Until this Friday the 13th, I hadn’t realized the day was so unlucky.
It was 6:06 p.m., Friday the 13th, of November 2015 when a friend sent me a message briefly telling me what was happening in our home country of France. I couldn’t believe that Paris was under terrorist attacks. I quickly realized that my little sister, who lives in Paris, must have inevitably gone out on a Friday night.
Indeed, she was only a few blocks away from where the attacks occurred. Victoria, my little sister who is only 18 years old, spent nine hours locked in a bar being afraid, shocked and deeply sad. She was texting me, “I won’t lie, I’m scared to death. I have tears in my eyes. I have friends at the Bataclan.”
Once she finally got to her apartment, she shut herself away for four days and buried herself in the darkness of her room, with the infinite glowing of her cigarette the only glimmer visible. “It was awful,” Victoria said.
Of course the situation in Paris sounded like a tragedy: over 130 dead, numerous injured, a state of emergency declared, a mourning France, destroyed families, “an act of war” as described by François Hollande, president of France.
However, I think of my Muslim friends, who are also shocked in front of this abject situation and mourning the loss of their fellow citizens of France; I think of the entire Muslim community in the world who are being subjected to discrimination, a discrimination growing due to their association with these murderous actions.
“Muslims are the first victims of these attacks,” said Reda Slimani, a graduate studying business and also a Muslim.
I am revolted, because many not clear-headed people sadly take this groundless shortcut of assimilating all Muslims to terrorism because they are scared.
“I felt bad,” Slimani said. “Because these people, these terrorists don’t share the same core values conveyed by Islam.”
This conflation is nothing but silly, irrational and dangerous. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine how it feels to be pronounced guilty of terror acts by some radicalized, racist, fascist fellow citizens who don’t dissociate religion from abject violence. It is dangerous because Islamic radicalization cannot be fought by political radicalization. And the increasing influence of the Front National in France makes me fear my own people.
Islamic institutions across the world condemned the attacks of Paris, not willing to be associated with such detestable doings.
The Islamic Association of Raleigh issued a short message that said, “Such hateful acts can not and will not represent our beautiful religion nor our Muslim community, and we join our neighbors and community partners in condemning crime, injustice and terrorism across the world.”
Such a note should be granted as an example of dissociation between terrorism and Islam. I believe that regardless of religion, race or background we should stand together against terrorism and not feed the Islamic State group with our fear, we should not turn on each other and create divisiveness for these Islamists to cheer on. As Grand Imam of Al-Azhar said, “Terrorism has no religion.”
Moreover, President Barack Obama refuted any conflation between terrorism and religion. He said regarding the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, “We must absolutely reject that we are at war with an entire religion. The U.S. could never be at war with any religion because the U.S. is made up of multiple religions. We are strengthened by people from every religion including Muslim Americans.”
‘Faith is a house with many rooms’: Why we decided to talk about religionReligious practices change with generation, cultureReligious organizations on campusCelebrating Diwali and still making it to classChristian Science and the ‘power of prayer’Religion professors strive to teach neutrality, understanding of other religionsComing to terms with religion: a Jehovah’s Witness’ storyCOLUMN: A world at war: the danger of attacking religious freedomCOLUMN: The nine universal vices and virtues