Editorial

Welcome to the United States: land of equal opportunity bigotry.

Since September 11, a date that will not be soon forgotten, the United States — and Temple students — have viciously attacked Arabs and Muslims.

One thing must be understood: Muslims, as a group, do not support acts of terrorism, or the suspected perpetrator, Osama bin Laden.

While terrorists may believe they are Muslim, they do not practice true Islam. If they were true practitioners of the religion, they would have never attacked the U.S. The Koran states: “…whoever killed a human being, except for murder or other villainy in the land, shall be regarded as having killed all mankind…”

On campus, although there have been few formal reports and no one has been arrested, instances of hate and ignorance are occurring. Over the weekend, the Muslim Student Association office was broken into and vandalized. There have been reports by members of verbal and physical abuse.

On September 19, President Adamany released a statement. Although it does not support backlash against Arabs and Muslims — listing phone numbers to report harassment — it says nothing about consequences.

Temple fails to understand the veracity of these crimes. These crimes are not typical abuse — they are hate crimes. Americans are being attacked, accused and made fearful — because of their religion and culture.

The United States claims to be a place of religious freedom. Temple University claims to be a culturally diverse campus. Yet when diverse groups are attacked, our country and University do almost nothing to help them.

Since the attacks on the U.S., there have been prayer services. There have been candlelight vigils and a record number of blood donations.

But we have given the terrorists another victory. Across the country there are Arab Americans and American Muslims who we allow to be trampled on.

There are talks of deportation and of internment camps. If this occurs, the same should be done to Christians, because Christians have blown up abortion clinics.

We need to realize that all Arabs and Muslims aren’t guilty of this atrocity. We need to learn to accept people, no matter what their religion or culture. We need to learn that this is a trying situation for us all.