listen, outside of this France incident, Muslims have engaged in ridiculous amounts of violence against other religions and groups of people and have been oppressors. Asking other Muslims if they oppose it isn't wrong.

maarnayeri:

No, fuck that. You listen.

The only reason you’re using actual instances that Muslims have the capabilities of acting as oppressors is to assert your own pre-existing prejudices against Muslims in a completely different context. Where the fuck were you people when the Clinton administration sanctioned Iraq and killed half a million Iraqi children by deliberately cutting off essential resources? Oh wait, I’ll remind you. Madeleine Albright praised the deaths and claiming she had no regrets of her colleagues’ decisions. And then we occupied Iraq again. Where are you when Israel unloads white phosphorous on populations in Gaza (where Christians exist) and jail men who dress up as Santa in the West Bank? Hold on, let me refresh your memory. Senator Ted Cruz antagonizes Arab Christians by insisting that they either support Israel, or lose his support. Coercing people into becoming Zionists and collaborators against their own? Such an earnest act of solidarity, I’m sure.

And since we’re on the topic of sectarian violence, I’ll give you my personal experiences with it. Muslims have been massacred in Ethiopia for over a century. My own family refuses to go back to their ancestral villages for fear that they’ll be spied on, detained and even worse for simply practicing their faith. Not only is the rampant violence against Muslims in Ethiopia a severally neglected and under reported issue, but now that Ethiopia (which is an imperial power in the Horn of Africa, currently engaged in several occupations and sieges, both within its own borders and out) is the one of the US’ biggest ally in the “global war on terror”, the state’s heinous grievances against Muslims is not only excused, but lauded as a necessary evil.

And with all this, never once has it ever crossed my mind to ask Christians from Ethiopia, let alone Christians from around the world who have absolutely nothing to do with genocides that occur globally to routinely condemn them by the dint of sharing basic theological tenants. And I realize that reductive positionalities such as “Muslims vs. Christians” wholly reduces the point of religious oppression. Both Muslims and Christians, throughout history have used (or exploited) their faith positively and negatively. As resistance. As oppression. As a moral compass and a normalizer of calamity. A person’s faith will only be exemplified in the aspect of their characteristics. And I realize that most Christians would abhor the awful shit that’s supposedly done in their faith’s name.

And because Muslims from my region have been historically oppressed and international media, my natural inclination, by politics and morality is to stand with the oppressed and those on the receiving end of violence, regardless of their background. There’s even a verse in the Qur’an that reiterates this stance.

[O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both. So follow not [personal] inclination, lest you not be just. And if you distort [your testimony] or refuse [to give it], then indeed Allah is ever, with what you do, acquainted]. Al-Nisa (4:135)

Nuance however, only exists for few groups. With most people, it would be unthinkable and in poor taste to conflate the KKK and Black American Christians who they have terrorized for the better part of the past 100 years in an attempt to condemn Christianity. Given that the vast majority of those victimized by violent factions acting in the name of Islam have been other Muslims, it would seem inappropriate to group the oppressed and oppressor, and yet, Muslims are consistently asked how we feel about the very groups that seek to destabilize and wreak havoc against us.

Part of discourse surrounding Islam has been to homogenize the ultimate goals, principles, objectives, lifestyles and traditions of every Muslim, even in the most precarious ways. Any attempts to compile a fourth of the world’s population who span every continent, geopolitical situation, socioeconomic position, race, etc into an ambiguous body is laughably absurd any way you stretch it. By the very definition, this is bigotry. Do you seriously anticipate me, or others to support people being heinously killed? What kind of monsters do you think we are? Why do you expect us to answer to this kind of demonization? I never will.

I’ll say this once and never again. I refuse to legitimize discourse with the pretext that I, or other Muslims are terrorizing subjects. If that’s a problem for you, then that can stay your problem, but it won’t be mine.