Bismillahi rahmanir rahim, in the name of Allah, the most gracious, the merciful.
I'm going to be honest here, on Sept. 12, the day after the riots broke out in Libya and Egypt over the YouTube film "Innocence of Muslims," I was pretty happy to be a white guy.
I converted to Islam about eight months ago, if my math serves me correctly, and while I may feel a slight annoyance at the funny feeling toward Muslims in the U.S. lately, I never actually appreciated my ability to hide my faith behind my ethnicity.
When the violent protests in Libya led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, I felt a mix of emotions. First was the absolute sadness at the death of someone who had nothing to do with the disgusting film that was causing all of this. Second was the shame I felt because of the people who called themselves Muslims. They had killed an innocent person, an ambassador, 10 of their fellow Libyans and added another dark smear onto the name of Islam. Third was some relief I felt to be able to hide behind my race and stay hidden from the accusations of Islam being a violent and evil religion.
Now, two weeks later, the protests that took the life of Stevens still rage on. While there may be some bright spots, two days ago Libyans stormed the stronghold of the people responsible for inciting the riot that killed him, there is still this cloud hanging over the heads of Muslims.
I'm not saying that cloud is not partially justifiable. Riots continue and the maker of the film has had a bounty put on his head by an extremist cleric. But, allow me to say this, all of these things go against the religion of Islam.
Our Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings be upon him, was mocked constantly during his lifetime but yet never responded with violence, and the Quran states that patience and piousness is the correct action in situations such as these.
The fact that these extremists believe that they are honoring the prophet by doing these things is, in my opinion, more insulting than the YouTube video. At least the maker of this video can claim ignorance of the religion.
To be fair though, I don't believe these protests are about the video alone. According to the majority of the reports I've seen from people on the scenes of such protests, religion is seldom mentioned at this point and many protestors are screaming about economic and social issues within their own countries.
At any rate, why should anyone care? Why am I writing this over two weeks after the fact?
Let me praise the students at Ball State and say that I have never felt oppressed or harassed here, even with the current state of events. I will say there was a tense atmosphere in my political science class on Sept. 12 but other than that I can not really complain.
But, with these events still raging on I feel like there is a need to address this issue.
The Daily News has done little to no coverage on this matter - I'm not complaining, I work here after all - but I simply felt that it was just a time to say something. And with the Muslim Student Association holding a forum to talk about this whole issue, I felt like this was as good a time as any.
The fact of the matter is that this whole thing is an injustice. The YouTube video, the violence, the deaths, the riots, the backlash against Muslims in the U.S. and around the world, it's all an injustice. And, as a Muslim, I am obligated to speak out against injustices.
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