Isis 

Isis is terrifying. I’m scared to even type those four letters because of how much I fear them. It sounds so dramatic but I’m so serious. What is going on in this world? How can so many of us be afraid of them. There’s way more people who aren’t in Isis than people who are. It makes me so sad. I thought about this today because my mom’s only birthday wish was to go visit my aunt in the Middle East. We all said no. Why would she ever want to travel to go see her sister with all of this war going on? My mom doesn’t quite understand the severity of it. She says she’s used to it because that’s all they’ve ever known and only now does the news want to show what’s been happening for the last couple of decades. I usually flip the channel when anything Isis related comes on because my heart and mind can’t handle it but today I decided to go on google and type in those four letters. Isis. How horrible and sad! So many articles popped up about how they are kidnapping Assyrians (which is my nationality) because they are going to end Christianity in the Middle East. What makes me even more furious is that they think they are presenting Muslims all over the world. They think that by killing all of the Christians they are making it all Islam. False! That is so false. Isis practices are not a representation of Islam faith at all. Isis is a bunch of terrorists trying to gain control by scaring everyone and so far it is working. Why do we live in a world where you earn more by being scary than by being peaceful?  I was always taught that fear isn’t a sign of respect but I guess they aren’t looking for respect. They are just looking for power. Today as I am sitting here, I am so grateful for the fact that I am not living there. I am so grateful that my parents decided to get up and move back in 1989 when they did. The idea that it could have been me fearing my life over there terrifies me. What saddens me is also the fact that many people blame those in the Middle East, associating them with Isis. What they fail to under and is that it’s those same people who are suffering the most.  I’m legitimately scared and I’m over here in Canada. It saddens my soul that my mother and father’s family had to flee where they grew up, the only town they ever knew because of terror. It hurts me because aside from religion, Middle Eastern people are all so much alike when it comes to culture. How is it fair in the Isis logic that because my family has a different belief, they don’t have the right to live? Assyrians built their homes and lives the best way that they could and now it is all being taken away because of this group. I am completely emotional and venting right now but I just can’t make sense of this at all. I will stop but I just wanted to share my frustration. I will keep Assyrians in my prayers and also Muslims because they are being associated with Isis when they are nothing alike. I hope you do the same.