Let's hit pause on our mass hysteria

The deadly terrorist attacks in Paris have understandably unnerved us all, disrupted our day-to-day complacency and even our tolerance for one another. As we pick up the pieces, we are left with a choice. It happens to be the same choice presented to Americans following 9/11:

Do we unite in our march forward, even stronger and more compassionate than we were before, or do we collectively blame an entire group, in this case Muslims, or those perceived to be Muslims (like turbaned and bearded Sikhs), isolate them, hate them, fear them, and commit violence against them? In this ideological war, the choice matters. To stop terrorism, we must take the high road.

Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, recently explained in a powerful interview with MSNBC that Muslims, and in particular Syrians, "left their country because of ISIS and because of the Assad regime." She, using another name for the Islamic State, noted that "Muslims are the largest victims of ISIS" and that "ISIS wants to divide us, wants the world to hate Muslims and push Muslims away."

We can't let the Islamic State get its way. Unfortunately, after every large-scale terrorist attack on the West, it's become more acceptable to make biased decisions and discriminatory snap judgments about Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims. On Nov. 16, four brown-skinned passengers were removed from a Chicago-bound Spirit Airlines flight because another passenger described what could only be described as ordinary behavior in a less fearful world -- including watching television on their cell phones -- suspicious. All removed passengers were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Immediately following the Paris attacks, Canadian Sikh Veerender Jubbal, an outspoken social media critic of misogyny in the video gaming industry, found a Twitter photo of him altered to make him look like a "terrorist." This photo spread like wildfire on social media, and was published by a Spanish language newspaper and other international outlets as a picture of an actual the Islamic State terrorist affiliated with the Paris attacks.

While those who created the image are certainly culpable, so are the outlets that shared, published and distributed it. The papers did not think to question the identity or source of the photograph -- a brown man with a turban and beard in an alleged suicide vest was apparently enough evidence to justify its authenticity. Veerender quickly responded, explaining he has absolutely no affiliation with the Islamic State or any terrorist networks, is a Canadian Sikh, and urged reporters to learn and educate their readers about the Sikh faith.

Although the picture was fortunately exposed as a hoax, Veerender has to permanently deal with being misidentified as an Islamic State terrorist by the global online community. This is not a light burden -- just ask the family of the late Sunil Tripathi, who was misidentified as the Boston bomber.

When we make choices out of fear, our actions have horrific consequences on entire communities. Now as we debate over the Syrian refugees and decide whether we abide by the laws and morality of a civilized society, let's pause the mass hysteria for a moment and think about our choice. The wrong choice will set us on another endless course of violence, division, animosity and hatred. Surely, none of us want that -- again.

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ABOUT THE WRITER

Gurjot Kaur is a senior staff attorney at the Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the United States, headquartered in New York City. She wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine. Readers may write to the author at: Progressive Media Project, 409 East Main Street, Madison, Wis. 53703; email: pmprojprogressive.org; Web site: www.progressive.org. For information on PMP's funding, please visit http://www.progressive.org/pmpabout.html anchorsupport.

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Let's hit pause on our mass hysteria ."