Tired of Saying ‘Not in My Religion’s Name’: A Muslim Man’s Plea

After the Paris attack, and now Nice, a Muslim man says he’s tired of saying ‘not in my religion’s name’.

Unfortunately, it has become something routine.

Brutal, inhuman terrorist attacks. Lives lost, loved ones lost, families torn apart.

Wave of condemnations, cries of “terror has no religion”, echoes of “not all Muslims”, angry voices calling for Muslims to “be accountable, to “introspect”, to “weed out the evil within”.

I, for one — and I’m sure I speak for myriads like me — am tired.

I’m tired of the thousands of innocent lives weighing upon the collective conscience of my religion. I’m tired of putting up status messages saying that terrorists are not Muslims.

I’m tired of being held accountable by being under the banner of Islam that has been hijacked by a minuscule few. I’m tired.

I’m tired of people telling me “but the Quran also mentions violence,” tired of being told that heinous crimes can be justified by God’s scripture, tired of being told that these terrorists have read the scripture their entire lives and must know what they are doing, in their own twisted way.

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I’m tired because by saying these things, you legitimise for them the activities being wrought in the name of religion, you legitimise their ‘cause’, you legitimise their barbarism.

More than a billion Muslims go about their daily lives, and yes, they read the same Quran, do the same namaz, they bow down before the same Kaaba, and beseech the same Allah.

All these people want is a simple life. They don’t want violence. They don’t want blood on their hands. The same Quran was read by the Prophet, by his son­-in-­law, Hazrat Ali, by the Prophet’s grandson Hazrat Hussain.

And yes, the same Quran was also read by the ones who were responsible for murdering Hazrat Ali in cold blood as he prayed, by the ones who killed Hazrat Hussain’s entire family after having starved them for three days in Karbala, a family that included his six­-month-­old infant son.

And yes, they too, claimed to be acting in the name of religion. Think about that for a minute.

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I’m tired of the same brush not being used to paint the violence, when it is exhorted by non­-Muslims.

I haven’t seen the entire white community being asked to “introspect” after a young black life was snuffed out in a hate crime, and I haven’t seen all the Jews being asked to “examine where the violence lies” after a Palestinian infant was burned along with his house.

I’m tired of saying “not in my name, not in my religion’s name, not in my God’s name”. But I will say it again. For all that it is worth.

Not in my name.

(Mirza Mohammed Ali Khan is a journalist who has worked with Hindustan Times and Reuters.)