Over the weekend, people all over the world have announced their support for the French people with the #PrayforParis and blue, white and red tinted profile pictures. In fact, it sickens me and it makes my blood boil. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. “It is for us, Muslims of France, who have religion in our hearts and obey Islam’s principles – a religion of peace and sharing”. I was told over and over again that “terrorism has no religion” (but, as one Twitter poster pointed out, it sure does seem partial to Islam). After all, the Americans, since September 2011, know a thing or two about Muslims attacking them.
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He went on to say that Muslims holding demonstrations against Isis would do nothing to solve the threat posed by the terrorists, which was a direct result of wars and dictatorships in the Middle East. It is an effort towards harmony and peace. They called for a total, all-out war, bashed immigrants, gun control advocates, liberals, President Obama, lax security and, of course, Muslims.
“I have had looks that are more insistent by people who don’t know me”, said Sartori, the young Muslim worshipper. British Bangladeshi kids, or Asian kids, they are born and bred here.
“The authors of these acts have nothing to do with the values of Islam, they are just assassins. We are part of associations to act for the common good, and here the student one”.
Like Bush’s ironical ‘war on terror’, we are set and prepared for an ironical war on Islamophobia. “I feel I’ve been personally targeted – not as a Muslim, but as a French citizen”.
In the USA we have seen this kind of apathetic racism and its effects in the outrage caused by the events in Ferguson. Most especially in the wake of trauma and terror, how we each decide to engage with “the other” is our own individual choice, but the fate is shared by us all. My thoughts and prayers are for those who have died and for those who have suffered. If Western scholars can speak freely and critically about Judaism and Christianity, they should also enjoy the same right when it comes to Islam.
“Israelis (97 per cent) and Jordanians (94 per cent) were also strongly opposed to ISIS as of spring 2015, including 91 per cent of Israeli Arabs”.
“This is something we’re really against”, Alkelani said.
Moreover, we should be somewhat scared of that number, because these ISIS sympathisers could become ISIS members.
These groups have managed to inspire a few Muslims and mobilise them to hurt global powers in ways that they were never hurt before.
A Muslim family in Orlando, Florida, reported that an unknown assailant shot at their family home. There are people tearing the Quran and pulling off headscarves to show their anger.
The majority of Muslims can continue to dissociate themselves from these people, but the negative perception will continue to follow the ummah.
And, if there is something the ummah, and all the learned leaders, ulama and thinkers need to figure out it must be how to be a Muslim in the current time.
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“We pray to God to safeguard us all from such shocking terrorist attacks committed by these criminals wherever and whoever they might be”.
