When I saw the anonymous opinion piece in The Californian titled “Muslim Protests Are Unjustified,” I understood what the writer was saying when he/she stated that Muslim extremists were wrong to respond violently to the YouTube video that offended them and their beliefs.

Every single Muslim I know was annoyed at the way SOME people in other countries reacted in anger.

But I wish The Californian had ALSO mentioned the peaceful protests where people in Afghanistan marched silently with red hearts that simply said that they loved their Prophet Muhammad.

I wish our school paper had talked about the Libyans who had shown up with signs after Ambassador Stevens’ death saying they were “sorry” and that the protests in their country did not represent their religion or their prophet.

Maybe the writer of this piece didn’t know about these incidents and I can understand that. But what I DIDN’T understand was why this writer was quoting from a website called thereligionofpeace.com.

This website is an Islamophobic website! I visited it and the FIRST thing I saw was “Islam One Really Messed Up Religion.”

REALLY? 1.2 BILLION Muslims follow a messed up religion?

The Californian editorial also talks about Islamic governments supposedly “assaulting” Jews.

The writer doesn’t provide any evidence for this strong statement, but what I want to know is — WHAT does that have to do with the protests against the video?

I was very disappointed to read that “unsigned editorials reflect the majority view of the staff.”

Just like we would never allow anti-Semitic websites to be used for quotes or statistics, I also believe that we should never use hate-mongering websites to discuss Islam and the Middle East.

I know that the Grizzlies who happen to be Muslim will appreciate that a lot.

Shaan Mukhtar

Freshman