The attacks in Paris have awakened a slumbering giant. Islamophobia is on the rise once again across the United States and elsewhere. It’ll be like after 9/11, when Muslims became the target of incredible suspicion, intolerance and even hatred.

But let’s really think about the why of ISIS. ISIS claims to be a caliphate, the sole political and religious voice for all muslims all over the world. As such, their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi claims to speak for all of Islam when he threatens the west. I am not a Muslim myself, so I cannot speak personally for these claims. But I’ll let the experts speak for themselves. First, most Muslims do not agree with ISIS’s point of view. The majority of Islam is Sunni, and even though ISIS is a Sunni group, they represent a tiny portion of this sect.  Also as a Sunni Islamic group the other main branch of Islam, Shi’a Islam, doesn’t agree with them either. 126 Sunni scholars and Imams from all over the world signed an open letter to al-Baghdadi in September 2014 refuting ISIS’s basis in the Koran. The letter stated “[You] have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder … this is a great wrong and an offence to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world” Even most other extreme-Islamist groups call these claims null and void.

But even if this wasn’t enough to call ISIS’s religious and political authority into serious question, we can just refute them with sheer numbers. The highest estimates place ISIS’s current strength at about 258,000 fighters. Now that’s scary, sure, but then we take into consideration that 1.62 BILLION people are muslims. By my (admittedly rough and relatively unscientific) calculations 0.001% of the world’s Muslims are fighting for ISIS.

Not quite as scary with that perspective, right?

But bombs and rifles aren’t the most dangerous part of ISIS’s arsenal. They’re extremely good at radicalizing Muslims all over the world via social media networks. Their ideology revolves around making Muslims scared as much as it is making the West scared. According to ISIS, Muslims around the world are under attack. They are being persecuted by a society that does not understand them, that calls them evil out of blind ignorance. Therefore, you should join up with them, because they understand this truth, and will fight against those elements that seek to destroy Islam.

Giving into hysteria surrounding ISIS plays directly into their strategy. When I hear about American states and even countries refusing refugees from Syria, who are merely seeking a peaceful life away from the chaos that has sadly engulfed their home, that’s what makes me angry. When I hear about how countries in Europe talk about banning Muslim headscarves, that’s when my jaw drops. When I hear about how we should be monitoring mosques for any signs of hateful preaching, this is what gets my blood boiling. When I hear a leading presidential candidate talk about “tracking” muslims in a database, it makes me question my faith in humanity.

But while I am angry at ISIS, and believe me I am, I know that we need to defuse their ideology to end their threat for good. This means we respond to IS victims with mercy. I’m a believer in reconciliation. It’s not easy. It means that American foreign policy needs to change towards a policy that doesn’t fear ISIS. We can defeat ISIS. It requires us to rethink how we respond to terror attacks, but we can do it.

There’s a quote from the Chicago Times that I like using when I describe this gig: “It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news and raise hell.” As a columnist, I tend to fall into the latter category. But sometimes, it’s my duty to do the opposite. This is one of those times.