Thinly veiled Islamophobia
On 16th October it was reported that a man beheaded a teacher on a street in France. The reason behind the murder? The history teacher had shown caricatures of the Prophet (PBUH) in class, which is considered as blasphemy in Islam. The murderer was later shot dead by the police.
As is almost routine with such cases, reports and articles came out pointing out how a radical Islamist had murdered someone, how a terrorist had once again claimed a life, and how progressive Muslims ought come out condemn this horrible act of violence!
All this while, I’m just sitting here wondering- where are all the articles calling this murderer mentally unstable? Where are the testimonies from all the people who knew him claiming that, “This is not like him at all!”? Where are the news reporters sympathizing with this murderer who was a lone wolf after being bullied all throughout his life?
Or wait- is that only a go to plan if the accused is a Christian white boy who shot up a mosque or church or school? Because if that was the case, the police wouldn’t shoot him dead, they’d just arrest him and buy him Burger King. And if the accused is an upper caste male, then he’ll be protected by the state machinery and there will be rallies by upper caste organizations to protect this man? I mean, we can’t have our dear leaders punish a Brahmin and be cursed with “Brāhmanahatya”?
You did not see any Muslim organization rally in support of any terrorists. Quite the contrary, every Muslim was expected to come out and categorically condemn this act, as we’ve had to do for every attack perpetrated by someone with a remotely Muslim identity ever since 9/11 and USA’s War On Terror that claimed the lives of millions of Muslims through invasion, violence, drone strikes and war imposed deprivation.
So why is it that every time a “Muslim” does something in the name of Islam, other Muslims have to drop everything and condemn it? Why does the onus fall on us to condemn something we did not even do? Why would you just assume that if I don’t condemn this, I must definitely support it? This is thinly veiled Islamophobia and I am frankly tired of it.
There’s no other reason so called “allies” will expect progressive Muslims to condemn every attack, expecting us to show up to prove our innocence, prove that we’re not like them.
Why don’t you ask every Christian to condemn the gun violence perpetrated by white supremacists? Why don’t you ask Hindus to come forward and condemn the acts of organizations like the RSS and Bajrang Dal? Or do you give them the benefit of the doubt- you know they wouldn’t support violence in the name of religion. But these Muslims- no, these Muslims need to be kept in check. They need to come forward every time something happens, drop everything and prove their loyalty to their country and their commitment to humanity.
People who expect Muslims to condemn every act of violence carried forward by a Muslim, are the same people who put Indian Muslims in the binary of “Kasab” and “Kalam”. Either we’re the Missile Man and if we fall short of that, we’re simply unworthy of being considered equals and are probably terrorists. There’s no in between for us.
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