God bless America. In the days since September 11’s attack, these words have appeared on billboards and websites, newspapers and car windows. The American flag now hangs everywhere in a great show of national solidarity and patriotism. It hangs in my window. President Bush said that the United States is embarking on a "crusade" against terrorism. Before embarking on such a dangerous journey, it is valuable to look at why Tuesday’s events happened and what can be done to prevent more pain and suffering.

We can only speculate what sort of hatred would drive terrorists to take their own lives in order to kill Americans. There are many people throughout the Arab world, who for many reasons see the United States as an enemy. This was all too clear when the news spread around the world that Palestinian and Arab crowds cheered in the streets at our national tragedy. Why? America supports Israel. In the last three decades, American bombs have fallen on Arab nations from Libya to Iran. To some Islamic fundamentalists, Americans are infidels that must be cleansed from the earth.

Make no mistake, not all Muslims are fundamentalists; not all of them despise America. Pakistan and Iran are torn between fundamentalism and modernity. Afghans also know the suffering of civil war over Islam. Turning our response to terror into a war against the Islamic world would only galvanize those who have not yet declared a "jihad" against the United States. Our goal, therefore, should be to support the moderate forces in the Middle East against the extremists. Should America forget that our ultimate goal is lasting peace and security rather than reprisal, the costs will be higher than anyone can bear.

When Americans pray to God that we will prevail in the battle to come and extremist Muslims thank Allah for making the flames burn hot enough to bring down the World Trade Center, there is a clash of civilizations not seen since the crusades of the thirteenth century. Today, the ideologies have changed somewhat and the focus is wider than just the Holy Land, yet, many of the themes remain the same. On each side of the world, people are turning to a higher power to validate their struggle, and in doing so, elevating the ferocity of that struggle. What has changed in the last 800 years is humanity’s faculty for killing and, more importantly, the ability to project death across vast distances. There are calls for a protracted conflict, one in which battles will be fought not just in a single country but everywhere terrorism can be found. The risk is that America will find itself fighting more than just terrorism, and thus will alienate countries that might otherwise make themselves our allies.

As the temperature of conflict escalates, so too does the gap between cultures and civilizations. Terrorism does not find haven in any one country or even in all the nations that sponsor it but in the hearts of the human beings who carry it out. Fifteen of the twenty-five groups on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations are Islamic. Combined with the cheering in the street, this lends itself to a new and sinister stereotype. The potential for fighting a war where stereotypes take center stage makes it essential that America look inward.

If American Muslims are perceived and persecuted as terrorists, then maybe some will feel the need to react militantly. In a country that values freedom and democratic values, no group should ever have to worry about fighting to protect its rights. At Pomona, as a community much has already been done to protect Arab-Americans and to discuss the strong feelings enveloping the community. In the painful weeks ahead, that response would be healthy for the rest of the country.

America must be willing, as Kennedy once said, "…to pay any price, bear any burden, to ensure the survival and the success of liberty." This can be accomplished by fighting terrorism everywhere it is found, but we must remember that our true enemy is terrorism and not Islam or even Islamic fundamentalism. If we forget this for an instant and allow our anger to overwhelm us, America will suffer more than we can possibly imagine. The United States is the most powerful nation in the world, and yet, as we look at the smoldering rubble of the Pentagon and World Trade Center, our frailty could not be more obvious.