Dear Next President of the United States,

My name is Jake, and I am writing this letter to you to talk about a topic that you already know more about than I do. Terrorism and Islamophobia. Like I said, you know it all, but when the whole country is in shambles from fear and hatred, we look to you for help, so I think it’s important you hear what the people have to say.

Terrorism is a huge issue, and it keeps getting worse and worse. PBS says terrorism has increased by 80 percent just between 2013 and 2014, killing 32,658 innocent people in 2014, and like I said, this isn’t going away. It feels like there is a big attack every month. Nobody feels safe. We are all living in fear, and that is the problem. We are giving the terrorists what they want! They want us to be afraid, and by doing that, in my eyes, they are winning. Whenever there is an attack, there is fear. Fear breeds hate. What happens is we get stuck in an endless cycle of being afraid of terrorists, and discriminating against the Muslim community. They then see that as an attack on the Muslim community giving them a reason to retaliate, and that creates more fear.

Another person named Ken Rangel wrote to you about this topic, stating “You need to stop the way we are initially handling these ISIS attacks immediately! We can not let ISIS win every time they carry out an attack which is exactly what we have been doing. For example, after the Paris attacks, we came out with a statement that we should put every Muslim on file, that we shouldn't let in any more refugees from Syria, and that we should kill the families of ISIS members, which is exactly what this terrorist organization wants! They don't kill 130 people and then just stop, it's a way to recruit more members, and it only works if we respond with hate.” What Ken is saying is completely right. If we respond to these attacks instantly with hate towards the Muslim community, how do you think that they may react?

Not only does this relate to terrorism, but the way we treat the Muslim population as well. It’s unfortunate because it is such a small percent of Muslims that are extremist. Most Muslims are actually great people, and their religion is very peaceful. Their reputation is tarnished by their worst and that is not the way it should be. Just because there is that small group of Muslim extremists doesn’t mean other Muslims should be treated any differently. The Washington Post says “In one survey, nearly one-third of Muslim students in grades three through 12 said they had experienced insults or abuse at least once because of their faith. The survey, by the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, also found that more than 1 in 10 said they were physically harmed or harassed at least once because of their religion.” It’s really unfair. They can be treated terribly, taunted, called terrorists, some even having their hijabs torn off. It’s sick, really.

It’s not just kids picking on other Muslim kids. Muslims are being accused, suspected, and incriminated of things they didn’t do. There was a case in Texas where a Muslim student, Ahmed Mohamed, built a clock and brought it to school with no intent to scare or harm anyone, but simply because of his interest in science. His peers and educators thought that because he was a Muslim student bringing a clock-looking device to school, that it was a bomb. He was interrogated for over an hour and eventually arrested under false accusations. It turns out, it wasn’t a bomb. It was a clock just like he said it was.

Some people say that the only way to solve this problem is to stop letting Syrian Refugees into our country and get rid of all the Muslims because all terrorism is caused by Muslim. This won’t do anything except stir hatred. If we don’t allow Muslims into our country, that sparks more hatred against us, and it’s not that easy to stop all Syrian Refugees from getting into our country. Not to mention just around only 10% of terrorist attacks are caused by Muslims, so that won’t stop the problem.

Another perspective is that we should just kill all the terrorists and attack them with force, but that’s not quite how it works. It’s not a war like usual. You never know when something is going to happen. It’s not like we can just send more troops, it’s all unexpected. The only way we can fight this is to build stronger relationships with the Muslim community and foreign countries. We need to stop trying to fight this with force and bring love to the table.

Sincerely,

Jake

Works Cited

Daniel Costa-Roberts. "4 Surprising Facts from the 2015 Global Terrorism Index." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.

Donna St. George. "During a School Year of Terrorist Attacks, Muslim Students Report Bullying." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 14 July 2016. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.

Rangel, Ken. "Welcome the Syrian Refugees." Letters2president.org. N.p., 21 Sept. 2016. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.

Washingtons Blog. "Non-Muslims Carried Out More than 90% of All Terrorist Attacks in America." Globalresearch.ca. N.p., 1 May 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.