In the recent months we’ve seen multiple tragedies that have hit our world in more ways than one. When violent extremists decide to wreak havoc on the world around them, they not only threaten those in their direct proximity, but also those who are far removed from their rampages.

In a world where communication is a swipe away, where news is instantaneous and opinions can form as quickly as a page can load, it’s vital that we, as students, actively develop a deeper understanding of the events around us. After all, we are the next generation of lawmakers, politicians, soldiers and citizens, and we can’t depend only on what we see on the surface when forming our opinions.

A stigma has developed in our country against the Muslim faith and community. Like it or not, no matter how politically correct we all claim to be, we are perpetually presented with images of Middle Eastern men titled ‘terrorist’ or ‘threat’, and those images seep into our collective subconscious, forming false associations and dangerous assumptions. For as long as any of us can remember, the United States has been in some kind of conflict in either Iraq, Afghanistan, or some combination thereof. No matter what we think we believe, we are asked to believe our media’s message that the Middle East is crawling with people who want to hurt Americans. These beliefs are easily formed, because especially as young people, we are easily influenced by the world around us, and we consume more media than any other age. We have to fight against this trend. The simple truth is that we can’t judge an entire religion or entire nations based on the actions of the violent extremists that seek the spread of fear.

Our own nation has engendered its own share of terrorists. The Klu Klux Klan is an infamous collection of predominantly Christians, one that has terrorized their fellow Americans for the better part of two hundred years and still exists to this day. But we don’t condemn all Christians as Klan members. James Holmes, the perpetrator of the Aurora, Colorado shootings in 2012, attended the Lutheran Church in his home town. Adam Lanza, the man who brutally attacked Sandy Hook Elementary school, identified with the Catholic faith. Dylann Roof, the killer of nine African-American churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, was on the rolls of his local Lutheran congregation. We don’t associate American Christians with terrorism. However, when the terrorists who attacked Paris this past month identified with the Muslim faith, hateful generalizations began flying.

We are given the opportunity by the images presented to us in magazines, television and social media to categorize a group of people as something they are not. Because we don’t live in the Middle East, it’s easy to sit in Sebastopol and identify people who share the same features as those terrorists who attacked Paris as one and the same. But we are better than that. We can see that while Paris and other places have suffered at the hands of the Daesh, those men are exceptions to their religion. Even the name matters. As France stated in the week following the Paris attacks, the name ISIS is misleading. Because the terrorist group in question is not a reflection of Islam, the name Daesh, a derogatory word, is more appropriate. And these Daesh don’t represent the greater Muslim faith any more than Klan members represent the Christian faith.

We face enough challenges today without forming dangerous neural pathways that threaten our chances at societal and world unity. We must work as students and young adults to form a community, both local and global, that judges our fellow humans by their own actions, not by the actions of those who claim—and distort—their religion.