Religious Intolerance

Maria Blanc Zoco

Does Islam promote killing and violence? The answer is no. Back in high school I took a religion class that taught us three ways in which we can read the Bible: literally, analytically and realistically. Just like the Bible, the Quran can be read in these three forms. Of course if we take every word literally some of the verses are going to be odd and shocking. However, if we read it realistically the teachings of Muhammad make complete sense. According to the Whiterspoon Institute, “Quranic verses condemn murder: take not life which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law: thus He command you, that you may learn wisdom”(Ahmed). What this means is that ISIS is misreading these teachings by taking them literally and portraying the Islamic community in a negative light. In addition, the public is being misled about the true philosophy of Islam as a result of the extreme terrorist attacks. Such depiction of Islam and the current terrorist attacks have become a hot topic in the 2016 elections to the point where Donald Trump, up front candidate of the Republican Party has made some interesting yet scary propositions about his position towards the Muslim community. Trump’s proposition is to classify all Muslim-Americans in the United States and get them cards so that they can be identified at all times. This attitude is similar to the one Nazi Germany took to classify the Jewish community with the Son of David necklaces. But would this actually help in controlling terrorism and terrorist attacks? No! According to Dean Obeidallah from CNN, Trump’s initiative actually helps ISIS more than the US security. “ISIS hopes that when Muslims in the West are demonized, they will become alienated from the country in which they live. ISIS operatives believe then that their recruitment pitch that the West is at war with Islam will resonate more strongly. Consequently, ISIS is likely rooting for Trump's proposals to become law”(Donald Trump’s Horrifying Words about Muslims).  Trump’s plan towards protecting America is actually harming the country. First, it helps ISIS in the recruitment of new devotees, and secondly is making it easier to plan terrorist attacks on US soil as a result of the hatred and classification Trump plans to do.  I believe that Trumps actions are discriminative to the Muslim-American community, and just because a person practices Islam does not mean that they should be labeled as a terrorist. In order to stop this inequality, I believe that we should increase the measures of security in the airport as well as the infiltration of a secret security. By increasing the security in airports, Special Forces will be able to classify specific profiles that have been declared as dangerous. In addition, I would suggest a constant communication with other countries to track down any profiles that have been classified as dangerous or threating. Hopefully these solutions will help with the protection of our country and will allow the Muslim-American community to live equally as other religious communities do.