustration experienced in the aftermath of such a devastating event is natural, the display of retaliation stemming from ignorance and fear makes the loss even more tragic.
There are six to seven million Muslims in America, roughly the same number as Jews, making up the second or third largest religion in America after Christianity. The Koran is similar to the Bible, at least in that it can be easily be manipulated by extremists.
So how do Islamic fundamentalist terrorists fit into the larger picture of Islam? The same way that fanatic David Koresh fits into the Christian religion? Obviously not. As Americans, we would be outraged if people from another culture assumed we were all potential Unabombers or Timothy McVeighs.
Yet only hours after the attacks, Islamic schools and businesses were threatened. During the following week, a mosque in Texas was bombed and numerous assaults against Arabs have been reported. In our own community, residents of Middle Eastern descent have been threatened and ugly graffiti bearing hateful comments directed ridiculously at the entire country of Afghanistan or “Arabs” has appeared.
Turning the loss into anger and directing it at a group of people based upon their cultural heritage is ignorant. And it’s ignorance that is lumping Muslims, Arabs and other people of Middle Eastern descent into a group that many Americans see as threatening.
With all of the TV-watching and newspaper-reading that America has done in the past two weeks as details continue to unfold, why are so many Americans in fear of other Americans, for the sole reason that their parents were from the Middle East, or that they attend a mosque rather than a Christian church? Have they missed the articles reporting that Muslim leaders are condemning the attacks and the Muslim community is calling the terrorism irrational and un-Islamic? Do they realize that the Islamic religion prohibits terrorism and attacks against women, children and civilians? Or that a large number of Muslims in America are African American?

America prides itself on standing for equality and open-mindedness, so why is it that, throughout our history, there are countless examples where we continue to discriminate against our fellow citizens based on the actions of a radical few?
Do we assume that all Italians are linked to the Mafia? That all African Americans are in gangs? That all Irish are drunks? Of course not — even the mention of those ridiculously generalized statements is ignorant.
Americans of Middle Eastern descent take pride in their heritage, but also in the fact that they are Americans. They also feel the pain and loss of Sept. 11. As a country, we’ve pulled together in patriotic protest to what happened, but we need to make sure we don’t also pull ourselves apart by isolating a large group of Americans. If we continue to point fingers and allow fear and ignorance to cause us to turn against our neighbors, we have let the terrorists win.