Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Religion and Us

Today, in office, for the first time i was on the receiving end of a religious biasedness. No, there were no open abuses, no fiery arguments, just a cold reaction from some of my colleagues on getting to know my religion..
They thought i wouldn't hear the hushed up voices of astonishment, and the news being spread slowly that i am a Muslim. One of them exclaimed in a different context that "Parsi community has very few people left, so they are no longer a threat to our country, unlike other religions"!!
Can u imagine that!
What shocked me was that i did not expect this, atleast from the educated people around me. I mean does it really matter what religion i belong to? Does it make me a lesser human being if i am a Muslim?
Spoke to dad about this, and he told me, this is a part of life and things will get worse now, better get used to this!
Why should i bear the cost of the actions of few lunatics? The thought that i just spoke to a Hindu/Christian/Sikh/Buddhist/Parsee never crosses my mind, why does it cross the minds of others around me?
Islam does not teach hatred, and what angers me, is the gross mis-interpretation, people who don't even know two words about Islam, abusing it, left right and centre..
The day the people in this country grow beyond religion, race, case, sex, creed, we will be truly a free nation...

I wonder when that day will come...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Saima, Came here after seeing your comment on 'No Gender Inequality'. Thank you.

Now coming to your post, it is sad to see that even educated people behave this way and are bigoted. That is why it is easier for our politicians to still play the caste and religion card and sway the votes. All political parties use this mentality.

It is high time we learn that humanity comes above religion. Something which was found to keep people united and teach a certain discipline in life is now being used to spread hatred. Sometimes I wish we didn’t have any barriers like religion and caste.

saima said...

well..if wishes were horses beggars would fly on them!
Sadly, these issues form a very integral part of our society and actually one cannot escape from them.
What really disturbed me was when i was almost convinced that our generation is beyond all the biasedness, be it of religion, cast, sex, this incident occurred. i was sure that these things don't matter now to Us and that we have grown up beyond the pettyness, and are ready to take a step forward towards progress, i have realised that there are still miles and miles to go...

Ye manzilen !! said...

Your dad saying "get used to it" is not very encouraging. This is what his gen did and they "Got" used to it.

We need to change things for the better so that 25 years down the road no father says " get used to it"...

Thats all...

saima said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
saima said...

no one says anything directly, they all talk in hushed voices. I can change my perception, you too can,or maybe ten more people. But these things take time. Nothing happens overnight. these prejudices were present when my father was job hunting, these things are still happening when i have started job hunting, maybe lesser in number, but they do.
as i said before, there are still miles to go...

J Store said...

SEE THE PATTERN

(First)Religion - Hindu or Muslim
(Second)Caste - Brahmin or Shudra
(Third)Region - North Indian or South Indian

SIMILARLY

(First) - Muslim or Hindu
(Second) - Shia or Sunni
(Third) - Pakistani or Muhajir

IT IS NOT ONLY ABOUT RELIGION

DO WHAT YOU WANT YOU WILL ALWAYS BE DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS

KNOW WHAT HOLD ON TO THAT AND PROUD OF WHO YOU ARE.

IGNORE OTHERS

Anonymous said...

Assalamualaikum sis!
hi im hal786#
inshallah u can go on my blog too comment there i hope u like!!
about that 'day' the time of peace well actually -u might know this i dunno- in Islam we believe that u no we have like signs of day of judgement..alotta minor signs have already happened but of the major signs theres like isa/jesus returning to earth and killing the dajjal/anti-christ and about the imam mahdi coming too!and in imama mahdi's rule it'll be total peace!!i know its hard to imagine but its said something like even if there was only one day left till the end of the world Allah will make it that Imam Mahdi will rule for that one day--well something along thse lines lol

basicaly they say that his rules for about 7-9 yrs or sumthin and at first ppl will ask for money etc from him and they'll get and as time goes on ppl will have so much and one day will come that they think oh we dont even need anything lese cuz everyone will live in happiness inshallah, and all be equal and proper peace in the world and everyone will have all the money they need too(the money bit sound soo hard to imagine but thats the beatuy of islam init?)

aww just imagine that a time in the world everyones at peace and have so much they dont even need any more money wow!!!
mashallah, subhanallah!!!
but before that Muslims are going to go thru alotta hard times so we need to be strong and believe in islam and pray for those who will be alive at the time of the dajjal!! they will be tested soo much.

and inshallah take care sis#

congrats on ur exams thing ..and aww those baby pics r soo cute mashallah!!lol

nd be sure to c my blod 2!!

salam
hal786

saima said...

thank you Jayant and hal786!