With headlines reading, “Two Muslim women attacked in Tampa,” I have to remind myself that this is in fact America I am reading about. It has come to my attention that many Americans are close-minded — this is obvious.

The news article by 10 News of Tampa Bay, Sarasota said, “We’re learning about attacks on two Muslim women, right here in the Tampa Bay area. Their attorney says one of the women was shot at, and another one was nearly driven off the road — both because of their Muslim faith.”

The question must be raised; who is the real enemy here? Yes there are terrorists in the world. But the definition of terrorism is no more than, “the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.”

To attack someone because they are wearing a hijab is the same as ISIS attacking someone just because they are American. But are Americans playing into the plan of ISIS?

“The kind of anti-Muslim attacks reported in Hillsborough County this week are literally exactly what ISIS wants,” said the 10 News article concerning the two Muslim women. “ISIS has only a few thousand people, and almost all of them are on the other side of the planet, this is their strategy: Create a divide between Muslims and non-Muslims in America, with the hopes that some Muslims will feel isolated and fed up enough to turn to radical Islam, then attack.”

Americans cannot continue to attack innocent people because we live in fear. Yes it is nerve-racking to not know if ISIS will attack, or when attacks will happen. But being afraid of the unknown will stop us from living. And if we continue to attack innocent people —because they are practicing their faith and wearing a hijab — then we are no better than radical Islam.

“It’s getting to a point where you have to hide who you are,” Mohammad Halisi said to the Express Tribune on Friday night at the Islamic Society of Corona-Norco mosque. “Seven-year-old kids cannot say they’re Muslims because of the bad atmosphere we have.”

There are many websites devoted to the Islamic Terror Attacks on American Soil. With countless tallies of who has died, and how many, from attacks of devoted Muslims. But each group will have a few bad apples.

“The American Muslim community is proud of its contributions in society, and it’s unfortunate that certain politicians are attacking the entire Muslim faith and people for the horrendous actions of a few people,” CAIR Florida director Hassan Shibly said to News 10.

Having hate in our heart is not what America is about. Another recent headline shocked me at just how much hate Americans have and just how much we are passing on to the next generation. According to Time Magazine, “Virginia 7th-Grader Arrested After Calling Muslim Classmate a ‘Terrorist’.”

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, and stoning Muslim women will not result in anything positive. So the next time an American judges a Muslim man, or make close-minded assumptions about the women wearing hijabs, we need think about the members of ISIS and exactly how they react in the same way towards Americans. We aren’t the terrorists, but it’s time that we start acting with the moral standards that we claim to uphold.