Muslims of the East Vs Islam of the West
Hussain Ali
On 15th of this November, Paris, the city of fragrance, shook with a series of well-coordinated attacks that caused the loss of more than 120 lives, leaving hundreds injured and millions traumatized. According to many these attacks were the worst since the notorious WWII.
Soon after the attack, the whole world expressed its deepest sympathies with the Paris victims. Facebook in order to pay homage to the victims came up with a French flag filter that has since gone viral. Sadly here in Pakistan, there is a brigade of clean-shaven apologists, bearded FB addicts, self-proclaimed FB defense analysts ranting against the biased empathy of the international media and its selective approach. Most of the apologists are of the view that why is there or was there no flag filter for Muslim states that are in a state of perpetual violence.
First and foremost of all I believe need to wake ourselves up from the deep slumbers of ignorance we have enmeshed ourselves with. Remember when the Charlie Hebdo incident took place a million people took to the streets. Many world leaders participated in this historic event. Now tell me a place in Muslim world here a leader can walk on streets unguarded?
We see our rulers veiled within a caravan of bullet and bomb proof vehicles. The indelible APS attack last year left scores of innocent children dead and how many of us took to the streets or how many Muslim leaders arrived on D Chowk?
Did we not witness the case of young Aylan whose pictures shook the whole world especially Europe? Soon after which Europe accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees and still hundreds of refugees each day are rescued from Caspian sea. Even the Finnish PM offered his personal residence for the refugees and last but not least, Berlin proved itself to become the Medina for Mohajirs. EU rescued and saved millions of lives so could the Arab League but alas same thing did happen that had been foreshadowed by Allama Iqbal:
“I saw Muslims in East and Islam in the West”
No doubt Muslim countries are bedeviled by turmoil but it is we who are to blame for our incompetency and dogmas. West or U.S is not responsible for sectarian hatred nor violence waging on for the last 1400 years. We even hesitate to pray in each other’s mosques and even falter at consuming meat at one other’s’ home, so is it not better to unite and practice humanity in our own flanks?
Sadly till date, we have not learnt from history and continue to commit blunders upon blunders, unfortunately blindfolded by our egos and ignorance.
A question has been seen circulating on social media often these days.
“Why is there much hue and cry over Paris victims when we too bleed miserably?”
My answer to this question is to overlook our myopia. It is we who are responsible for downfall of ourselves than others. On one hand we condemn the brutal killing of our brothers and sisters in Palestine but do not remember that Jordanians killed more than 25000 Palestine’s in early 1960’s. More than Israelis have killed till date. Syria bleeds today not because of US or west it bleeds due to Iran Saudi tug of war. Kashmir does not bleed today due to our arch rival; it bleeds today due to our unwillingness to follow UN resolutions. Afghanistan does not bleed today due to US intervention; it bleeds because of strategic depth and our chosen master’s decision for dollar Jehad.
When we look at ourselves, we are divided with in our ranks (Shia, Sunni, Deobandi, Hindu, Christian, Mirzayi and others).
Victimizing and blaming others for our own broiled woes can only be explained by a (Psychological) term, Rationalization. Rationalization means to dispel ones anxiety by lame justifications of phenomenon.
Justifying Paris attacks by the fact that French had meddled in to the matters of Syrian government is tantamount to belief that APS attack occurred due to Islamabad’s meddling in affairs of Kabul…….. How obnoxious?
We have been blinded by our own ignorance and apathy to such an extent that we now only know how to rationalize in form of tiring senseless debates over social media. Let me reiterate that, blood of a Muslim is as red as that of a Hindu or a Christian. Let us get rid of this schema of hypocrisy and be humans first than Muslims, Christians and Hindus. Let’s mourn the loss of life irrespective of color, cast creed or religion.
It should be observed that empathy and conscience are always self-centric. For instance when a Muslim dies, a Muslim will condole his death more than a Hindu and vice versa. This ability thus is instinctual and primitive. Similarly if the west brings this issue into limelight we should be conscious enough to overlook our ignorance and think on humanitarian basis than moaning over filter flags and hash tags on FB and twitter.
We have our own issues to worry about NAP (National Action Plan) till date is in a state of impotency. A large section of our civil society has still a soft corner for terrorists in our country. Take instant of Mullah Abdul Aziz, who did not condemn the APS school attack neither did the majority of hardliner clergy.
Time has come for us to change to the demands of the modern world and come out of our cocoon of brittle dogmas or else we would slowly perish in the sands of time forever.
