Thabet
My name is Omar Thabet and I am a freshman at MSU pursuing a career in journalism. I am a Muslim Arab-American who was born in the U.S., but my roots are in Yemen.
I want readers to know the stereotype of all Muslims as terrorists is not true. Every society has its “bad people,” which for Muslims is about 3 percent of the population. So, here is a general idea of how the other 97 percent feels about the problems going on.
There is a message that needs to be sent from the Middle East. If you have your middle finger up at us already, just add the index; you get peace.
That’s the mindset the people need, where a little change can be the answer; think positive — negativity — what is killing society like some kind of cancer.
See, Middle Eastern people thrive on brotherly love like the citizens of south Philly, so not giving your all to the person beside you is something we consider silly.
But 9/11 changed history and also the way we look at each other. Now Muslims are like a closed book waiting for you to turn from the cover.
We used to struggle to explain what a Muslim was amongst ourselves in elementary, now to the world we are all terrorists ever since the start of the new century.
If I died tomorrow, is that how I will be remembered? We need to stop having hearts that are so cold like the weather in December.
I said to a student, “Think what it would feel like to live in a war zone.” Where you don’t feel comfortable about even living in your own home,
Bombs, explosions 20 feet away waking you up in a fright and the next day finding out your cousins were the victims that night,
“We are the world, we are the children,” — that phrase must be lying; What if your kids daily witnessed their own friends dying?
The Middle East is full of war — as if we didn’t have enough problems. We are at war with each other; many disputes and we still haven’t solved them,
Egypt, one of the biggest Muslim countries is in turmoil. Its president — who used to run everything — is now worth a grain of soil.
I ask my dad how he feels about this topic; he got up on his feet, and said what’s happening back home takes his appetite away when he eats.
We all say war is not the answer, but yet it still comes. I don’t know what you want to call it in Iraq when casualties are 10 to one,
So many people dying, it’s almost a joke, but we take this stuff serious like your health after the second stroke.
Media releasing stereotypes that are obviously not true. Trust me; we want peace just as much you do,
War just is another problem we don’t need on our list. How about you smile and shake someone’s hand instead of balling up a fist?
We strive to do good for the kids because they should come first, but the way we’re treating the globe today we all know that they got it worse, because the world is changing, people are getting greedy; It’s now more for the rich and less for the needy.
What ever happened to “All for one and one for all?” That’s why like the season after summer our economy has taken a fall.
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We also got problems like dirty water, starvation and air pollution; problems that can fill a whole starting lineup, and some substitutions.
But yet we still have time to fight each other across the border; I think the world needs to know the new direct order,
That is, take a step forward in making a difference, you don’t know how one helping hand can have such significance,
Remember that we are all just one big family of people:
Don’t look at yourself higher nor lower than anyone else, because we are all equal!
Omar Thabet is a State News guest columnist and a journalism freshman. Reach him at thabetom@msu.edu
