The ethnic cleansing of Bosnia, the global fight against terrorism, the hypocritical cry of patriotism in India, the UN’s inspection of the nuclear developments in Iraq, the decimation of the Palestinian population by the Zionists and so on. Surprisingly, the wronged party in all of these is the Muslim community. Is it a campaign against Muslims? With all other communities on the other side, one wonders what keeps Muslims strong. Is it patience that keeps them quiet? Even after seeing Afghanistan become a rubbish heap?
In search of a single person, the Americans attacked the young and old, women and children, the innocent and the unproved guilty. If not patience, then what keeps today’s world quiet even after seeing the attacks on the Muslims of Gujarat? Or is it time to accept the falsehood that India is a secular state providing equal rights to all its citizens regardless of their religion?
And what about the United Nations? Turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to any country other than Afghanistan or Iraq or Pakistan? Palestinians today are becoming human bombs because of their desperate situation.
The silence leads us to believe that either the Muslim community is unable to be honest followers of Islam or has forgotten what Islam actually is. Just as Islam never supports violence, it also says that God is the protector of every believer. Should we then assume that the Muslims who have been harmed were not meticulous followers of Islam?
Being brave doesn’t mean rushing to conclusions that lead to disastrous events such as war. It means speaking for oneself and retaining one’s self-respect without being offensive. Safeguarding the Muslim community from slander is an important struggle in today’s world.
— Arab News Features 30 January 2003