Did you know that last week I had to conduct an interview with a professional at MSU, who I will not name, for a paper that was due for my journalism 200 class? And after the interview was over the professional was proud of me because of my well-organized and creative interview.

But right before I had walked out the room, this professional asked me where were my parents are from. And the moment I said Yemen, the professional just paused for a second, then asked, “Isn’t that the country where the terrorist group al-Qaida is located right now?”

All I could do was look at this professional for a second, reply “yes,” shake their hand, thank them for being a part of the interview and walk away.

You see what have you done to normal human beings, al-Qaida? Thanks to your organization, someone like myself — who once was proud to tell people what country they were from — now has to feel embarrassed to even mention it to his close friends, let alone strangers.

Thanks to you, every time I walk around with some of my friends who happen to have Rick Ross beards, we have eyeballs glued to us everywhere like we have detonators in our back pockets.

Thanks to you, every time my family and I want to leave the country to visit family in Yemen or someplace else, it takes forever because we have to walk through the “random“ check line at the airport. Tell me, how am I suppose to explain to my 2-year-old brother, who is being checked by three different men as if he has explosives in his Captain America back pack, that this is standard operating procedure when the family wants to fly to another country?

In my opinion, it doesn’t matter anymore that there have been sources saying that the Sept. 11 attacks are not linked to the terrorist group al-Qaida. It’s the fact that you guys were mentioned as the perpetrators of the cold-blooded plot which really matters. Now people like myself have to clean up after the mess you guys might or might have not started.

For people who believe they have not committed any acts of violence, you guys have a weird way of showing this is true. I mean, you already have made it public that you believe that the killing of civilians is sanctioned religiously, ignoring religious scripture that forbids the murder of civilians and also internecine fighting.

My family, friends and I watch it in the news every day, “26 Yemeni people have been killed thanks to the terrorist group al-Qaida,” or, “A mosque in Yemen has been bombed, killing 25 people, with the terrorist act being linked to al-Qaida.” Thousands of innocent people have died in my home country just because radicals want to prove a point, which is inconceivable thinking.

When my father watches the news and sees al-Qaida people on television, hiding under the turbans around their faces, holding up AK-47s in the air and walking the streets of Yemen like they own the place, he just gets a disgusted look on his face. Once he told me, “I never hope for any harm on any person, but I do hope God punishes those imbeciles. They think everything is a joke until karma comes back around and bites them harder than ever.”

So here are my final words to al-Qaida: As much destruction you have caused in my life and others, believe it or not you have given me a new purpose in life. Because you have people believing most Muslims support you people, which is ridiculous, I now can dedicate my life to make people understand what Muslims truly stand for.

So once I get people to understand that Muslims are people of peace, my next task is to take each and every person down that works with al-Qaida.

I will not complete this plot by an act of violence though; I am too sophisticated for that. I will take each and every one of you down with my faith, my mind and my words. These are the deadliest weapons a person can have with them in the world today.

Omar Thabet is a State News guest columnist and journalism sophomore. Reach him at jacks920@msu.edu.