When an innocent meet and greet with Congresswoman Gabriella Giffords at a local supermarket near Tucson, AZ turned into a sudden blood bath, many political figures, including President Obama, described the ordeal as “an outburst of hatred,” “an unspeakable tragedy,” and “a senseless and terrible act of violence.”

There is no question that these are all accurate when addressing the event that took the lives of six people and wounded 19 others on January 8, 2011. But, perhaps there is one more word to describe the gravity of the entire situation; for example, the word “terrorism.”

In America we face thousands of murders and hundreds of domestic terrorism cases a year. In April 2009, Henry Ford Community College was shaken by a murder-suicide in the MacKenzie Fine Arts building. And on January 23 of this year, a gunman entered a Detroit police station and opened fire at point blank range, shooting down four officers.

The horrifying crime that the suspect, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, committed in Arizona was no doubt a despicable scene of domestic terrorism; yes, but an act of certified terrorism, no less. Is it not safe to say grocery shoppers were frozen in fear at the deafening sound of fired gun shots? That they were stunned with terror at the sight of bullets piercing unsuspecting bodies like that of representative Giffords, a federal judge, and a vibrant 9-year-old girl?

So why did headlines of the event read “Tragedy in Tucson,” while a similar shooting spree by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed and wounded innocent people in Fort Hood in October 2009, read “Terrorism in Texas”?

Is it because unconsciously, or so I presume, most of America has been playing the same game of word association for the better part of the last decade with the same exact words: terrorism and Islam? These two words, by definition, prove to be a perfect example of an oxymoron. Terrorism: to instill fear through an act of violence and threat; and Islam: the submission to God through obedience and peace.

Yet, many American minds continue to find these polar opposite words interchangeable.

Rest assured, ignorance is absent here as I am empathetically mindful of the 9/11 effect behind this unfortunate condition. It was an unforgettable and unforgivable occurrence by people who are to be condemned for the lack of respect for their fellow man’s life. But how can an entire religion with 1.7 billion followers be at fault when it is the crime of that sole being or beings?

It has become increasingly recognizable when the media picks and chooses what is to blame for what event. For Fort Hood, religion was the ultimate motive. In Arizona, the act was spurred by insanity, an act out of the norm of society by a man who was mentally unstable. True, anyone willing to end the life of another human must have a glitch in their mental consciousness. However, we cannot ignore the rest of the facts surrounding a dangerous act of terror.

For one of the smartest nations in the world, I know it is in the best interest for people to do their own research about such devastating situations. According to the New York Daily News, even with the files of political research on Loughner’s computer and a signed note that read “I planned ahead….My Assassination” found by federal officials, Loughner still pleaded not guilty—most likely due to insanity—to premeditated murder on Monday, January 24.

At HFCC we are by far one the most diverse colleges in the state, and no doubt hold the title for the highest concentration of Muslim students in the nation. With the college welcoming thousands of additional students this year, we need to be mindful of the factors that keep our co-existence successful and alert to those that may hinder us.

Whether religious terrorism or, in this case, political terrorism, whether locally or nationally, we need to start calling events as they are, preferably excluding any media fabrication. Only then can we progress from a communal scale to a nationwide movement addressing the “error” in terrorism by eliminating “ignore” from ignorance.