Dear Future President,

I believe one very important issue our nation faces today is Islamophobia, which is the fear of people of the Islamic faith. I do not believe that a whole group should be punished for the actions of so few, and I believe the future president needs to portray these views to the public.

There are approximately 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. On 9/11, 19 Muslims were held responsible for the largest terrorist attack on our country in history. I will not deny that this day was a horrible tragedy and that the people accountable for this were pure evil. However, that was only 19. 19 of 1.6 billion. Granted, there are more than 19 Muslim terrorists in our world now, but definitely not 1.6 billion. Still, the majority of Muslims who are completely innocent have experienced some type of discrimination. Studies show that women who wear hijab and niqab, traditional attire in the Islamic faith, are more of a target. 69% of Muslim women who wear hijab reported at least one incident of discrimination, compared to 29% that do not wear hijab.

American Muslim hate crimes are up 78% in the past year. That is the highest since after 9/11. Many believe this is due to political figures expressing their negative feelings toward Muslims. Terrorism is a big problem our country faces, however we need a better system to sort the good from the bad rather than discriminating all. It is not fair to declare 1/7 of the world evil just because they are of a certain religion. I know that we cannot change everyone’s attitudes toward Muslims, but I do believe that if the political figures that our nation looks up to voice positivity and acceptance toward all races and religions we can minimize the problem.

Sincerely,

Jada T.