Hate is a strong word
The other night I went to see Captain Marvel with some friends, as the end credit scenes began to roll, my friend showed me her phone and pointed to the headline “49 killed in mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand”. My heart sank. I pulled up the article and skimmed it on my phone. I couldn’t believe what I was reading, but there was a pain in me, a loss.
The pain grew when I learned the first man to be shot said “Salam Brother” to the gunman. Salam Brother. This man’s last words were wishing peace and acknowledging the other as a brother. He did not question this man, he did not reject this man, he welcomed him. And unfortunately his open arms were met with gun shots. Had the gunman stopped to listen and to hear he would of learned the beauty of the religion. However, he had let his ignorance blind him, as have so many of us.
In an age of instant news we are constantly assaulted with headlines and short snippets of the from tweets, Facebook posts, or Instagram captions- true or false, we don’t care. We read, we judge, we move on. We have turned so many blind eyes to the world, that we ourselves have become blind. We live in our bubbles of comfort and happiness, and forget the world-until something shakes us- and we remember. But we will only remember for a little bit. We will all write a status, say a prayer, post a snap at a vigil, and tomorrow we will move on. But we will not change. But those directly affected they will. There will be a mother without her son, a daughter without her father, a friend without a friend. What we fail to see is that we too have lost, we have lost a brother, a sister in Islam, but greater than that we have lost a life. Everyone should pain for another life was senselessly taken in the name of hatred and each time that happens, humanity dies.
We continue to foster and spread hate. Hate that has been brewing for many years, hate that we don’t acknowledge but we let brew. Now I sit in a country that is not my own, surrounded by people who speak a different language than me but yet the hate has followed me. Everywhere I have visited, I have seen the hate. And my heart has ached and it will continue to ache as long as lives are lost senselessly. But today it hurts more because a fear that I have held since I was young has projected into a reality. As I grew up my masjid always requested a cop to monitor in the parking lot or across street to deter anyone who would try to do something. It became my norm, but there is something fundamentally wrong in letting that happen. We have structured ourselves in such a way that we do not diminish the hate but rather we set up precautions to avoid it. But the biggest issue is how do you end hate that has existed for so many years. Islamophobia isn’t a 21st century hate, it is older than that-racism and hate run deep in our history. We have let it become norm and we raise children to either hate or learn to be hated. But when do we teach our children to love, to learn that regardless of culture, creed, country, we are human. Humanity is dying and we are the ones holding the poison.
I attended a lot of religious lectures growing up, sat in many small groups and it seemed and still seems the biggest conversation has always been “How to combat Islamophobia” or some variation of that. Over and over again I have discussed with friends what to do, how to react-we have resigned ourselves to this as a norm. A norm that has followed many of us since childhood through elementary school to college to the adult life. Keeping quiet if someone says something in the hallway or if a teacher say “you’re just learning the good part of your religion” because this is our norm. There are the occasions when we speak up, but it’s always too late then. We only speak up when the hate is explicit or strong, but we let the day to day go past us. Some go to great lengths to avoid the hate: denying our religion, pretending to not be that religious, or avoiding to bring up religion in public.
But we are resilient, humanity is resilient and it will fight. The hate may be out weighing the love, but love will rise from the ashes of hate. But for that to happen we need to see past religion, race, culture, gender, nationality, political stances and look at the person. We must understand each other human to human. We need to realize every life is precious, every life has a purpose-we are not better than others. But most importantly we must continue the conversation. Force our leaders to listen, and force the bigotry, racism, xenophobia, and islamophobia out of our systems. Force discussion, be open to ideas and thoughts. This is not an issue of one country, but rather for the whole world- we need to learn the accept each other. We all bleed the same red blood.
“The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are just like one body. When one of the limbs suffer, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever.”
May God grant peace and patience to the families of the victims of Christchurch, and the highest place in heave for our brothers and sisters in Islam who have lost their lives to the hate.
The pain grew when I learned the first man to be shot said “Salam Brother” to the gunman. Salam Brother. This man’s last words were wishing peace and acknowledging the other as a brother. He did not question this man, he did not reject this man, he welcomed him. And unfortunately his open arms were met with gun shots. Had the gunman stopped to listen and to hear he would of learned the beauty of the religion. However, he had let his ignorance blind him, as have so many of us.
In an age of instant news we are constantly assaulted with headlines and short snippets of the from tweets, Facebook posts, or Instagram captions- true or false, we don’t care. We read, we judge, we move on. We have turned so many blind eyes to the world, that we ourselves have become blind. We live in our bubbles of comfort and happiness, and forget the world-until something shakes us- and we remember. But we will only remember for a little bit. We will all write a status, say a prayer, post a snap at a vigil, and tomorrow we will move on. But we will not change. But those directly affected they will. There will be a mother without her son, a daughter without her father, a friend without a friend. What we fail to see is that we too have lost, we have lost a brother, a sister in Islam, but greater than that we have lost a life. Everyone should pain for another life was senselessly taken in the name of hatred and each time that happens, humanity dies.
We continue to foster and spread hate. Hate that has been brewing for many years, hate that we don’t acknowledge but we let brew. Now I sit in a country that is not my own, surrounded by people who speak a different language than me but yet the hate has followed me. Everywhere I have visited, I have seen the hate. And my heart has ached and it will continue to ache as long as lives are lost senselessly. But today it hurts more because a fear that I have held since I was young has projected into a reality. As I grew up my masjid always requested a cop to monitor in the parking lot or across street to deter anyone who would try to do something. It became my norm, but there is something fundamentally wrong in letting that happen. We have structured ourselves in such a way that we do not diminish the hate but rather we set up precautions to avoid it. But the biggest issue is how do you end hate that has existed for so many years. Islamophobia isn’t a 21st century hate, it is older than that-racism and hate run deep in our history. We have let it become norm and we raise children to either hate or learn to be hated. But when do we teach our children to love, to learn that regardless of culture, creed, country, we are human. Humanity is dying and we are the ones holding the poison.
I attended a lot of religious lectures growing up, sat in many small groups and it seemed and still seems the biggest conversation has always been “How to combat Islamophobia” or some variation of that. Over and over again I have discussed with friends what to do, how to react-we have resigned ourselves to this as a norm. A norm that has followed many of us since childhood through elementary school to college to the adult life. Keeping quiet if someone says something in the hallway or if a teacher say “you’re just learning the good part of your religion” because this is our norm. There are the occasions when we speak up, but it’s always too late then. We only speak up when the hate is explicit or strong, but we let the day to day go past us. Some go to great lengths to avoid the hate: denying our religion, pretending to not be that religious, or avoiding to bring up religion in public.
But we are resilient, humanity is resilient and it will fight. The hate may be out weighing the love, but love will rise from the ashes of hate. But for that to happen we need to see past religion, race, culture, gender, nationality, political stances and look at the person. We must understand each other human to human. We need to realize every life is precious, every life has a purpose-we are not better than others. But most importantly we must continue the conversation. Force our leaders to listen, and force the bigotry, racism, xenophobia, and islamophobia out of our systems. Force discussion, be open to ideas and thoughts. This is not an issue of one country, but rather for the whole world- we need to learn the accept each other. We all bleed the same red blood.
“The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are just like one body. When one of the limbs suffer, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever.”
May God grant peace and patience to the families of the victims of Christchurch, and the highest place in heave for our brothers and sisters in Islam who have lost their lives to the hate.
Comments
Post a Comment