Just because I might want to cover my hair with cloth doesn't mean I'm a terrorist. Just because I pray five times a day doesn't give you the right to mock me. Just because they are very loose strands that connect me to the sick people that bombed the Twin Towers doesn't mean you can profile me.

In a world where ideas and thoughts and statements and creativity bloom on digital screens instantly, it's hard to forget what's real and what's not. After Osama Bin Laden was killed, spam links of "real" pictures spread across Facebook like wild fire. As a Muslim teenager in America, I had people, people who I thought were my friends instant message me ignorant hateful things like, 'Sorry your dad is dead. Guess you have to go swimming for the funeral'. Just because I have tan skin and dark hair, these people assume that I must be related to a terrorist. Don't. It's not right. It's not okay.

Just because I have faith doesn't mean you can disrespect it.