Xenophobic rhetoric bolsters terrorists
The Statue of Liberty reads: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. When faced with victims of terror and oppression and violence the United States gives care to anyone looking to be safe and escape oppression. We are the great melting pot, after all.
Except that’s not how it goes.
In response to the Paris terror attacks in September, 28 United States governors said that they would refuse to accept Syrian refugees. Aside from having no legal right to make this declaration, this act is morally repugnant.
Xenophobia rules these states. They are unable to separate the terrible from the terrified because of their own fear. These states aren’t scared of terrorists, they’re scared of people who aren’t like themselves.
These people hide their fear through using big words, making simple issues obscure or blaming “radical Islam.”
The latter is the most popular, exposing the fear of the ones constantly shouting “death to Islam.”
But if it is terrorism when the outsiders shout “death to America!” then it is terrorism the same when we respond with “death to Islam!” For the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), terrorism runs on the marginalization of the Muslim community and this rhetoric plays directly into their hands.
ISIL works by creating an identity crisis within the Muslim community. ISIL tries to make a person feel like they are either Muslim or American. If we marginalize the Muslim community, as we have been, the number of Americans who decide to fight for ISIL will increase.
But if we do not oppress these people, there is no identity crisis and ISIL cannot function.
When terror strikes, we cannot respond with terror. We cannot stereotype and belittle Muslim members of the community. This will only push our American brothers and sisters into the hands of ISIL.
The beliefs that our country was founded on demands that we accept those seeking safety and freedom. We must do everything we can to accept refugees rather than attack the Muslim community.
