Dear America,

A couple days after Jan. 27, my inboxes overflowed with friends and family apologizing and giving me words of support. I was confused and curious as to why exactly everyone was upset on social media. I was shocked to my core that an executive order had been initiated to ban people from several predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.

As a Muslim-American, my heart is heavy. I feel oppressed and shamed within my own country. I should not have to receive messages about how to protect myself, to be told to stay in this country, or fear for my life and others’. My friends who are not currently in the United States fear that they will not be able to come to Oakland for school. And I would like to tell my friends and family, I am sorry that this country cannot be a land of opportunity for you. The door to better education, better jobs, and a better life was closed with no warning.

I agree that the executive order is not an attack on terror, but an attack on an ideology and on a group of people who practice the religion of Islam. According to PolitiFact, there have been no instances of people committing terrorist acts in the United States by those who originate from any of the countries banned in the executive order. There are countries that have not been banned that have terrorists who have attacked our country. To put it bluntly, most of the horrendous terrorists who committed the 9/11 attacks are from Saudi Arabia, which is not included in the ban.

These are not the principles on which this great country was founded. This is an issue of Islamophobia, and this fear is due to lack of knowledge. You don’t have to be Mediterranean or Arabic to be Muslim. A country that is starting a war with Islam is no country of mine. As president of the United States, it is Donald Trump’s job to help unite the people of America, not tear us apart. If he wants to better this country, he should do so by taking the real enemies down and not oppressing the innocents.

A concerned African-American Muslim college student,

Medina Taylor