By: Stephanie Blair 
Photo Editor

Following the attack on Paris, social media seems to be peppered with reminders that there were other attacks around the world on Friday, Nov. 13, 2015.

However, I would like to focus on more immediate safety: safety of our Muslim students on campus.

After the attack of 9/11, hate crimes against Muslims in the U.S. skyrocketed.

In fact, they became five times more common, according to the Washington Post. Even without being violent, non-Muslim Americans, when surveyed, held substantial prejudice against Muslims, regardless of American citizenship.

“These surveys suggest that many Americans do not distinguish between the vast majority of peaceful Muslims and the very small number of Muslims who commit violent acts,” John Sides of the Washington Post wrote.

It is easy to hate a larger, all-encompassing community group for the actions of a much smaller sub-set.

However, just as the majority of Christians do not agree with the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church, the majority of Muslims do not agree with the actions of ISIS/ISIL.
According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2015 there are approximately 1.6 billion Muslims in the world.

However, even if you do consider members of ISIS Muslims, that would still mean that 0.000125% of Muslims serve ISIS, based upon the estimated number of ISIS soldiers in an interview with UK newspaper The Independent with by Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani.

It is important to note that many, including President Barack Obama, do not consider ISIS members to be Muslims.

“We are not at war with Islam,” Obama said at the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism in February of 2015. “We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.”
America was partly founded on the concept of freedom of religion, the opportunity for religious practice without persecution.

So, with all of the talk of particular governors demanding that we allow exact gun freedom while announcing they will only accept “proven Christian” refugees from Syria, let’s at least demand all of said constitution is honored.

As of Nov. 19, 31 state governors have announced that they oppose letting Syrian refugees into their states. However, states cannot legally refuse to allow refugees in, since the federal government announced in September that the U.S. would be accepting 10,000 of the estimated 70,000 refugees, according to an article from the Washington Post.

Please look out for our Muslim classmates on campus, as these actions weren’t perpetrated in their name.