Khalid Fazly breathed a subtle sigh, and lifted his eyes. Born in Afghanistan, the Ball State graduate student and former Muslim Student Association President mulled over the violent extremism that has pervaded the Middle East over the last year.
“I think that my religion has been hijacked by some extremist groups,” he said. “People shouldn’t really judge Islam by a small group like ISIS [The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria].”
Khalid, like many Muslims in the United States, feels that his faith has been completely misrepresented by the Islamic State and groups like them that have dominated the American media for the better part of the last year.
Even recently, Fox59 reported in February that a man linked to ISIS was arrested the same day that President Obama visited Indianapolis.
Rooted in the Syrian civil war that began in 2011, the Islamic State originally rose to power as an anti-government group geared toward creating a utopian Muslim caliphate (a government based on Islamic religious law) in the Middle East. It now controls large parts of Syria and a few key cities, as the fighting continues.
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