“All I need to know about Islam, I learned on 9/11.” — some guy from some rally in the US.
Quotes like these make me believe that a rotten apple does really spoil the bunch. I’m not at all justifying what happened on 9/11 or radical Islam for that matter. What happened was absolutely unforgivable. And there are some brainwashed people and terrorist organizations like ISIS which are continuing such horrendous acts.
But does that make the entire religion bad? The problem has been rooted so deep in our minds that we don’t even realize how we have shunned an entire religion because of a few misconceptions, some fateful events and of course, those rugged terrorists (shouldn’t even be called humans really).
So the women wear hijab, so they read namaz five times a day, so they have mosques everywhere but is following a religion really bad? Then are Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism any good? Hey, I don’t mind people being atheists either. But then, just live and let live, right?
Let’s take a look at how Islamophobia led to Punish a Muslim Day.
The grief-stricken memory of September 11 attacks still haunts us. Almost 3,000 people were killed and another 6,000 injured. So much loss… Life, resources, energy were all lost…
But we cannot forget that the people who did that were a part of a terrorist organization, al-Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden. The brainwashing, the false hopes must’ve driven those people who committed such crimes… But then, do they represent all the Muslims?
Believe it or not, this is what led to Islamophobia.
So the shunning of an entire religion we were talking about, that is Islamophobia. Basically, any kind of hatred or prejudice carried out against Muslims or Islam. Don’t you tell me that it doesn’t happen, cause I’ve got some stats for you…
This data is from the Third Quarter of 2017. That is 753 incidents in 90 days. More than 8 a day. Not just that, the ‘travel ban’ by Trump kinda proved the point.
However he may try to justify it, many people came ahead and called it a Muslim ban. An indefinite ban on Syrian refugees, 90-day visa suspension, a reduced cap on refugees and what not. First US and now the UK.
‘Punish a Muslim’ fliers were distributed in the UK where people were encouraged to abuse Muslims, beat/torture them and the most extreme being to nuke Mecca. Isn’t it time we asked ourselves, WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING?!
Of course, this day has been invented by some angry people but do they realize; they’re threatening an entire community?
“Islamophobe — a person that has never foot in a mosque or befriended a Muslim yet claims to be an expert on Islam via Google search.” — Dr. Craig Considine
People came up with Love a Muslim Day to counter some of the hatred but is it working?
Organizations like ISIS and ISIL which follow radical Islam are to be blamed. These people are brewing terror in our minds. They are responsible for making us feel uncomfortable around Muslims. They are the ones who are killing innocent people for their irrational goals. People like Jihaadi John whose stories terrorize us are WRONG.
But then, it brings us to the question…
Are we going to tag all the Muslims as terrorists? Or are we going to support them in these difficult times? Cuz it mustn’t be easy for them either… They might be even more uncomfortable than you are because of all this sh*t that’s happening.
The only question left for us to answer…
That is all for now. You can share your thoughts and feedback with me at mendoukse@gmail.com
