RC Muslims: Don’t Go Quiet
Dear all, Salam Alekom,
The recent events in France have been heartbreaking, scary, and infuriating for me. I am outraged at the depths of the effects of oppression on all of us. I am outraged at the brutality and horrors of colonization and racism and how they’ve damaged both the colonized and the colonizer.
I am also encouraged and hopeful. Our humanness continues to show itself in such hard times. I am moved by the courageous and kind stands that so many people have taken in the face of so much hurt and confusion.
I love Muslim people. I love every one of us. I know how good every one of us is and how much we want to set the world right. Each one of us is good to our core. We are intelligent and loving people. In the face of much hurt, we have always done our best.
All of us are vulnerable to the outrageous messages about Muslims circulated over the last many decades and especially during the recent period. A good many of us who live in Western capitalist nations that have waged wars against Muslims are scared. Internalized oppression makes us want to be invisible as Muslims and go quiet with our feelings and thinking, to not attract further attacks. We are also scared (for good reason) that especially during these times of crisis we are more watched and scrutinized by surveillance systems. We don’t talk on the phone and are careful about what we write on social media or even on RC lists.
I encourage all Muslims in RC to not go quiet. Have at least one session about the recent events. How do you feel about them? What is it like for you as a Muslim where you live in the aftermath of these events? I want us to discharge the hurts so that we can be clearer and clearer about our own goodness and what we think. I would like our allies to reach out to us proactively and listen to us.
Azi Khalili
International Liberation Reference Person for South,
Central, and West Asian-Heritage People
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion lists
for leaders of Asians; for leaders of South, Central,
and West Asians; and for RC Community members
1 Salam Alekom means “peace to you” in Arabic and is a traditional greeting among Muslims.
2 On January 7, 2015, in Paris, France, two Islamic militants killed twelve people in the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had published a number of disrespectful cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. In the following two days, another Islamic militant killed five more people in Paris, including four whom he had taken hostage in a kosher supermarket.
3 “A good many of us” means a large number of us.