Sept. 11, 2001 started a new era of mistrusting Muslim people in the U.S. This has only grown in recent years because of terrorist attacks by radical Muslims.
Recently, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said a Muslim person should never be president, but he would consider electing them to fill smaller offices depending on the individual.
Why are some Americans so vocally anti-Muslim? There are a large number of Muslim Americans who are being wrongly persecuted because of the actions of radicals. The American people seem to be so afraid of our own citizens simply because of their religion.
This is not the first time something like this has happened in American history. After the Pearl Harbor attacks, Japanese Americans experienced prejudice and were put into internment camps out of national fear.
In 1941, executive order 9066 was issued and 120,000 people of Japanese decent were moved into 10 guarded, remote camps. They were held for four years in horrible conditions and many of them died due to inadequate medical care.
The Japanese internment camps were created because of the same national fear that started after 9/11. In many ways, the two events are extremely similar to each other except for the severity of reaction.
Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old boy, was arrested because a clock he built himself made a noise in class and someone assumed it was a bomb.
Today, one would think that we would never create internment camps for Muslim citizens. However, we have to keep in mind that 74 years ago we did exactly that for Japanese Americans.
People have no problem with expressing their fear about this group of Americans, but agree that holding 120,000 people simply because they were the same race or religion as those who had carried out an attack is unjust.
Today, we condemn Muslim people as a whole for terrorist attacks that they had no part of, and we are falling victim to the same flawed thinking that the American public had in 1941.
We need to remember that there is a separation between religion and radicals. Just because someone is Christian, doesn't mean that they share the same views as the Westboro Baptist Church and just because someone is Muslim, doesn't link them to every radical Muslim attack.
Related Links:
Muslim ASU students concerned for safety after Chapel Hill shootings
Anti-Islamic film, a weapon for militant Muslims
Reach the columnist at larober3@asu.edu or follow @lindsayaroberts on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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