It is a bold move to preach pacifism in the face of the Islamic State — I get it. Even President Obama called for “hunting down terrorists who threaten our country” in a September 2014 speech addressed to the nation. 

But when putting a stop to an extremist terrorist group turns into widespread fear mongering, Islamophobia and violence, one has to wonder whether vehement retaliation against the Islamic State is actually putting Americans in more danger.  

In fact, the media has twisted the Islamic State  narrative so as to inspire a war against all Muslims, a war that is causing bloodshed right here at home. If our goal is to make America safe, we must first overcome the threat we pose to one another. This means making peace. 

On Dec. 15 of last year, an Iraq veteran robbed convenience store owner Inerjit Singh at gunpoint in Grand Rapids, Mich. The American-hero-turned-enraged-gunman forced his weapon into Singh’s mouth and pulled the trigger. 

Thankfully, the bullet ejected through his cheek, sparing him his life. According to a Feb. 16 New York Times article, the gunman yelled, “I killed guys like you in Iraq, so I never think about it when I shoot them anymore.” Little did he know that Mr. Singh was not Muslim but Sikh. 

That same month, in yet another incidence of violence on Dec. 11, 2015, a California resident set fire to a Mosque in Coachella Valley after burglarizing it. No one was hurt — thank Allah — and authorities detained the suspect, who was later charged with a hate crime, according to a March 1 Los Angeles Times article. A similar incident occurred in Meriden, Conn. There, a neighbor of the Baitul Aman Mosque fired several rounds from a high-powered rifle at the building early in the morning of Nov. 14 of last year, according to Connecticut U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly. 

Hate crimes targeting the Muslim community are becoming more and more common. According to Professor Brian Levin of California State University San Bernardino, attacks against Muslims have tripled in the past two years. In the wake of recent Islamic State attacks, Americans have retaliated against the Muslim community at large, committing hate crimes ranging from vandalizing storefronts to harassment to shooting suspect Muslims for no reason. 

It is the media that has created this situation; their slandering has painted a denigrating image of Muslims. Late-night talk show hosts often use the term “Muslim terrorists” and cable news channels fabricate a stereotype that equates being Muslim with hating the West.  

For example, Bill Maher’s show “Real Time with Bill Maher” has repeatedly espoused negative stereotypes of Muslims. Maher said in a Nov. 17, 2015 interview with Stephen Colbert that “terrorists share ideas with lots of mainstream people who follow the Islamic religion.” This episode has been viewed almost two million times on YouTube.

Fox News has also contributed to this slander. Segments dealing with Middle Eastern strife are especially divisive for the Muslim community. During an Oct. 15, 2010 “Fox and Friends” interview, for example, Islamic relations aficionado Brian Klimeade falsely proclaimed, “All terrorists are Muslims.”   

More recently, television sensation Bill O’Reilley stated, “Most of the terror violence in the world comes out of Muslim precincts” in a Jan. 13 airing of “The O’Reilley Factor.”

But these stereotypes are unfounded. Of 1.6 billion Muslims, only a fraction of a percent commit crimes of terror around the world, according to a Dec. 7, 2015 study by the Pew Research Center. 

Comparatively, non-Muslim Americans have committed over 94 percent of terrorist attacks from 1980 to 2005 here, according to a 2002 to 2005 terrorism report by the FBI. And what about the attacks in Europe that have been the recent obsession of news channels? Only two percent have been carried out by Muslim fundamentalists in the past five years, according to a Dec. 9, 2015 Huffington post article.  

Granted, the Islamic State commits brutal attacks: beheadings of journalist with samurai swords, public executions and plane explosions — to name a few. But this does not mean that all — or even most — Muslims are terrorists or support ISIS. It also does not mean that Muslims predominantly carry out terrorist attacks. The media is responsible for this story — that all Muslims are inclined towards fundamentalism and, as a result, there exist “Muslim terrorists.”

This narrative has done a gross injustice to the Muslim community, and it has taken root in our social milieu: at the family dinner table, dominating political discourse, even encouraging demagogic small talk. Some family friends I visit bring up “the Muslims.” Friends frequent the Islamic State headlines, constantly wary of Muslim fundamentalism.  One of my good friends shared with me her vivid fear of an Islamic State member bursting into her classroom and shooting her, point blank.  

It is no wonder that attacks against innocent Muslim-Americans have spiked. We are constantly told that Muslims hate the West and are prone to terrorism, and we are scared. 

This partially explains the success of religiously bigoted political figures like — but not limited to — Donald Trump. When they demand halting immigration of Syrian refugees just because they are Muslim  — refugees who are fleeing ISIS — they exacerbate this hysteria. This same hysteria is at play when non-Muslims marginalize the Muslim community. 

The trend of fear has been good for news ratings, but it has had detrimental effects. A 2014 study published in the Economic Journal says it all. It found that assimilation declined among the Muslim-American community in the wake of anti-Muslim sentiment after 9/11 and further noted the radicalizing effects this can have. This trend not only threatens Muslim-Americans’ First Amendment right to practice their religion in safety but also further endangers every American. 

As U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) explains, “they [the Islamic State] want the West to marginalize Muslims and isolate them, making them more susceptible to being radicalized.”

When we attack the Muslim community, we help the Islamic State achieve its goals by adding credence to the idea that the West is anti-Muslim and broadly justifies acts of terror against the region. Such attacks even encourage more radicalization among Muslim-Americans, who feel threatened themselves. 

The only way to effectively combat terrorism is to fight terrorists. It is important that while we stand in solidarity with Ankara, France, Brussels, Cote d’Ivoire and other sufferers of Islamic State attacks, we also identify who the enemy actually is: the Islamic State, not Muslims. Otherwise, we will continue such heinous violence against one another and possibly inspire even more radicalization.

Former President Franklin Roosevelt famously said, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” He understood the power that fear has over us. Today, our fear of terrorism has caused more violence, death and marginalization than actual terrorism.  By not acknowledging the fear we have of the Islamic State, one form of extremism has inspired another.