Remember basic American values, and stay united

The barbaric multiple attacks in Paris by psychopaths and killers associated with the terrorist group Daesh - naming itself after the religion embraced by 2 billion people around the world, including and millions of Americans - clearly demonstrated the complete separation between the killers and the teachings of Islam.

Muslims worldwide detest and despise this monstrous group. It killed and continues to kill and maim Muslims and others in the thousands across the Middle East. They beheaded Muslim Sunni and Shia alike in Iraq and Syria, executed Imams who denounced them, raped and enslaved Muslim women. Just before the Paris brutality, they are implicated with the downing of a Russian passenger plane killing 224, launched a ravaging attack in Beirut, Lebanon killing 43 and wounding 239 people. They hijacked Islam and deliberately spread hate and mayhem indiscriminately. All lives lost to terrorism and brutalities do matter.

The ongoing tragic dilemma facing thousands of Iraqi and Syrian refugees escaping the horror of wars, displacement, torture and expulsion are the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. More than 250,000 people have been killed since the violence broke out in Syria in 2011, and at least 11 million people in the country of 22 million have fled their homes. Syrians are now the world's largest refugee population and most are struggling to find a safe haven.

Scapegoating an entire religious community is what the terrorist want and aim for - to divide and conquer. Amid all this fog and dark clouds, it is time to remember the message on a plaque mounted inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, with its timeless poem by Emma Lazarous. The statue was given to the United States in 1885 by France and made in Paris to celebrate their alliance during the Revolutionary war.

Americans and Iowans must heed this call of our basic American values, demonstrate brave solidarity against fear mongering, hate, marginalization, demonization, prejudice, and stay united.

' Shams Ghoneim is coordinator of the Muslim Public Affairs Council's Iowa chapter. Contact: shamsghoneim@mchsi.com