The Journal

Last week, I came home to find my dad perched in front of the television with the usual CNN playing. He turned to me and informed me that, "There was a shooting at a military base in Texas. The shooter was Arab. And Muslim."

Damn.

Maybe this is selfish on my part. While I was shaken from the horrific nature of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's actions, I was immediately overtaken with concern for my fellow Muslims and the inevitable repercussions I knew the Muslim community would endure in the following days. I dreaded what the media would do with the story. And I worried about how my fellow American citizens would respond to the tragedy that left 13 dead and wounded 31 other soldiers and civilians. They were killed in cold blood by one of their own.

But alas! He was not one of their own. He was Muslim.

Following the shooting, one of my close friends asked me, "Why another Muslim?" I responded quite indignantly, saying that it's not "another Muslim." It was an individual. This man is an individual whose actions should not and does not reflect all Muslims' sentiments, nor does it represent the teachings of Islam or its holy book, the Quran.

We, in this country, are so quick to categorize people and cultures for our own peace of mind. It's so much easier to refer to the Fort Hood shooting as another terrorist act by a crazy fundamentalist than it would be to examine it as an American turning on other Americans.

The days following the shooting brought on even more confusion, at least for me. The initial reports on CNN did not mention any proven links to terrorist organizations. The motives behind the atrocity had more to do with Hasan's disapproval of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the news that Hasan was being deployed to Afghanistan. Another reason was the harassment Hasan received from fellow soldiers for being Muslim.

Neither of these reasons condone his actions, but I held on to them to show people, "Look! He's not doing any of this in the name of Allah or acting on behalf of any terrorist organization!" Now I'm faced with reports from ABC News, as well as other news organizations, that Hasan had reached out to terrorist organizations abroad.

Damn.

Is the media right to play this up as an act of terrorism? What is an act of terrorism, really? According to U.S. law, "the term 'terrorism' means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents."

I disagree.

Terrorism is any use of violence against innocent people that causes terror, mayhem or chaos to ensue. My definition does not include "any use of violence by a Muslim." Neither does the definition under U.S. law. Why, then, are we so quick to associate "Muslim" with "terrorist"?

What makes my family and I less American than anyone else? I appreciate apple pie and baseball, but honestly I'm not really a Chevy truck kind of gal (I tend to lean towards foreign made).

So, why, at the age of 14, did I have to calm my mother's fears after the 9/11 attacks and assure her that us Arabs and Muslims would not be rounded up and placed in internment camps?

"America isn't like that anymore," I recall telling my mother.

Later, when I looked back at that conversation, I thought of how it wasn't all that long ago that Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps during World War II. Of course, the Patriot Act was passed after our talk.

I'd like someone to explain to me why, while waiting in the driveway for my mother to take me to school one morning, I had to watch FBI agents show up to my house. They waltzed right up to the door to question my father, a law-abiding citizen who votes, pays his taxes and cherishes Sundays for football just as much as the next American dad.

Why did I have to sit in my eighth grade classes that day, preoccupied by the injustices my family and community had to endure, while other students got to focus on the lessons being taught? What lessons did I learn that day?

One lesson I was forced to learn at an early age is that, in this country, contrary to what the na've may believe, to be different means to be a person of interest, suspicious and deserving of investigation. Just the other night my dad asked me, "What if Hasan was Christian? Or Jewish? Would he be a 'terrorist' then?"

No.

I've become quite accustomed to being the villain, but these questions never get easier. Sept. 11 is a day that no one will ever forget. But my God, when will Muslims stop being punished for crimes we didn't commit?

Listening to NPR last week, a man called in to "The Diane Rehm Show" and tried to make the argument that Muslims should not serve in the military. I doubt this man realizes that, according to the WorldTribune.com, "The Defense Department reported 3,409 Muslims on active military duty as of April 2008, but officials said the number could be at least three times higher." My guess is the number is higher because not everyone enlisting in the army would want to identify as Muslim … for obvious reasons.

These Muslim soldiers are currently serving in the U.S. military, fighting the same wars and dying for the same cause as every other American soldier. I doubt this man realizes that Muslims are embedded in American society just as much as any other people of faith. I wonder why he does not realize Muslims are our classmates, teachers, doctors, neighbors and soldiers.

Whatever evidence surfaces in the coming days about the motives for the massacre at Fort Hood, I truly wish that all Americans could embrace the ideal of not only being tolerant, but accepting of others.

I hope Americans will resist the urge to persecute an entire group of people based on one deranged man's actions.

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