As recounted in The Times earlier this month, Naqvi was standing in a small, cramped bathroom in a Princeton restaurant in late summer when he was confronted by a man whom Naqvi knew as a friend.
The frightening ordeal experienced by Ali Naqvi serves as a cautionary example of what can happen when all Muslims are stereotyped as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.
As recounted in The Times earlier this month, Naqvi was standing in a small, cramped bathroom in a Princeton restaurant in late summer when he was confronted by a man whom Naqvi knew as a friend.
But Naqvi could see instantly that his "friend" was very angry as the man locked the bathroom door behind him.
Ali Naqvi, on the far left, is a trustee on the Foundation for Ethic Understanding. (Photo provided by Naqvi)"I will bury you," the large man said as he positioned himself in front of Naqvi and reached out one hand to clasp Naqvi's shirt.
"I will bury you and your people."
The encounter was the most terrifying experience he ever had, Naqvi said.
Naqvi, a Muslim, who was born in the United States and grew up outside of Princeton after his parents emigrated from Pakistan, said this was his first experience of Islamophobia.
"For the first time in my life, in 35 years, I feel that people look at me differently," Naqvi said.
Unfortunately, such incidents are becoming all too common. The New York Times recently reported that hate crimes against Muslim Americans and mosques across the United States have tripled since the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., with dozens occurring within a month.
The sad situation is that terrorist groups such as ISIS and al Qaeda are very willing to stoke the fires of intolerance because their pernicious core beliefs are centered on hatred and revenge. These powerful negative emotions are what drive radical jihadists to undertake suicidal attacks to kill as many "infidels" as possible.
But it is wrong to brand the more than 1.5 billion peace-loving followers of Islam as war-mongering extremist bent on resuscitating an anachronistic medieval caliphate to carry on a war against western crusaders.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump goes too far when he proposes a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." This runs counter to American political culture and only plays into the hands of the extremists.
It's time to take a deep breath and chill. We have to remind ourselves that the actions of a few do not represent the beliefs of the many. There is no excuse for unprovoked attacks on people who have nothing to do with terrorism.