Don’t let hatred against Muslims go unchecked under the guise of ‘free speech’

Recently, one of my best friends held the door open for a man coming out of a gas station on Long Island.

The man angrily brushed his shoulder, but my friend let it go and went to pay for his gas. When my friend came out, the man angrily screamed at him, calling him a terrorist.

My friend tried to ignore the barrage, but eventually replied: “It’s late, there’s no need for this, go home.” The screaming continued and before long, the gas station attendant told them both to leave, which was fine with my friend. Until he realized the man was following him down the highway.

This story ends anticlimactically: Two police cars came by, the man following my friend got scared and took the next nearest exit. My friend made it home safe.

But I’m scared to think about what could have happened otherwise.

None of what happened that night was okay

I’m about done with the hate speech that is tolerated under the guise of “free speech” in this society. They are not the same thing.

Hate crimes against American Muslims nationwide have risen to the highest rates since post 9/11 — rising 78 percent during 2015, according to researchers at California State University, San Bernardino.

This is what happens when you let the narrative around a minority group be tainted by lies and insinuation.

When my friend, a 6-foot man, says, “I have to stop going out at night,” something is wrong.

When he says, “It’s not like I was even asking for trouble. I wasn’t even dressed in my prayer clothes,” we should think about how troubled our society is. Instead, some people agree, nodding their heads and saying: “Yes, sometimes religious garb/head scarves can really be asking for it.”

No. Sorry, no. They are pieces of cloth. Hold a scarf in your hand next time you start feeling scared of someone who “looks like a Muslim.” Feel how weightless and transparent it is and ask yourself if your fear shouldn’t weigh more.

We live in a digital world, with information at our fingertips in seconds. And we could easily research other cultures before making snap judgments out of fear that only lead to prejudice. The research does not mean memes and two-minute YouTube clips.

This year, the Muslim festivals of Eid were both marred with violence toward Muslims. In midtown, a man lit a woman wearing Muslim dress on fire in broad daylight. In Philadelphia, a firebomb was thrown into a man’s car.

Over the summer — and particularly during the holy month of Ramadan — the Huffington Post’s Islamophobia tracker logged new incidents nearly every day.

Had people been attacked, shot or lit on fire before Christmas the way Muslims are targeted around their holidays, every single headline would proclaim a “War on Christmas” and the shock, sadness, and outrage would be impossible to ignore.

Starbucks changed its winter cup design to save a buck and people were up in arms over the lack of a holiday theme.

When I see people angrier over a Starbucks cup than I do over attacks on Muslims, I feel it’s time we stop and re-think where we are going as a society and what kind of history we are really making.

Hatred is prevelant, but it can be defeated

Destroy ISIS. Condemn terrorism. We want you to. We want the same thing.

Just be smart enough to realize that ISIS and al-Qaida are a minority, not representative of a religion practiced by 1.6 billion people. Making sweeping generalizations about an entire faith is dangerous and poisonous to a society.

Do not disregard the inflammation that the current political, media, and presidential campaign culture we live in has caused.

We have KKK fliers circulating in 2016.

We have adults yelling “terrorist” to anybody that looks different in the streets.

We have people dying and others saying they do not deserve a chance in our societies, comparing human lives to pieces of candy in a skittles bowl. What do you think our children will grow up to be like?

Don’t doubt how fast hatred can spread when the dialogue is allowed to demonize and lump many different cultures into one seemingly disposable group.

Hatred is transferable, but it is also reversible.

There are 1.6 billion practicing Muslims. Don’t let anybody make you think that many people can be anything but diverse, full of families and children and good people.

You are smarter than that.

Christina Barbera is a nurse. She has an interest in facilitating interfaith communication to help communities recognize common goals.