Have you ever had a stupid fear?

So stupid and irrational that you were afraid to admit it? I have. The Germans. I am well aware of exactly how racist that sounds buts it started after watching 'Dirty Dozen' when I was 7.
'Dirty Dozen' is a movie about how they forced 12 prisoners to take part in WWII, and how in the end 11 of them were slaughtered by the Nazis.
We had only just moved to England when I watched this so I didn't understand most of what they were saying. All I remember is that one of the convicts introduced himself as Aladdin. Now when your 7 you don't really know the difference between a Nazi and a German so that's when my fear started.
I cried myself to sleep for more than a week after that and then I stopped watching all the German channels on satellite TV. Even the music ones I used to love. I was terrified. I hated them.

Imagine my shock when I heard my dad planning a trip to Europe when I was 12. He mentioned Germany and I lost it. I started crying and begging for us not to go there, I was so sure we would not come out of it alive.
No one listened to my prayers and so we left to spend a couple of days in Frankfurt. I was so scared I kept expecting all those people in the streets to take guns out of their bags and start shooting. I was 12. The old woman seemed to be reaching for something in her bag, or maybe the little girl who is looking through her school bag, are they all looking for something to kill me with?
They weren't. None of them were, they were normal people but I just couldn't help being scared. It was when we went to the hotel that I finally realized how stupid I had been so far.

There was a picture of a cow, a normal looking cow on our wall and as soon as my 4 year old sister saw that she started crying and screaming and begging us to take it down. I couldn't understand why. It was then as I was telling her how stupid she was for being scared of a cow that I realised I have no right to tell her off. I was just as stupid as she was. It was then I realised the power and impact Hollywood and the movies overall have on people.
And it was only then that I managed to enjoy the rest of my trip. Thanks to the cow, whose picture we eventually took down cause my sister couldn't sleep.
And even though I know how silly it is and I no longer refrain from watching German channels, there's still a part of me that feels afraid when Germany is mentioned, but I'm working on it.

The reason I brought this up and finally admitted it to someone other than my parents is because there's a lot of people who have some sort of fear towards my country, Iran, because of some of the things they may have seen or heard. Some things that may or may not have been mistranslated or misunderstood.
All I'm asking for is that every time you think that someone has a right to drop a bomb on me and my family and all the other people without guns in their handbags, just try and remember the picture of the cow, the helpless cow, and just how irrational your fears may be.