Too many Americans forget that Islam =/= terrorist.

On Wednesday night, President Obama gave an address to the American people about the looming threat of the terrorist group ISIS. He touched on many relevant and interesting points, but one that stuck out to me was the way he emphasized that ISIS is not representative of Islam as a whole, and that it would be a mistake to regard them as such.

This is a reminder that, unfortunately, I think many American citizens would do well to heed. There is a disturbing tendency among some Americans to sweep all of Islam under the umbrella of terrorism (which pairs easily with the manic, chip-on-the-shoulder, gun-toting "'Murican" nationalism prevalent in some parts of the country), creating a sickening blend of pride and prejudice.

I would draw attention to this (satirical, thank goodness) blog post on the subject. The post speaks with the voice of an American who obviously has fallen under the delusion that Islam/all of Islamic culture and customs are automatically synonymous with terrorism. It includes a series of screenshots from a Facebook page which posted an image of a Muslim woman wearing an American flag as a hijab (the traditional head covering worn by Muslim girls and women). Under the photo, many people posted highly bigoted, profane and even violent comments about the photograph, calling the woman "disrespectful" and "a witch", and threatening bodily harm and even murder. The commenters bellow that the use of the American flag in this way is unthinkable, sacrilegious, immoral, obscene.

It has to be said, how many times have you seen a model in a skimpy American flag bikini? How many artsy photos of naked girls wrapped in the flag circulate on Instagram and Tumblr? It is a central tenet of our country to never let the flag touch the ground; however, I would draw attention to this. Where are the outraged comments on this picture about the misuse of and disrespect to the symbol of our nation?

The answer is, nowhere.

President Obama's speech only touched on this subject. It is highly likely that the people who really need to hear his warning not to generalize Muslims are not the people who would support or listen to Obama anyway. But as was mentioned in our class discussion on Thursday, much of the reason for the arguments the Commander in Chief made in his address was to sway the fencers in his favor. So his words about how ISIS does not represent all Islamic people by a long shot? Likely concocted to send a ripple of nods and murmurs of agreement through the people already on his side.

In short, the President's remarks about keeping ISIS separate from ordinary Muslims in the minds of Americans is a step in the right direction - a tentative, halting step, in the first mile of a marathon.