Unfortunately, this well-meaning rhetoric has done little to discourage the wave of bigotry that sweeps the nation. On Wednesday alone, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee confirmed 30 reports of violent harassment. The list of hate crimes grew throughout the week, as reports of beatings and mosque desecration flooded the news wires.

In Pleasant Grove, a suburb of Dallas, Waqar Hassan Choudhry—a Pakistani-American—was shot dead at a convenience store on Saturday night. There was no evidence of a robbery, and local detectives told Choudhry’s family they believed his killing was motivated by “revenge.”

These vicious attacks have not been limited to Arabs or Muslims. A number of violent incidents against Sikhs have been reported in the New York area. Apparently, Sikhs—with their long beards and turbans—remind attackers of Osama bin Laden. On Saturday, a man shot and killed a Sikh service station attendant in Mesa, Arizona. The assailant then proceeded to drive to the next service station and fire on a Lebanese-American worker.

Of course, the vast majority of Americans do not condone hate crimes. All over the country, people of all religious beliefs and walks of life have come together to denounce the backlash. Nevertheless, as much as some people are preaching “tolerance” and denouncing crimes of hate, the vast majority of Americans still seem unaware that Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans abhor terrorism as much as anybody.

Like other Americans, we also have friends and family living in New York and Washington, D.C. One friend of mine—who happened to be of Lebanese descent—worked in the World Trade Center. He is still missing. I often think of his parents. They are afraid to leave their home because of anti-Arab sentiment. I can scarcely imagine how they must feel—grieving the loss of a son, yet being blamed for his death because of their ethnicity. This is the cruelest of ironies.