New York - I feel profoundly saddened and outraged by the Chapel Hill shooting. My heart and prayers go to the beautiful, brilliant lives that the world lost and that have now returned to God. May Allah grant them peace and a dwelling of light. Surely we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return. I offer my sincere condolences to their families and friends.
New York – I feel profoundly saddened and outraged by the Chapel Hill shooting. My heart and prayers go to the beautiful, brilliant lives that the world lost and that have now returned to God. May Allah grant them peace and a dwelling of light. Surely we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return. I offer my sincere condolences to their families and friends.
The extreme bias and manipulative ways of mainstream American media are evident in the lack of coverage of this tragedy. One can vividly imagine the vast coverage a murder of three American non-Muslim students at the hands of a Muslim would obtain. We recently lived through such scenario with the international uproar over the Charlie Hebdo killings. No such thing in this case. In our morally decayed society, certain lives are more valuable than others. The lost lives of Westerners deserve overwhelming public attention and indignation; but the murders of extraordinary young Muslims do not merit the denouncement or expression of sympathy by powerful media. The media’s lack of reaction to this hate crime –because it was nothing other than a hate crime based on the victims’ religion, and the fact that this is even being debated is absurd– is reflective of the state of ethical and moral bankruptcy we are presently living in and that we must strive with all our might, and with God’s help, to change.
The world has suffered a terrible loss. These young students were a source of light in the world and were senselessly massacred because of their faith. These murders were likely influenced by the hatred that the media, Hollywood (think American Sniper) and other such industries, promote against Muslims. As Muslims, we must combat this by permanently tearing down the walls of inner division that are destroying us and causing the weakness that the Western powers exploit. We must urgently work on strengthening ourselves and stand united in order for things to change. There are approximately 1.7 billion Muslims worldwide: We have the power. But only through unity.
We need to encourage and support each other. We need to stand for each other and denounce these tragedies collectively. We need our own powerful media, our own powerful businesses, our influential writers and intellectuals, our bright professionals, such as the ones we lost today; we need to leave aside infighting and division amongst ourselves for good. We need to direct our energy to excelling as the Muslims of the past admirably did. We need to mold ourselves on the example of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who manifested the highest excellence of character. We must dedicate our time to making each of our lives a contribution.
We will succeed by fighting the traps of inferior motivations within us, not by fighting amongst ourselves but by working to destroy the laziness, nationalism, and corruption that drain our lives away. We need all the courage and discipline we can muster. We need to become fully empowered.
During the time of the Prophet (PBUH), the Muslim community achieved unprecedented levels of success, influence and power through unity. Muslims came together under the declaration of faith. Differing on other points was expected and accepted, but this, our simple but powerful shahada, united them. Today, we look for differences and many think their view is the one and only “real” Islam. Nationalism and inner divisions because of particular views on Islam are destroying us. This terrible state of discord causes disaster and, we must change this. As the Holy Quran teaches us, “God does not change people’s condition until they change their inner selves.” We must empower ourselves from within, standing strong and united and we will reclaim our power.
May Allah bless Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha and grant them an eternal dwelling of light and peace.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy
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