#IllRideWithYou in Sydney and Pakistan
Every calamity has the potential to do two things for humans – either drift them apart or bring them closer.
Australia woke up to one of the worst terrorist attacks in its contemporary history yesterday. A gun-toting extremist, Man Haron Moris, took people hostage at Lindt Café in the heart of Sydney’s Central Business District. Visuals of hostages pressed against windows holding black placards that read ‘There is no God but Allah (SWT) and Muhammad (PBUH) is his prophet’ were plastered all over TV channels and news sites.
Man Haron Moris may have had 17 people as physical hostages. But all of Australia was a psychological hostage for those 16 - 18 hours.
This act of terrorism did not just spear at humanity alone. Within minutes the lone extremist also managed to taint Islam’s already precarious image in the world. What followed was a wave of Islamophobic bigotry from some people and Muslims were immediately on the defensive once again. These are some comments one can see on the Facebook page of The Age, a popular news publication in Australia.
What boggles the mind is how a religion and billions of its followers can be judged and castigated for the acts of a small percentage that uses the cloak of Islam. Let’s take an example. Pakistan is plagued by terrorism and even today, barbarians attacked a school in Peshawar. Does that make each one of us a terrorist? Is it warranted that the world looks at each one of us as a terrorist sympathiser?
Such bigotry should be unacceptable.
This is why it came as a touching gesture when majority of Australians showed they stand with Muslims and would not alienate them because of this despicable incident. Every calamity has the potential to do two things for humans – either drift them apart or bring them closer. In this case, it brought everyone together through social media. It stood up against the bigotry of a select few when whilst the siege was underway, Twitter was abuzz with the hashtag #IllRideWithYou that has till now attracted more than 250000 posts.
The hashtag started soon after a woman, Racheal Jacobs, shared how she saw a Muslim woman take her veil off on a Brisbane train in fear of being attacked for being Muslim. She explained how she ran and offered to ride with her to keep her safe. This soon became a ripple that turned into waves of people all over the world showing solidarity with Muslims and offering to ride with them if they feel unsafe.
This wasn’t just restricted to social media. Passengers on a train in Melbourne actually stood up for a woman wearing a chaddar when a man started harassing her, reported a newspaper today.
Needless to mention, such acts restore one’s faith in humanity. There are more people against bigotry than for it. In the same breath, let’s give back to the world what we expect from it. As a Pakistani, let me assure all Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis and other minorities that #IllRideWithYou.
Will you do the same, dear fellow countrymen?
Man Haron Moris may have had 17 people as physical hostages. But all of Australia was a psychological hostage for those 16 - 18 hours.
This act of terrorism did not just spear at humanity alone. Within minutes the lone extremist also managed to taint Islam’s already precarious image in the world. What followed was a wave of Islamophobic bigotry from some people and Muslims were immediately on the defensive once again. These are some comments one can see on the Facebook page of The Age, a popular news publication in Australia.
What boggles the mind is how a religion and billions of its followers can be judged and castigated for the acts of a small percentage that uses the cloak of Islam. Let’s take an example. Pakistan is plagued by terrorism and even today, barbarians attacked a school in Peshawar. Does that make each one of us a terrorist? Is it warranted that the world looks at each one of us as a terrorist sympathiser?
Such bigotry should be unacceptable.
This is why it came as a touching gesture when majority of Australians showed they stand with Muslims and would not alienate them because of this despicable incident. Every calamity has the potential to do two things for humans – either drift them apart or bring them closer. In this case, it brought everyone together through social media. It stood up against the bigotry of a select few when whilst the siege was underway, Twitter was abuzz with the hashtag #IllRideWithYou that has till now attracted more than 250000 posts.
The hashtag started soon after a woman, Racheal Jacobs, shared how she saw a Muslim woman take her veil off on a Brisbane train in fear of being attacked for being Muslim. She explained how she ran and offered to ride with her to keep her safe. This soon became a ripple that turned into waves of people all over the world showing solidarity with Muslims and offering to ride with them if they feel unsafe.
This wasn’t just restricted to social media. Passengers on a train in Melbourne actually stood up for a woman wearing a chaddar when a man started harassing her, reported a newspaper today.
Needless to mention, such acts restore one’s faith in humanity. There are more people against bigotry than for it. In the same breath, let’s give back to the world what we expect from it. As a Pakistani, let me assure all Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis and other minorities that #IllRideWithYou.
Will you do the same, dear fellow countrymen?