Oh, you’re wearing a hijab? You must be a terrorist.

Sadly, this is the immediate thought process of too many Americans.

After the attack on 9/11, Muslims and the Islam religion have never been looked at the same. Too many people equate Muslim to terrorist and Islam to ISIS, which is so far from the way things are.

Islam is a religion founded on one God, with the sole purpose of worshipping that God. To me, that doesn’t sound any different than Christianity; it doesn’t make me think they’re going to go kill a bunch of people. Islam does not equate to ISIS. As Americans, do we equate all white people to the KKK?

ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and they are an extremist group who believe they have complete authority over Muslims everywhere, including religious authority. Far too many people actually do group all Muslims under the category of ISIS. They are, more or less, a terrorist group that does radical killings and attacks. Which is not what Islam is. Which is not what Muslims do. Many Muslim leaders have spoken about the fact that they are completely separate from ISIS; they don’t want anything ISIS does to reflect on the true teachings and beliefs of the Islam religion.

Muslims are already discriminated against enough as it is, but when terrorist attacks happen (such as Paris), it becomes much worse. There have already been Muslim citizens in America killed after the attack, simply for being Muslim. It’s terrible to see people treated in such a way for their religious choice and ethnicity. Some may have trouble admitting it, but a lot of Americans are extremely prejudice against Muslims.

As soon as the attacks in Paris happened, everyone was quick to post about “Pray for Paris”. It was all over social media; of course the attacks in Paris were devastating and deserve to be recognized. Every person on your Facebook friends list now has the French flag over their profile picture to show support, which is great. But I read something interesting online about how the Syrian flag, Afghan flag, and Iraqi flag (among others) have never once been an option as a Facebook profile picture filter even when thousands of people were (and are still) attacked and killed in those countries daily. Are their lives not just as precious as the American people’s lives? As the French people’s lives? It makes you wonder.

End prejudice against Islam/Muslims. Spread love. Because after everything this world has been through lately, we need love now more than ever.