Bullet in the Head

An Open Letter to Andrea Tantaros and Her Colleagues at Fox News

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• published: 22 Aug 2014
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EDIT: It's incredible that my call for peace received so violent a reaction. What part of speaking against violence makes me seem remotely on ISIS's side? Fact is, I'm not responsible for ISIS's brutality, and I don't have to apologize. It appalls me as much as you, and I hold as little responsibility for it as you do. Like Christians don't have to apologize for the Westboro Baptist Church or the Lord's Resistance Army, I am under no obligation to apologize for ISIS. If you cannot understand that actions of fringe groups don't reflect upon the majority, you need to reevaluate your worldview. (That said, Muslim groups HAVE condemned ISIS's actions.) For those telling me to go home: I'm already there. I'm a born & bred American. If you don't like that, you deeply misunderstand this nation's ideals. I will not apologize for my existence, nor will I diminish myself to accommodate your narrow-minded bigotry. For those who think that Islam has no place in America: Islam's been in America as long as it has existed. Slaves who labored for centuries were Muslim. Muslims fought in the Revolution. Jefferson owned a copy of the Quran & hosted the 1st White House iftar. The 1st country to recognize the US was Morocco. (Not to mention contributions Muslims produced in sciences & other fields. During the Dark Ages, the Muslim world celebrated a golden age of discovery. Open a book.) Your hatred cannot stop me. If anything, it spurs me on: as long as people like you call for violence & hatred, I'll call for peace & respect. You should be ashamed of yourselves. We as a nation can do better. -- hastily written at 4 am. not my best work, but it gets the point across. dear ms tantaros, there’s a little girl watching the news in 2001 asking her father why do bad people do such bad things? do you want to solve her with a bullet to the head? there’s a little girl writing a poem in 2004 for an antiwar protest to save innocent lives. she writes, “the road to peace is justice.” do you want to solve her with a bullet to the head? there’s a little girl sitting at the kitchen table in 2006, telling her family, “i have decided i am not arab any longer. they cannot hate me anymore.” do you want to solve her with a bullet to the head? there’s a little girl crying on her bedroom floor in 2009, heart begging to be a different color, a different faith, a different background because maybe then they won’t hate her anymore. do you want to solve her with a bullet to the head? there’s a young woman today, speaking to you in 2014, tired of your hatred, tired of the audacity you have to condemn 1.6 billion innocent people to death. you cannot solve me with a bullet to the head. 1.6 billion bullets will not solve your problems, ms tantaros. The Quran tell us, “if anyone slew a person it would be as if he slew all of humanity.” do you want that burden on your back? my islam & my humanity have taught me that there is a better way. there is a better way than garnishing your statements with mass murder, a better way than tearing open the chest of every muslim child & setting it on a plate, a better way than feasting on the security of my 9 & 14 year old brothers telling them, “you deserve to die.” your problem is not the 1.6 billion innocent muslims living around the world. your problem, ms tantaros, is your inability to see past the blinding black of your bigotry. i do not have to justify my emerald existence in the face of your ruby rage. take a seat, ms tantaros, & look at the world around you– the range of colors of human existence span far more than the gritty gray of your bullets & the raging red of your hatred. these colors span flowering faith traditions from green to gold – from the Old Testament’s “Thou shalt not kill” to the Quran’s “do not kill the sacrosanct soul.” these colors do not have to ask you to exist, do not need you to solve them: they simply are, mixing & melding & morphing into a magnificent masterpiece. we muslims draw our colors from all around the world and 2.6 million come from this colorful canvas we call america: the america that-by the way-was first recognized by the red & green daub of the muslim country morocco, the america that continues to benefit from the silvery science developed by muslim researchers, the america whose third pewter president owned a copy of the quran, the america that was brazenly built on the backs of muslim slaves, the america that remains scarred & screaming by the scalpel you wield in your heart. the america that can do better. i am tired of trying to repair these weeping wounds in our nation–child by alienated child, identity crisis by identity crisis–when your words keep driving the knife still further. this is an open letter, ms tantaros– written to you in 1.6 billion shades of beating-heart red– let go of the knife & fasten your mind to the beauty.