Islam did not shoot those people.

In light of the recent shooting at Pulse, a gay night club in Orlando, Florida, I have had a Facebook timeline full of posts about the horrific attack. From blaming gun control, to ISIS, to Islam, to Homophobia, there are so many attempts to reason why Omar Mateen, the shooter, did what he did. The debates range mostly from an act of terror to a hate crime and sadly, many of the arguments have a negative backlash on the Muslim community and have been fueling the hateful and absurd debates around removing Muslim people from America.

I live and breathe acceptance and non-discrimination, this is the moral code that I subscribe to and so judging an entire religion by the acts of the few goes against what I stand for and it upsets me.

Islam did not kill those 50 people and wound 50 more, a hateful human being, Omar Mateen did. Sadly, in recent years Islam has received a very bad reputation due to the acts of certain extremists, such as Mr Mateen, who are radical Muslims. At its very core, Islam preaches the message that good must triumph over evil in every aspect of your life and that every deed you do is to promote good and make Allah (translated to “the one God”) proud. These teachings are not dissimilar from Christianity, and judging Muslims on the acts of a few Muslims is like judging Christians for the KKK and the acts of people who bastardise the Christian faith such as the Westboro Baptist Church who are the definition of hate.

On the same day of the Orlando shooting a Christian man was stopped on his way to a gay pride parade in California with a car full of explosives and other weapons. No, Islam did not kill those people.

There are aspects of both Islam and Christianity that I do not agree with, one aspect being that both condemn homosexuality, but both religions emphasise love as being more important. “Love they neighbour as you love thy self” in Christianity and Islam involves “Treating others the way we expect to be treated and the way we hope God will treat us – with compassion, love and mercy”. The most special aspect of all religions is the message of love and it is something I appreciate about religion. Homophobia is not a symptom of religion, it is people bastardising religion to justify their hate.

I do not know what motivated Omar Mateen to commit the hateful crime that he did or if religion had a role to play, but blaming an entire religion is unfair and small minded.

If you catch yourself judging a whole group of people based on the actions of a few people, stop and remind yourself of the truth. Take your own time to learn about and understand a group of people before accepting a stereotype. This world would be a much simpler and happier place if we all learn to do that.

Lastly, choose love, not hate. Let people be who they are and practice the real values of your religion, whatever religion that may be.