Hamdan Azhar Yousuf ("Defeated mentality harms all humanity," Jan. 12) makes a valid point that international issues should not be ignored, and that it is important for people to make their voices heard on the pertinent issues facing the world today. However, he does so in an extremely insulting manner by referring to Israel as the "evil Zionist regime," a remark that is essentially anti-Semitic. He says, "As a Muslim, I can personally attest to the dehumanization of Israelis, which so many years of occupation has inculcated." Simply being a Muslim, or of any ethnic or religious group does not give one rights to "personally attest to anything." I invite him to go there himself and to make judgments then, instead of condemning from afar.

He also writes, "We as Americans must not allow such thoughts to enter our minds about the rest of the world," meaning that it is necessary to acknowledge the deaths due to terrorism in the rest of the world, but not Israeli deaths, because Israeli deaths "cease to carry meaning," and even innocent children dying should be ignored. How can one legitimize one death and mourn another?