These thoughts were actually not my first on the London bombings today. However, they have recently come to me, and I want to document them.
The delay in my posting was due to the fact that I was waiting to hear from/about friends and family in London. (shukrunlillah, everyone seems to be OK). It dawned on me, that as much as I talk about being Muslim and American, about the search for shared humanity, and today really brought home the point that even to me, subconsciously, there is a distinction – the internalization of being the “other?” – between a Muslim identity and other identities. And the bombings collapsed that division again. Like on 9/11, there were Muslim victims on the trains and on the bus. They were targeted because they were English. They were targeted because they were Muslim. They were targeted because they had achieved something that most people in the US take for granted – the ability to live with different people.
What these terrorists cannot abide is difference. Their identity is tied to the simplest, stupidest, most unaware, taqwa-less understanding of the world. Anything that challenges their vision – whether humanity, or any other of God’s creation, or God’s revelation – is anathema to them. Hatred and intolerance is their victory. Do not give in. DO NOT GIVE IN!
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