Dear Cruz: If the World Looked Like Dearborn, There’d Be No Terrorism

Another week, another Islamophobic assertion from the Republican presidential race. This time it was Ted Cruz, calling for increased security in “Muslim neighborhoods” in the wake of a tragedy in Brussels.

By Muslim neighborhoods, forgive me for thinking he means Dearborn, Mich. (even though, as I’ve explained before, Muslims only make a portion of the Arab Americans in Dearborn).

So, here’s my message to Teddy-boy: The only protection Dearborn needs is protection from politicians like you! Dearborn is a model America should be following, not fearing.

We saw terrorist groups explode after the civil wars in Iraq and Syria. We’ve seen the government instability in the Middle East, sometimes caused by our own country’s interventions, creating a security and governance vacuum. Radical terrorist groups made up of unemployed youth use religion and racial superiority to justify their horrific actions, not unlike how the Klu Klux Klan used those same techniques to grow after the American civil war.

Let’s scale the cliff of our indifference and have a real talk about a way to not just “fight terrorism” but to actually create a more peaceful world. Let’s talk about how instability and intolerance creates violence, and how we can counter that with tolerance and togetherness.