IGNORANCE IS UNDENIABLY THE ROOT CAUSE OF ALL EVIL

A surge of hate crimes and intolerance has swept the nation ever since Trump got elected president. His disdain for immigrants, whether illegal or legal has fueled a fire that was already burning.

Unfortunately, many of his supporters have xenophobic and racist views that are bred through ignorance. Trump's demonization of illegal immigrants had many of his supporters joyfully waiting for his proposal to build a wall on the border between Mexico. Unfortunately, they falsely assume that a wall will eventually solve their problems and benefit the U.S. economy. Yet, the economy would actually be in a worse off condition if you had to pay twenty dollars for your bag of salad!

Scarier yet, a large majority of his voters view Muslim immigrants and non immigrants as a threat to their security and way of life. His supporters might stumble upon videos of gruesome ISIS videos and blindly categorize all Muslims as terrorists. Sadly, the majority of terrorism victims are actually Muslim, but people with ignorance simply cannot grasp that concept.

The illogical "Muslim Ban" is yet another example of hatred and discrimination. Nationals from six predominantly Muslim countries were being banned from legally immigrating and visiting the United States. According to an internal state department report, nationals from Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iran were rarely if ever implicated in acts of terrorism. No national from the listed countries had committed a terrorist attack on U.S soil. This delusional executive order was created as a security guise to keep up with Trump's pre-campaign presidential promise to completely shut down Muslims from entering and immigrating to the United States. His despicable demagoguery had instilled fear upon his supporters, which had blindly insisted on the rationality and goodness of the ban. Luckily, the federal courts froze the executive order due to heavy evidence of religious discrimination and shallow evidence of a legitimate security concern!

As a native Californian and concerned human being, I have been absolutely appalled by the levels of hatred being propagated by Trump and some of his supporters. Each day, I often hear of another minority getting beat up, simply because he spoke a foreign language or wore a turban. Or another Jewish temple being sprayed with swastikas and a mosque being burnt. Each day, hatred seems to have a new lease on life!

Unfortunately, I've been on the other side of ignorance. After the September 11th terrorists attacks, I told my mother that I disliked Muslims. I was in my late teens at the time and had never personally known a Muslim nor had befriended one. My response was not only very hateful but it was extremely ignorant. This ignorance was sourced from fear. It was literally fear of the unknown that generated that reaction. As I got older I started to research more about Islam and came to an unbiased conclusion. I realized that the vast majority of the world's 1.7 billion Muslims reject extremism and the killing of innocents. I also befriended some Muslims and I became content knowing that my hateful ignorance was no longer correct. Over time, I had changed my views and have embraced diversity and have let go of the fear I had for some in our society.

If you look at history you'll often see brutal images of people fighting in senseless wars. You'll read about inequality and rampant discrimination in all levels of society. You will hear heartbreaking stories of people being treated without dignity, simply because they had an accent, a unique religion or because they had a different skin color. However, you will find that all of these stories of inequality have one root cause.

Unfortunately, humanity will continue suffering until new and old minds alike are liberated from ignorance.


By Kirsten Nasserisina
June 3, 2017