Juan Williams Axed By NPR

When hearing that Juan Williams got fired for stating beliefs that apparently crossed NPR's line, I had to ask myself: why is he getting fired for speaking his reality? I actually do not think that he is the only American that feels that way.

What Juan went on to explain after his controversial statement (which was not aired on the videos I watched and instead was narrated by the journalist reporting) is that you cannot blankly say that "Muslims" committed 9/11 just because the hijacker's and the supposed orchestrator's religion was Islam. They do not speak for the billions of Muslims all around the world. But unfortunately, this idea is being propagated by people with a large influence over the American public, like Bill O'Reilly, and causing people to think that we need to be afraid of all Muslims.

I have to constantly see my fears and feelings towards others through an analytical lens and bring to light any subconscious racism. I have also been at airports and felt a twinge of uncertainty at the site of Muslims. I am able to recognize this feeling and logically remind myself that that thought was a broad statement generalizing Muslims. I remind myself of the uninformed media images of all oppressed people, I think of Sanaz and Afsana, I remember who I really think was behind 9/11. The feeling soon dissipates and I move on with my life until the next time I judge someone based on a physical feature and I have to re-examine the emotions. I know that I cannot be the only person that does this because our country adds fuel to the fire of crazy people trying to burn Korans, so why can we not just accept this misinformed belief and form a dialogue as to how we can change it?

Instead of firing this man and brushing the statement aside, why not dig deeper into the reason behind why such a belief exists and ask ourselves how we, as a people, can change our perceptions and examine the use of rhetoric in the media to maintain a truthful reality. For example, instead of referring to the 9/11 murderers as "terrorists/Muslims/extremists", call them the "hijackers," because that is what they did.

They may or may not have been -depending on how much of the Government's response you believe- Muslim extremists that were led by the terrorist group Al Queda, to stage a holy war on America in the name of Allah. Whether or not that is true, please do not think that I am defending their act. I am merely not allowing myself to stereotype a religion that covers all continents and over a billion people because of the acts of a few.

But, political correctness is getting out of controllllll.