Saturday, January 12, 2013

End the Silence


I am a Muslim.

But are you Shia or Sunni?

Does it matter?

Whenever I was asked this question in school, I tried to give a neutral answer. But some curious classmates won’t take a neutral answer. And then they asked the most bizarre questions. Do you sacrifice children during the month of Muharram? Or the red sherbet you sell outside Imambargahs, is it the blood of little boys and girls? I would laugh at these questions and tell them that the sherbet was certainly good old Rooh Afza and the only creatures we sacrificed in the name of religion were goats/cows/lambs etc., just like Sunni people on Bari Eid.

It doesn’t seem so any longer. Our sacrifice, in the name of religion, is not just limited to Eid-ul-Azha.

While thousands are protesting on Alamdar Road in Quetta beside their dead, the rest of us are going on with our lives. Imagine, for one horrific second, yourself standing in the cold beside the body of a loved one. It is something you will refuse to imagine. The old men in Quetta, fathers standing against the bodies of their young sons, never imagined it too.

They are Muslims.

They are Shia.

They are also Pakistanis.

And it seems that they are paying a price for all the above.

If we don’t raise our voice for them today, it shall be us tomorrow, regardless of our religion or beliefs.

Raise your voice against this injustice today, now. That is what matters most!

5 comments:

  1. We Need To Know We Need to Implement That We Are Muslims.We All Muslims Are Under The Flag Of ISLAM

    http://omairyounus.blogspot.com/

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  2. yes this is the point if thought for every mankind....

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  3. The country is spiraling into madness. Why must it be defined whether you are Sunni or Shia and what if you identify with both. My father is half Shia (if there is such a thing) - his mother was Shia. So what? He raised us with the idea that we were both. The way I practice religion is my prerogative. When did it become anyone's business? Who decreed that all those who pray to the same God should be butchered like that? It's sickening.

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  4. Al-Quran: "Wa huwa as-sammakum ul muslimeen". Meaning of the Translation: "And we made you Muslims". So Quran has given us the name of Muslims, not Shia or Sunni. Full stop.

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  5. if u have any problem with shia call me i can tell u who we are.
    Hira raza [03454175726]

    ReplyDelete