I’m confused about how we think in America. When confronted with our own hypocrisy about issues, we cover our eyes all while constantly condemning others for being exactly what we are. Nidal Malik Hasan just killed 13 people and wounded many, many more. When you look around the web, you will find no shortage of people condemning him (which is appropriate), condemning Islam, condemning Muslims and condemning Muslims in the military. The sad thing that no one is thinking about is the fact that the majority of mass shootings are not committed by Muslims. It isn’t that taking a bullet from a White person or a person of the Muslim faith is better or worse than the other - a bullet is still a bullet after all. For some reason people don’t get as angry when a White person kills as they do when a Muslim kills. Why is that?

I remember when the Oklahoma City bombings occur ed. People were actually burning down mosques. They were angry with Muslims. Many people talked about how Muslims should be put into internment camps. Then we found out that the perpetrators of the crime were just some angry White guys. Then the attitude changed. People weren’t as angry. The Internet hate sites continued to spew their venom, but it was abated  a little by the fact that they couldn’t blame the Muslims for the bombing anymore. Why do we invest our time blaming a group of people for the actions of a few? What is wrong with us that causes us to think this way individually and as a society?

The analysis of this incident is coming. It will be talked about for a long time. Many brave men and women lost their lives because of one troubled man. The fact that he is a Muslim shouldn’t be what matters to us. The fact that he is a killer should be what matters. It takes a special kind of sickness to kill people who have wronged you. It takes an even sicker mind to kill people you don’t even know. We have seen it before. In Oklahoma, Timothy McVeigh and his co-conspirators killed men, women and even innocent children. In Maryland, John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo killed 13 innocent people he didn’t know from the comfort of a car trunk. In Texas, George Jo Hennard  killed 23 people and wounded 20 others before taking his own life. There are  many more people who have committed such acts of violence and they all have one thing in common - they aren’t people of the Muslim faith.

I don’t know if our attitudes toward Muslims are because of our fear or our prejudice or some combination of both, but what I do know is that it is wrong. Killers are killers and their religion, race, sexual orientation, what they do or who they are isn’t the issue. What is the issue is the cowardly destruction of a human life for no other reason than that person being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We need to take our blinders off and stop being so racist - both individually and as a nation. Being racist or discriminatory toward people who are Muslims is just plain stupid.