Dear Peyton Spanbauer,

I have just recently seen your column titled “Stop propagating stereotypes against Muslims” and while I, like many others, would agree with the message and character of the headline once you start to look at the content of the piece you find certain things. Certain things that diminish and for some examples in my view outright end your credibility and thus your argument. An argument that if made right I would agree with and champion. If you or I or anyone else want to be taken seriously and push and make the lasting change we all seek then we all have to stay as close as possible to a universal standard. A standard I would just call the truth and moving away from that standard willingly or unwillingly does more harm than good to the political discourse of our campus and our nation. Now that I’ve given what I feel is enough reasoning for this response lets take a look at a few examples where it can be said you stray a bit too far from that universal standard.

The piece opens with “I am more afraid of being the victim of an act of terrorism committed by a white man than I am a Muslim and I have a valid reason for it.” Now I may be mistaken, but I thought the purpose of this piece was to champion a position against demonization and stereotypes as the title initially suggests. Instead of saying profiling and stereotyping a group of people based on characteristics like sex, race and religion is bad the column starts to say things like “violence is prevalent every day in the news as it seems a different public location has been shot up. These stories, seemingly different yet essentially the same, share a huge commonality is that they are most often committed by white men … share a huge commonality is that they are most often committed by white men … All of these heinous acts were committed by white men. White men are killing us with guns and it is still terrorism. In fact, we’re more likely to be murdered by far-right extremists today than we are Islamists.”The solution to any problem can almost never be found by simply shifting the target of its effects. I have an amazing idea that has never been seen or talked about ever in human history. Want to know what it is? Basically, the idea is that we should judge people not based on their race, sex, religion etcetera but based on their personal merit and character. I know pretty radical right?

I wish I was done there but unfortunately, there is much more to tackle. The seemingly intentional misinformation used in the column to grant it credibility. It fails at this spectacularly in my view but I’ll leave it up to the audience to come to that if they so choose to at the end. The first of these you claims that “With almost half the world’s Muslim population living in the United States, this scapegoating is incredibly dangerous.” I for a time thought this was clearly a mistake and that you would offer some citation for this claim that gives it some nuance but like many first aspects of your column I was yet again disappointed. You or someone else I hope did provide a citation to support this claim from the United Religions Initiative(URI for short). Which states “There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world with 7 million in the United States.” now for those of you who do not know 7 million is not anywhere near “Almost half.” This could just be an honest mistake, but this brings me back to my first main point that this column ignores that basic standard the truth. The fact that you offer a citation for it indicates that (A. you didn’t read or check what it actually said or (B. Or you did read it but provided anyway. Both scenarios are critically damaging again in my view to the strength and credibility of your held argument.

Now to recap I think you have really good views on a variety of topics I like many other of my peers read and discuss a lot of the topics you have exposed upon. The main goal initially seems very noble and respectable. The problem, however, lies in your overzealous rhetoric on the topic. That turns you into the demon that you’re attempting to rid the world of. “As Trump continues to incite violence and spew garbage facts about the dangers he perceives Muslims pose against our country, take notice that he is the one putting us in danger with such messages that fuel terror and hate. Remember that all beliefs can become radicalized, not just those of religions and demographics deemed undesirable in our country.” Replace Trump with you and tell me you do not think it is a statement with some merit to it? I honestly don’t think you can, and that’s the sad part.