Parker Jeremiad

If there was one thing in society today that I believe needs lamenting, it would be the fact that, as people of America, we're not necessarily as accepting towards other religions as we should be.

One example would be of something that I recently had happen to me. The other day, I was talking with an old family friend and he said to me, "People who aren't from this country need to go back where they came from and take their beliefs with them." At first, I wanted to punch him in the face, but then I tried to explain to him that the United States stands for freedom to believe in what you want. After trying to convince him for about 5 minutes, I just gave up because sometimes, people are so hardheaded and so ignorant that nothing you ever say will get through to them.

I see this situation in an even bigger context with the issue surrounding putting the mosque near ground zero.

One of our basic rights as American citizens is the freedom of religion, but we aren't as receptive towards other religions as we should be, especially when it comes to Islam. 9/11 was indeed a horrible day, but associating anyone who is Muslim and anyone who studies the Islamic faith as terrorists is just being ignorant. I cannot believe that people who love this country and love everything it stands for are just willing to turn their backs on fellow Americans because of something that didn't even involve them. This whole situation is extremely shameful to me and I just can't believe there are people who let hatred blind their judgement this much.

I have no idea how to fix this problem. It has to come from the person. If they could only put themselves in a Muslim person's shoes, then they will truly understand how harmful their actions and their words are.