In the past few years there have been several attacks on countries by several groups of individuals.

However, the thing that I’ve noticed is that anytime a terror attack has happened, we are way too quick to blame it on Islamic radicals, unless that person happens to have a whiter complexion.

Then the media tries to describe said criminal as a “lone wolf” or paints that person as mentally ill. 

I’m not saying that people like Dylann Roof or Eric Harris and Dylann Klebold are not mentally ill.

What I am saying is that you see a noticeable change in the way those terrorist acts were reported compared to those of Omar Mateen and now Salman Abedi. 

Abedi has not even been officially named as the bomber who is responsible for killing 22 people and injuring 59 at the Ariana Grande concert on Monday night in Manchester, England.

The bombing happened right after Grande finished her set and the lights came on. 

Monday night I received a notification from CNN about police responding to a ‘serious incident’ after reports of loud explosions.

It wasn’t until around 7:30 CST that BBC released a statement saying that the explosions were being treated as a terrorist attack and that the current body count was 19. 

A few minutes later, as I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, I noticed several tweets about how this is why we need to keep the Muslims out of the US and how President Trump needs to build his wall. 

I admit to being thoroughly confused because I had not seen any reports that this attack was tied to Islamic terrorism.

It was at this point that I realized that when people hear the word “terrorism” or “terrorist” they automatically imagine that the attack has come from the Middle East, which is extremely unfair to those who live there. 

Now, although we still can’t be sure, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion at the Manchester Arena, however, that does not give us the right to condemn an entire religious following just because a handful of people decide to do a terrible thing.

After Columbine took place, we didn’t condemn every white teenager as a school shooter. After Dylann Roof shot nine innocent people in a Charleston, South Carolina church we, didn’t say that all white people are racist. 

As more information in this current crisis is revealed, I think it’s best we turn our attention to what our friends across the pond really need from us: compassion and prayers. Rather than  defamation of a religious following. 

The thing that we need to focus on is how quickly life can be taken from us.

Those people who went out to hear their favorite singer did not expect to not return to their families. Just as those families did not think that they would be fearing for the safety of the missing people or wondering what to do next now that their loved one is no longer with them.

We need to focus on loving people while we have them and trying to be less judgmental. 

Laugh frequently. Love as hard as you can. And above all else, seize the day. We never know when tragedy will appear on our doorsteps, but that doesn’t mean that you should live in constant fear.