Dear President Trump,

Three-thousand. That is the number of people that were killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.. . And sixteen. That is the number of people that were killed in the San Bernardino shootings on December 2, 2015. The September 11 attacks and San Bernardino shootings are just among the many reasons some Americans now believe that all Muslims are terrorists. However,  this problem doesn’t  just  affect Muslim adults. This also affects young Muslim-Americans, because they have to deal with having to endure the racism they will receive in the future because of their religion. I want to talk about what, where, and how the image of Muslims can be fixed.

To understand where the hate for Muslims comes from, you must understand where Islam came from. Muslims are people that believe in the word of Allah (God in Arabic) through his many messengers, or prophets, since the world began. The most famous and well-known messenger was Muhammad, the last prophet of Allah. Over a period of 23 years, Muhammad received messages from God and put all of them in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. The Quran is the most cherished part of Islam, as Muslims live their lives based on what the Quran permits and doesn’t permit. From doing the five daily prayers to treating people with respect, the Quran still remains one of the most important books in mankind.
        

But however, the Quran is also one of the most criticized books I have ever seen. Terrorist groups in the Middle East, like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, claim that the attacks and fighting they do are based on the ideas of jihad, the act of holy fighting. They also claim that everything they do is “commanded” to them by the Quran. Now, I completed the Quran last year, and I know the meaning to some of the 114 chapters from there.  But as far as I know, nothing in the Quran claims that men should kill, beat, rape, or do anything harmful to people. But again, people feel threatened by all of Islam and the people who follow Islam because of this, which is where Islamophobia originated from.
        

As far as I see it, I have had my share of being seen as a threat to other people. When I was a child during my elementary school years, there would always be some students who would come up to me and say prejudice threats to me, like “TERRORIST!” or “Where’s your gun today?”. But none of them live up to my most memorable confrontation.
        

About three years, I was playing basketball at my local mosque with a few of my friends. It was close to sunset, so we had to go inside the mosque in about 20 minutes. As we were walking inside the mosque, a red truck just came to the entrance of the mosque and let loose a couple of firecrackers. A man then screamed, “GO HOME, TERRORISTS!” , and they drove away. We dashed inside and hid inside a room for about an hour. When we came out, the adults found out that the truck were full of white men who were against Islam. Since then, I have realized the way some Americans see Muslims.
         

So you see President Trump, Muslims are one of the most peaceful people in the world. What happens in the Middle East and other places are not what Islam permits. Islamophobia is nothing more than a twelve-letter word used to put down Muslims.  I want America to understand that hating Muslims is not the way to see things. We are all equal in the eyes of God.

Sincerely,
                       Ahmed F.