Yesterday I was French. Today I am Lebanese. I am Lebanese because, even though as an American with European roots it’s so much easier to relate and identify with Western Europe nobody suffers at the hands of the tyrants that hijack Islam to intimidate, siege power and oppress than Middle Eastern muslims. Not only are their families targeted and destroyed by these monsters, but they unfairly bear the brunt of the rage the world feels for these inhuman bullies, for sharing the same language, faces, names, religion and home.

This is the epitome of injustice and even though I will never face the hatred and violence that they do– I’ve tasted it. Whenever, I hear disgust for the despicable acts of Westboro Baptist, or the Army of God or the KKK extended to Protestant Christians I feel that injustice, that insult. In our quest for peace we cannot allow injustice. We cannot allow our fear of the unknown, or our impulse to generalize to incubate hatred and injustice. We must all be Lebanese. We must all be Beirut. We must see every vicious attack on innocents in order intimidate as attacks on us all– especially Arabs, especially muslims. If we don’t draw a just line between the monsters and humans one day we won’t know the difference.