In terrorism it is hard to know who are the actual terrorists. It is not always made clear the intentions of terrorists. When looking for terrorists the police, the FBI, CIA, and the people in the town will not know who the terrorists are without knowing what to look for. It boils down to intentions. We look for suspicious activity in order to filter out ill-intentioned people.

Since we cannot depend on completely knowing what goes on inside the head of another, we rely on outward signs of suspicious people and their actions. One way our brain has started to do this is through stereotyping.

In psychology, there are what are called schemas, which are patterns of thinking that develop through categorized information. They categorize information so that when presented with a situation, they speed up our interpretation of that situation which then leads to our conclusion. Schemas result in stereotypes when large groups of people develop similar trains of thought or come to similar conclusions.

Two examples of stereotypes: all young Chinese women are bad drivers, and all Asians are smart. While these may be common stereotypes, the fact is that these are not true; however, many people pick up on the patterns they have noticed and been exposed to, and come to the same conclusions. Here is another example: all Muslims are terrorists.

This is not true either, however, we must question why we think this because learning why we think this is true will get to the root of why we accuse Muslims of being terrorists. Many people immediately think that Muslims are terrorists because of tragedies like 9/11 and the more recent tragedies, such as the Charlie Hebdo attack and the attacks in Paris, as well as the San Bernadino tragedy in California.

The groups that committed these attacks include Muslim extremists groups such as the Taliban, Al Qaeda and ISIS, all of which claimed Muslim identities. We need to find out how to differentiate between the Muslims that intend harm and hatred versus those that root for peace.

Oppression in the Middle East does not mean Muslims are oppressive, however, many Muslims live in the ways of a patriarchal society that is oppressive to women. This does not mean that individual men in families are always oppressive or that Muslim families are oppressive in general.

Many claim that Christians are violent as well and follow Christianity in order to do terrible things, but mainstream Christians do not identify with this at all. This is the same for those that follow Islam. Only a few do terrible things out of “following their religion,” when in reality, it may be that they only do these terrible things in the name of Christianity or Islam because they need something to latch onto, a reason for committing these acts that may in fact not be related to following the religion at all.

Terrorists can come from anywhere at any time. There are many different factors that make up terrorists and terrorism, and we cannot always tell who to trust. However, we as individuals make a people. Instead of hiding in fear, we as a people must be on the alert and be wary of anything unusual.
We also consider who is part of our community and recognize the borders we place between those stereotyped and those accepted into society.One pattern seen in many terrorists is their tendency toward isolation and solitude, with little interaction with others. In knowing this, perhaps we should be kind to all people regardless of any stereotypes against them, knowing that by accepting others for who they are, welcoming them, and getting them involved in society, we may not just be breaking down stereotypes, we may also be preventing terrorism.