Having seen some of the atrocities committed recently, I have come into a far better position to understand the notions that the Western world, or rather the entire world has about us. I can understand why the furor that was caused by the ‘Draw a Muhammad Day’ was so critical. I can also understand why Facebook and the people behind the atrocious event were so adamant about going forward with it.
The simple fact of the matter is that we as a nation try to deflect criticism by conjuring up comparisons with everyone across the spectrum. We are like ostriches; we rarely attempt to face our demons, rather we’re more inclined towards pretending the demons do not exist. Such mental faculty has been groomed and honed at the behest of successive governments because it defined the mood of the national public, making it easier for the powers to be to chide us repeatedly and perversely. Consequently, instead of trying to resort our problems, we end up blaming RAW, Mossad, CIA, FBI, the Freemasons, the Jews, Zionists, Israelis, Hindus, Sikhs, Afghans, Uzbeks, the Brits. Everyone, but ourselves. The thing is though, after we’re done blaming them so vehemently and vociferously, we rarely have the mental energy or capacity to resolve the issues at hand. As a prime example, the American-Russian war in Afghanistan was the cause of a massive influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan; but maintaining the law and order situation, regulating those refugees, and ensuring they went back to their country was our job. Did we do it, or were we just too overwhelmed with emotions at the thought that our “Muslim” brothers and sisters were inconvenienced?
All the countries of the world, be it Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Palestine, UAE (Muslim countries) always put their own interests before the “Ummah’s”. If this simple notion can penetrate the head of even one of my fellow countrymen, I will have done my job. We try to be the sole maverick hero of the Muslim world, but the truth is we’re not. We can pretend as much as we want to but the fact of the matter is that the Muslim world tends to look down upon us with disdain. We have brainwashed ourselves into believing that we are far superior to the rest of the Muslim nations but we’re not. We need to clarify these misgivings about our position in the world and concentrate on alleviating the problems existent in our society today that have nothing to do with the rest of the world.
It is high time that we stop calling the world ‘hypocrites’ and ‘double agents’ when we are ourselves are master-champions in that ball game. We are so good at it that we ourselves have now inconspicuously failed to realize that we’re playing a double game. In all this sordidness that we have spread with august gusto, we have sullied the name of Islam. We have confused the cogent and lucid with ill-advised contempt which is totally devoid of reasoning. While we stand up amid great crescendo defending the construction of the Cordoba House just two blocks from Ground Zero, how many of us have thought of the moral responsibility that we as Muslims bear to the city of New York? Although I believe in the freedom of religious affiliation, and I actually wrote a rebuttal to Miss Sarah Palin rebuking her for bringing her hawkish views into this case of the Cordoba House, how many of us can actually proclaim that the Muslims are morally justified in building a Masjid so near Ground Zero? If the WTC was in Pakistan, and the attackers were Christians, you can well imagine a sort of mutiny would’ve taken place had a Church been approved to be built at the sacred site.
The recent cataclysmic events in the cricketing world have only reinforced my views about us. While we are the frontrunners in preaching the values of ethics, morality, shame and mannerisms to the entire world, we fail miserably and shamefully ourselves in all those disciplines. We have no sanctity of our national flag, because as it so happens, to many it is just a piece of cloth with two colours; we have no respect left for our identity because our “stars” do not care what image they send out to the world. We are innocent people, easily fooled into believing anything that comes out of anyone’s mouths; we’re like sheep bleating about aimlessly, following anything and everything that we see. We’re full of pent up energy and there is no release. The world keeps on castigating us, but as it so happens we keep throwing them plenty of good reasons to keep doing so. And then, as it so happens, the million dollar question is: What do we do?
