Have you ever been afraid to tell someone what your religion is?

Recently, I’ve been finding it harder and harder to be open about my Muslim faith. I’m not anything like what the common Muslim stereotype is; I don’t wear a headscarf, I go out to parties, I actually just wear whatever I want to wear and do whatever I want to do. My actions are based on my own moral compass and the values I’ve grown up with as a Muslim – being kind, respectful, and understanding of everyone as an expression of my love for God and all that He has created.

And guess what! There are so many Muslims out there that live life the way I do. It’s just not as easy to identify these Muslims around you, because not all of us wear what Western society has deemed to be the symbol of Islam; the hijab. And unfortunately, the way that Muslims are perceived has actually led to several incorrect assumptions for those who do choose to cover up (e.g. that wearing a hijab means being close-minded, refraining from socializing with the opposite gender, or not wanting to make non-Muslim friends)

Yet I know that I live in a country where Donald Trump, a man who encouraged the crowd at one of his political rallies to “boo” a woman simply because she was Muslim and eventually had a security officer escort this woman out of the room, is the leading candidate for a giant political party. The support for Trump is surprisingly substantial, which means that a substantial amount of Americans are okay with this kind of hateful marginalization of our own citizens.

I could go on and on about how the Islam that I, and most Muslims, practice is worlds different from the “Islam” (notice the quotations) practiced by groups like ISIS and the Taliban, but you already know all that. Or... well, you should. Although there are indeed many Americans who haven’t ever really seen Islam in its true form and therefore just assume that all Muslims are terrorists, in reality, there aren’t a whole lot of people like that. The way I perceive it, the majority of Americans do know a Muslim or two who are “normal people,” so they know it can’t be possible that all Muslims are terrorists. Yet they don’t know enough about Islam itself to actively take a stance against Islamophobia. So instead, they end up in a passive sort of middle ground.

I’m here to tell you how damaging this is – to me, to you, to the United States, and to the world as a whole. Being passive about this issue does nothing except create even more tension within our society. On one side, there are non-Muslims who don’t know much about Islam but are wary of it because of the terrible crimes being committed by people on the other side of the world who claim that their motives are Islamic. On the other side are actual Muslims who feel like they can’t be themselves in the country that they call their home because they know that they are grossly misunderstood. And the entire dynamic between these two groups is this sense of taboo, where we are all hesitant to talk to people with opinions and perspectives that are different from our own.

What can we do to change this, and to prevent the recent trend from getting even worse? Educate ourselves.

Next time you hear something, or read something, about Islam that confuses you or that you are curious about, look it up. And make sure you’re getting your information from a reliable source. Better yet, if you can, actually ask a Muslim. I’m no scholar so there are definitely many questions that I don’t have perfect answers to, but I could at least share my perspective with you as a liberal Muslim who was born and raised in the United States, and possibly redirect you to a source with more information.

I can’t stress enough how much I care about this. In today’s society, where Islamophobia is worse than it has been for a long time, being passive about it just isn’t acceptable anymore. It’s a matter of Constitutional rights at this point, not just preventing stereotypes and prejudice. A presidential candidate has suggested that all Muslims should be spied on and required to wear badges that label their religion.

It has gone way too far.