All terrorists are not Muslims

Vaatupura A Jayaprakash

“ALL MUSLIMS are not terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims” is not a fair statement. It sounds believable with reference to the spate of events that take place in our neighbourhoods. Considering the nature of events that take shape time to time at different national locations with regard to this community, there is a pointer that desperately demands every fair-minded one to have a second and third look at the statement: That ‘all terrorists are Muslims’.

A simple question is enough for us to take stock and come to conclusions. Why are they so branded? If at all they are found to be engaging in divisive designs in-country and cross border, what makes them do so, what does not make others behave so and what do we call those others who engage in such nefarious activities in the community and stay invisible.

Statistics say 99 per cent of those who got nabbed after the blasts in our country are Muslims and most of them are in their 20s. There are some teens too in this guild. The motivation they have in common to go for such activities is also common. They are angry. And they want to vent their anger. Who are they angry with? Angry at the milieu they live in or with the whole world their community belongs to?

Whatever be their conviction on this devastating method of retaliation, they all have to understand a simple thing that so long as they happen to behave the way they do these days, they are going to face more reprisals at the hands of those who happen to taste the bitter effects of their ungodly tendencies.

They have been given enough, good, bad, worse and worst by the community and the world they belong to, and they have given back to the community and the world they belong to in much higher measures in the form of terror attacks, hijacks, abduction, arson and genocide. Enough; enough is enough.

This ill-fated lot who happen to face discriminations of some type at some time and part of their life have got their own reasons to hit back in whatever forms: Jihadis, soldiers of God, or crusaders. But they all need to understand that time has come for them too to take stock and ask themselves “why are we being looked at differently?”

Take stock gentlemen. Take stock and find yourself, why are you treated unfairly. Remember, the deeds you mastermind and carry out with absolute precision are ungodly acts of the finest order and no God is going to pardon you and you will never be given a place in history.

Your heritage will be branded as blasphemous and your future community will harvest the seeds of hatred you sow now in the form of retaliation blasts. So call it a day and go on doing your jobs as directed by your faith. The blood and life you cause others to shed is not going to be justified by any faith.

On the other hand, it is in no way a shame on you to cut yourselves to be what you actually are. The drained out brains you have due to the influence of those nefarious sources can be filled back with decent inputs and rational thinking. Please go to your abodes of faith and beseech Him to be kind and merciful to you.

Give your lives a new dimension for quite sometime. Then watch how the world turns itself into a much better place for you to be in than what you make it to be today. Give a ceasefire to your violent actions and thus, clean up the brand image that ‘all terrorists are Muslims’. I sternly believe the other way round. All terrorists are not Muslims.

On the other hand, I would like to unequivocally believe and record here that a great number of, I repeat, a great number of people who we honour and follow, believe and boast of are worse than these misguided youth who rip off innocents when the latter least expect it.

Therefore, I beg of you to call it a day and cut yourself a much better image than these terrorists who live among us in the guise of politicians, community caucuses, religious heads  and and advocates of national and your personal causes. They are the cancer, they are the venom, and they are the terminators of the society. It is their fight for survival in their respective rings that makes you what you actually aren’t. Do not follow them. You are not what you actually are. You are pawns in their hands.

Follow your faith and find your place in history. God, no matter you call it Allah, or Father or Messiah, or whatever, is all-merciful. This Ramzan is the right time to take such a resolve. Being branded as a terrorist community is no good at all. And you all know that you are not.