This week, New York was attacked. Trump is again calling for a ban of immigrants. (This time advocating for only “merit based” immigration, the same program that allowed Einstein refuge in the States while 6 million regular Jews were gassed).  To top that off, Your usual round of “I’m dumb and blonde and my daddy told me my mediocrity was special” commentators are angry Muslim women DARED leave their houses in hijabs. (Worthy to note that a Jewish woman is calling for the oppression of Muslims. Cause ya know, it’s only oppression when it’s done to you and such) America is in flames again. “ISIS is ruining it for us”. And I can’t help but think about my time in Jordan. My time actually near terrorism. And I cringe at how wrong Americans view all of this.

Last summer, I spent 6 weeks in Amman, Jordan. While I was there, 2 terror attacks occurred. The first was within the first week of my arrival; a few miles away from where I resided. A week before I left, Istanbul, the airport I was scheduled to fly home through, saw several bombs and armed gunmen. I was reminded of how unsafe it all was. Not for me, because I was going home in a week, and I was protected by my program. I was fine. It’s the local citizens I worried for. The ones who love this country, and had to live in this country after I left. Beautiful Jordan happens to be bordered by some of the most unstable countries imaginable. The entire time I was there, I noted it. I noted the super beefed up security; the TSA like checks at every hotel door; the bullet proof vest wearing police on every street. Regardless of how beautiful Jordan is, how peaceful and serene, danger is here and everyone seems to feel it.

When Istanbul happened, I was shaken. It happened during Ramadan. The holy month. And it reminded me, ISIL has never cared about Islam, Mohammed, or anything of the sort. Iyad El-Baghdadi lifted some interesting points following the attack: “The majority of those killed in the Istanbul airport attack today were Muslim civilians. ISIS is waging war on women, children, and families.” This changed everything for me. For so long we painted ISIS as a threat to Western life, we’ve ignored what they do to Muslims. That’s why it’s so easy to turn a blind eye to those trying to flee them. We are willing to let millions of Muslims die by ISIS hand, because we are so focused on ourselves as victims that we don’t see any other victim. We have created this silly narrative implying that ISIL is a threat to the West and the West only. And in doing so, we have erased the threat that it is to the Middle East. We have erased, silenced, and dehuminized MILLIONS of dead Muslims and Arabs to demonize Islam and martyr our own dead. ISIS has killed more Arabs that it will ever kill Westerners. But no one cares. We stand with New York, we stand with Orlando, we stand with Manchester. But who stands with Syria, with Palestine, with Jordan? No one. We ignore them, we ignore their pain, we ignore their deaths, and deny them the opportunity to flee.

And the crazy thing is: That’s what ISIL truly wants. ISIL is less interested in the end of the West and more interested in the end of the “moderate” or “liberal” Muslim. And what they’re doing, forcing hands, pushing us not to let in more refugees, they’re getting their way. They are essentially creating an inescapable prison in the Middle East, locked in war, bombings and terror, and the West is happily serving as their prison guard. And I wonder, how many dead Arabs will it take for someone to wake up? Will we ever wake up? Will we not wake until WWIII comes to an end and we’re walking through piles of dead bodies? A decade from now, when the dust settles, I don’t want to look at six million Arabs dead by ISIS hands and have to write essays about how “we could have saved them” like we have to do Jewish Europeans. I don’t want to repeat history. And I’m tired of watching so many people who do.

I always knew the Middle East was in more danger than the West. But, somehow, Jordan personalized it for me. I met so many amazing Jordanians, and to this day I wouldn’t want a single thing to happen to any of them. My fear for ISIL is great. But it isn’t a fear for my own life. I live in the West. The truth is, if (god forbid) I ever perish in a terror attack, the world will remember me a martyr, a hero. But if any of my new friends perish, the world won’t even know their names. They won’t even get a news story, a memorial, anything. And that saddens me. This isn’t to take away from what happened in New York. But it is to give perspective. The entire West will mourn with us now. But who is mourning with Syria? The government will launch crusades to avenge the dead in New York. Who is crusading for the dead Arab women and children? The idea that terrorism is only terrorism when it is against Westerners frustrates me. Terrorism is killing for political means or gains. ISIS killing moderate or liberal Muslims, or just Muslims they disagree with, is terrorism.  Don’t Muslims, the most affected by this, deserve a voice too?

Being in a nation that borders a terrorist state taught me something valuable. Those affected are not just us in the West. They are everyday people in the Middle East. They deserve a voice. They deserve the international mourning everyone else gets. They deserve our love. As they give us theirs. Several Muslims have come out to condemn Manhattan and send their prayers and support. As they do every terror attack. I wonder who among us will come out to condemn the next ISIS attack in the Middle East. I wonder how many of us will stand with them. I wonder how many of us will advocate for them.