For anyone who knows me personally, you know this is something I feel so strongly about. I'm not scared of the Muslims. I'm not scared of Islam. I'm not scared of Shari'ah Law. I have absolutely no reason to be scared of Muslims, their religion, or their law (which by the way only focuses about 5% of its components on penal laws). Some will say but what about San Bernardo or what about ISIS or what about whatever else they bring up. My answer is that not all Muslim's are terrorists and not all terrorists are Muslim. I'll ask them about Sandy Hook and the movie theater shootings and I typically get the reply of "well those men were mentally ill, they weren't terrorists" but the thing is they were terrorists. They killed a huge amount of people, many being children, which is a terrorist attack.

Now this topic came out of nowhere for me. This week I was going to write about 19 ways you know you're an art major because I'm an art major and why not do that. This day that I'm writing this I've been watching Ted Talks and thinking about a program the Religious Conversation Hour put on recently (Who is Afraid of Shari'ah Law?) and thinking about how people react to talking about Islam in general. I tend to have the unpopular opinion among many people that I know.

The Ted Talk that sparked this really was this woman who was speaking about Islamophobia and how because of how bad it is right now her brother, sister-in-law and another relative of hers were brutally executed in their home by their neighbor who had shown signs of aggression since they moved in. Nobody should have to lose their family like that. Ever.

Hate crime is unacceptable. Micro-aggressions are unacceptable.

We as a country should be better than this. Our President-elect has said many times that he wants to make Muslim-Americans register as Muslim, whether this happens or not, only time will tell. This isn't the first time that a registry of religion or race has happened, not just in the US but in many other countries. Within the US the Japanese had to register during World War II. Many will say this isn't a fair comparison but think about it. They had to register after Pearl Harbor was attacked, in turn, internment camps popped up and the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional and that was never revisited. It technically still stands that that is constitutional to do that to a specific race or religion. That is not constitutional.

So where am I going with this? Get to know a Muslim or twenty. They are amazingly kind people. Stand up for them against micro-aggressions. Ask questions about their religion and about them because they are people too. Do your homework and research things. Only two, yes two, countries in the world require by law that a Muslim woman wears a hijab. Look into those laws talking about foreign law. It doesn't explicitly state it, but many of those are meant to be anti-Shari'ah laws, which happens to be unconstitutional but since it doesn't state Shari'ah law they sometimes get passed (like in about 10 states, with another 13 states trying to pass them).

Do what you will with what I've said but please don't bash me. Please get to know a Muslim or two. Go to Islam-related programs on our wonderful campus. Take a religious studies class or two about Islam if you can. Go to the Islamic center on McGalliard for their dinner that they do on the 2nd Saturday of every month. Be proactive and be an ally. Help stop the hate crimes, help change the stigma behind Muslims, just help in whatever way you are most comfortable doing.

Hate crimes are not acceptable.