I can honestly say that I never for a second felt endangered being in Valencia, Spain. I had many friends and family who contacted me asking if I was okay when the terrorist attacks happened in Pairs. It was a horrible thing to see on the news and in the internet. I knew of some other Erasmus students who were from Paris who were terrified. I also knew some fellow students from my college in NY who are currently in France that were scared. I would say thankfully I did not lose anyone in the attacks but really I lost the 129+ people who died on the French cold ground.
The two biggest post-tragedy topics that have escalated throughout social media and the news are the questions/opinions of if Islam encourages terrorism and if we should allow refugees from Syria to come to the United States.
Anyone who says Islam is the same as terrorism is an ignorant and narrow-minded idiot.
It angers and saddens me to see how ignorant people are to label a group of extremist as a whole religion. Just because the terrorist identify themselves to be Muslim does not mean that the religion of Islam identifies to be of terrorism. There are those who claim there about all the evil words of the Quran and so on, but let's keep in mind that the Bible or the Torah are nowhere close to being innocent of extreme ideas. Its unfortunate to say that there is another plague of Islam-phobia going around.
This video is probably the best argument against those who are quick to use oppression and Islam in the same breathe.
Now about the Syrian Refugees, well first let me just start off with this photo:
And second, how we can we turn our backs and let other countries deal with the horrors of Syria? Why are people once again generalizing saying that they are all going to bomb us? It's horrible and I'm ashamed to be from a country that keeps sharing ridiculous memes about how we shouldn't accept refugees because they "might be bad". Oh okay so maybe we should look at all the domestic attacks that white Christians have done out of their beliefs? Maybe we should look at how our country is still shown as an example of a lot of racism in my Society class in Spain. Sure every country has these problems but I really do think that mindsets of a lot of narrow-minded Americans are the worst I have ever seen in my time I have been in Europe.
One of my best friends and my brother's girlfriend wrote this amazing article for her college's paper about the refugees and how we as Americans must help.
A world united against evil forces like ISIS and terrorism will remain strong. But a world divided into our own nationalities and close-minded thoughts will fall apart just like the villains want us too.
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