An incredible piece of poetry about the tribulations of being a certain shade of brown in the wake of 9/11 in NYC.

A friend was on the train near King’s Cross when the bomb exploded. Fortunately, she escaped with only a few cuts and bruises. I breathed a sigh of relief when other friends replied to let me know that they were safe and well.

My condolences for the people who lost their loved ones. After the initial shock, what crossed my mind was that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. While they grief, remember that their pain is no less nor no greater than the pain of the people who lost their loved ones in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. The lives of the civilians in London and New York are no more and no less precious than the lives of the civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.

If Bush and Blair thought that bombing Afghanistan in the man hunt for Osama would put a stop to terrorism, now is a good time for them to rethink their strategy. Let us not forget that after all the bombings, Osama & Co. were nowhere to be found.

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I’ve seen enough articles since 9/11 about how Islam is a religion of peace – even the word Islam comes from the root work “salaam” which means peace. I’m not going to repeat what other people have written. I’m not sure if those articles made any difference. Regardless of how Muslims try to explain that Islam is not a religion that promotes violence, all that falls on deaf ears.

Since 9/11, Muslims world over have been put on the defensive. They desperately try to defend their faith from being labelled as one that promotes hatred and violence. I was one of them, but I had since taken a step back to reflect and I no longer see why I should have to defend my faith. I know for a fact that Islam is a religion of peace. Why should the whole Muslim ummah (a population of more than one billion people on planet earth) be made to feel guilty for the action of a few wackoes who just happened to be Muslims?

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