For most people, a wedding, funeral, graduation, or any other big event changes their lives forever. I’ve experienced many weddings, funerals, and even graduations, but not one of those events has changed my life or will ever change my life the way 9/11 has.

I know there will be many people who take this article as a way for me to try to gain sympathy for myself and other innocent Muslims worldwide, or that it’s me disrespecting the innocent people who were murdered that day. I’m not, and I don’t want sympathy. I want justice for myself, my people, and the 2,996 people that were innocently killed that day, of which about 60 were Muslim.

What happened on 9/11 was extremely tragic, and the memories of those lost will never be forgotten. I hope the memories of the 48,644 Afghani people and 1,690,903 Iraqi people who are paying the price for a crime they didn’t commit will not be forgotten either.

Did you know that the freshman class is the first generation to learn about 9/11 as a historical event they weren’t alive for? I was only 2 years old when this tragedy occurred. Who knew the repercussions of an event I cannot even recall would last me a lifetime? I constantly feel the need to apologize on behalf of other Muslims and myself for crimes a terrorist group is using my religion for.

People are always finding verses in the Quran and misinterpreting them, or taking them out of context and assuming Muslims were taught to kill. In chapter six, verse 151, it clearly states: “…do not kill a soul that God has made.” Just like you, us Muslims believe life is sacred and only to be given and taken by God.

There are roughly 1.6 billion Muslims on this planet, and unfortunately, 14 percent tie themselves to ISIS. If Islam was really about violence and hurting others wouldn’t one assume the percentage would be much higher?

I was only two years old when not only my life, but my mother’s life, changed forever. My mother is a total bad-ass. I know every child says this, but to me she’s superwoman. She has raised and supported my brother and I financially and emotionally every single day. She’s a project manager, and if you don’t know what that is, understand that she is a very important woman and the work her company is producing probably wouldn’t be there without her. My mother is the strongest and most independent woman I have ever met. She is fearless — or she used to be.

My mother has always been strong in her religious beliefs, and she covers her hair with a hijab as a sign of modesty everywhere but her workplace. The woman who doesn’t flinch when a spider crawls up her leg, the woman who may be the smallest in size, and the woman who has not only made is possible to stand on her own two feet, but made sure her family can also stand up-right, is suddenly concerned with what others may think. My mother chooses to not cover herself because she is afraid to lose her job. How lucky am I to have a mother who’s willing to do anything for me, but how unlucky am I to live in a world fueled by hate?

I constantly find myself explaining myself and who I am and what my religion is about, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in this world, it’s that if you have to explain yourself, you’re already educated, it’s the person who is too ignorant to listen who isn’t. I will not apologize on behalf of my religion anymore, because ISIS is not who I am. They are not who my family and friends are. In fact, I don’t know a single Muslim who agrees with an atom’s worth of anything ISIS has to say.

To think that people believe that I am a terrorist is hilarious. They are so oppressed by the media they’ll believe anything they say, even when the media changes the same story multiple times. There’s proof out there that some media does manipulate their viewers and readers into having biased opinions on certain groups (not Niles West News, of course), and people still choose to believe them. You’ve probably seen the most common one as a shooter who happens to be Muslim as a “terrorist”, but a shooter who happens to be white as “mentally ill”. Last time I checked your race didn’t have anything to do with your mental health, so why isn’t ISIS being classified as a group of mentally ill people?

I’m sick of being treated like a terrorist, or like I owe an explanation every time someone decides to use my religion’s name as an excuse to attack people. Did any Christians apologize after the stabbings that happened during the KKK rally earlier this year? Didn’t think so. You might think I’m a terrorist, but only thing being terrorized is our innocent minds.