By Ahmed Wafi
The attack on the Manchester Arena has left the world mourning. The 22 families who were victimised will suffer the rest of their lives knowing that the coward responsible for this will never face human justice, but rest be assured, the punishment that awaits him is a horrible one. Allah SWT forbids the murder of innocent people in the Quran in a number of different verses including surah al-Furqan verse number 68.
The Quran also declares the murder of an innocent soul on the same level as the murder of an entire nation. Murder of any sort is universally frowned upon and if caught, the perpetrator will usually be met with harsh punishments. What makes anyone think they have the right to take away the life of someone they know nothing about?
Apart from the attack on Manchester, there was the bombing in the Brussels airport in 2016 that left 32 casualties. Earlier this year, the world also witnessed the attack at the Westminster bridge in London which left five people dead.
Muslim leaders around the world condemned these attacks but the irony is that these people had Muslim names just like you and I. Salman Abedi, Khalid Masood and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui are among the names of these cowardly ˜losers (as Donald Trump put it), and we all know someone named Salman or Ibrahim. These names are close to us and are usually associated with friendly faces but these people have tainted such good names.
If people see things at plain sight, they could easily draw the lines that connect Islam to terrorism, and apart from citing ignorance, you cant really blame them. Simple minds see things in simple terms while living in a complicated world.
There would be quite some ground for the Westerners to point the finger at Islam as the cause of all this horror happening around the world but they dont. The majority of the Western world chooses not to. Of course, there will be one or two ignorant people here and there blaming Islam for the cause of all this horror.
I came across a tweet recently a few hours after the Manchester bombing that read, œThats what you get when you let Muslims in your country. Â At this point, I am quite numb to people abusing Islam, especially on social media but I was touched by the response of another Twitter user that goes by @hannawwh who defended Islam by saying, œIt was a Muslim who pulled up in his taxi and drove us home to safety. A very compassionate man who was also terrified yet helped others.
These kind of people who speak the language of kindness are the people who stand for humanity and are people of love.
Another Twitter user that goes by @GeraldoRivera responded to the attack by claiming that Manchester is a hub for œIslamic radicals. This tweet was countered by @Glenn_Kitson who defended Muslims and Manchester by tweeting œManchester Muslim doctors working through the night, Manchester Muslim taxi drivers taking people home for free. You don’t know Manchester.
It is just so heart-warming to see people standing up for what is right, blind to colour and faith. The truth is that despite all the evil that fake ˜Muslims have done time and again, non-Muslims still defend us in the name of humanity time and again just as Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) defended the non-Muslims living in the Islamic state during his time.
Hopefully, when the time comes, we Muslims, can return the favour and defend our fellow brothers, regardless of faith.***
Feature image taken from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-40017599