OP ED RANT! Never accuse me of this.

[Aoi Magi]

You can go after bad ideas as you should, but my advice is to treat everyone as an individual first while rightfully doing that.

Yes I agree that everyone should be treated as an individual first, but that only works if both sides agree and act like it.

We approach people based on what we know about them. If we don't know much about an individual we have to rely on other information and some generalisations. If someone identifies as an individual, we can treat them as such, but if a stranger identifies solely by his religion then I'll only have that little info to rely on, and if the general knowledge suggests that as a dangerous religion, I'll obviously be on guard till I find out more about that person.

Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting all muslims should be judged by their religion, I spent a good half of my childhood in a muslim neighbourhood and I never felt I or my family was any different from them. They were very normal, friendly people. But that alone won't cause me to trust or distrust a person. What determines my approach is simply how much and what info I have regarding that person.