If you followed the buzz surrounding the tragic bombing at the Boston Marathon on Mon. April 15, you may have heard in the immediate aftermath that authorities detained a Saudi national and were holding him in custody as a suspect. This is not only false, but hugely unjustified and reckless.

A Saudi student studying in Boston witnessed the bombing and was wounded. He was tackled by a bystander who thought he was “suspicious.” While recovering from his wounds in the hospital, he was hounded by a Fox News reporter who repeatedly questioned him about his roommates, to which he could only respond, “Let me go to school, dude.” Fox News and the New York Post later released his name and reported that he was a suspect in custody. The FBI searched his apartment for no apparent reason and found nothing of note.

Why was he “suspicious?” Was he too brown? Was his accent too thick? Did he not fit the bill for “innocent bystander?”

In light of the detention of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, this issue is likely to be forgotten. A Muslim is guilty, and other Muslims are likely to suffer for his guilt.

It’s easy to panic in times of great tragedy like this. That doesn’t make it correct to automatically defer to fear, racism and unfounded skepticism as a means of problem-solving. To this, and to the regularity with which it occurs, there is only one reaction: shame.