The Racism of Terrorism
In a world of 8 billion humans, when a few unstable minds choose to pick up guns and shoot civilians in their moments of psychotic meltdowns, why is it that only those belonging to a certain religion are characterized as “terrorists”? There are approximately 2 billion muslims in the world who watch in utter despair their entire population cohort being profiled as radical, sympathetic of extremism, believers of violence, & being pro-terrorism. There are hundreds of groups on Facebook & You Tube just dedicated to prove that muslims are a menace to global peace. Islamophobia has become a vogue. Hijab is considered as a symbol of women persecution. Beard is profiled as being the equivalent of the OBL fan club. Many wars have been waged against the muslim countries as a result. From Afghanistan to Iraq to Syria to Libya runs a spree of invasions by non-muslims in the name of freedom. These wars have displaced millions of muslims from their homes to live in down-trodden refugee camps.
The carnage of hate against muslims is piling up every second. So when a lone & unstable shooter kills 26 church-goers, he is called a non-terrorist just because he is NOT a muslim. This is soon after a man kills 58 concert attendees in Vegas. However, in between these two shootings one “unstable” ISIS-fan kills in NY and this is an act of terrorism just because he happens to have a beard and a muslim name and a muslim background.
If I told 5th graders all of this, even they would exclaim that this is “racism”. But, can we even apply the term “racism” to “religious discrimination”? I believe we can. Because here the discrimination is against 2 billion people of a certain ideology who are slammed for the actions of a few psychotic serial killers. White men without beards and white women without hijab can commit terrorism. Yes! They can. Non-whites & whites regardless of religion or background can commit terrorism. This is an irrefutable basic fact that only Islam-haters choose to deny.
Proof! How many muslim women have had to take off Hijab living in non-muslim countries out of fear of being profiled in the same category as that of ISIS? Let's start counting how many muslim women have been harassed by non-muslim mainstream media to the point that they had to give up something so dear to them out of fear of being persecuted or killed. So who is the actual harasser here? ISIS or those who are harassing Hijabi women in the name of their phobia of ISIS to the point of pushing these women into giving up hijab and their right to dress up as they want.
Proof! How many muslim women have had to take off Hijab living in non-muslim countries out of fear of being profiled in the same category as that of ISIS? Let's start counting how many muslim women have been harassed by non-muslim mainstream media to the point that they had to give up something so dear to them out of fear of being persecuted or killed. So who is the actual harasser here? ISIS or those who are harassing Hijabi women in the name of their phobia of ISIS to the point of pushing these women into giving up hijab and their right to dress up as they want.
The world has become very unsafe for all due to terrorism. If you graded the level of danger from 1 to 10, muslims are 4x as much vulnerable as non-muslims to experience an act of terror against them. This is why muslims have been victims of terrorism all over the world with their numbers escalating to millions compared to non-muslims just being in thousands.
Terrorism is per data a much bigger threat to a muslim than it is to a non-muslim. So, why is it that all muslims are blamed for all acts of terrorism while non-muslims label every non-muslim terrorist as a non-terrorist? So, it is okay to blame 2 billion muslims for the actions of a few terrorists but it is NOT okay to call a non-muslim terrorist a “TERRORIST”. What is this if not the “racism” of terrorism?
Can we achieve peace by blaming it all on one group? Imagine you are in a class room. Something happens and when the teacher arrives, most of the class mates point at you and your group as being responsible for the mishap even though you had nothing to do with it. Your class mates have no evidence to prove their allegations against you but this happens repetitively every time something happens. What would you call your class mates then? Bullies? Oppressors? Harassers?
So, by pointing all of your fingers towards 2 billion muslims for the actions of every terrorist, what are you doing if not bullying & harassing? By allowing every non-muslim terrorist to get away with terrorism just because of his religious affiliation, what are you doing if not facilitating more terrorism?
Dr Fariya Bukhari, MD
Dr F Bukhari, MD is a writer/poet/activist/politician/physician/scientist/philanthropist/producer/journalist/defense analyst & strategist. She is interested in politics, peace, innovation, and volunteering. She is working for education, liberation & empowerment of the under-privileged. She is also involved in politics trying to bring a palpable change at Pakistan's political level that ensures protection of masses against human rights violations, injustice, corruption & terrorism. She is the Chairperson of Pak Islam Party.
