When the news of the heinous attack Jan. 7 that took the lives of 12 people including the renowned cartoonists and the editor-in-chief of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris reached me, instantly mixed and contradicting feelings passed through my mind. Outrage to the cowardly attack was my predominant thought, but feelings of shame, irritation, fear and uneasiness were equally strong.

The feeling of shame was because I shared the same religion, on whose behalf the perpetrators allegedly committed their crime. I knew, of course, Islam as any other religion, does not and cannot advocate such senseless criminality and shedding the blood of defenseless individuals. However, I was also very aware that the international media would prominently report — as it was already in the process of doing — that the gunmen of the Paris attack shouted "Allahu akbar" ("God is great") while committing their savagery, alleging that they avenged the Prophet Muhammad and that barbarism would spur already existing prejudices against Islam and Muslims all around the non-Muslim world.

The experiences of post-9/11 attested to this. Particularly in the Western world, any Muslim individual, whether an observing, pious Muslim or not, was considered as a “usual suspect.” At security checks, passport control or consulate visa sections, being a Muslim meant being treated with bias.

Undoubtedly the post-9/11’s grim situation for Muslims in the Western world will now revive, perhaps in a worse form.