Pahalgam
A masked religious hate crime.
Picture this.
You are 31 years old. Decades of hard work had finally levelled. Your business is thriving. To top it all of, you have gotten married as well. You are ambitious, innovative and now you are finally satisfied. You are the ideal, the aspiration, and the summit of most men.
But you made an error. The singular flaw in your judgement. The sole error of your conviction.
You were born a Hindu man.
This was the reason Shubham Dwivedi was killed. Not as vengeance for the content of his character. Not of envy for the successes in his journey. But the resentment of his faith.
He was shot at point blank range. In front of his newly wed wife. A man with a future. A man poised for success. After years spent mastering his craft in the cement business, building something solid, something lasting. All of it. Eviscerated in one moment.
Not because God condemned him. But because the depravity of man had finally caught up with the righteous.
The world may claim that this act of terrorism was political and not religious but the Phalagam terrorists singled out non-Muslim tourists. The were asked to recite Islamic verses. This was deliberate. This was a hate crime against one’s right to religious identity.
He was thirty-one years old. He could have been your brother. He could have been your friend. Every single victim of the attack could have been family. The world should not look at this as another piece of news. Not as another headline unresolved. The gravity of these crimes are immeasurable.
Surah Al-Ma'idah
"Whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption done in the land—it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one—it is as if he had saved mankind entirely."
28 people and counting. These were not people who were corrupters of land. These were fucking tourists.
How can anyone claim to take a life in the name of a faith that explicitly condemns murder? How can someone twist the teachings of a religion that advocates peace, compassion, and respect for life, only to justify violence and bloodshed? They are neither true Muslims nor true men.
What kind of coward raises a gun against an unarmed man, believing that murder will somehow justify his hatred for a political system? A man who hides behind a weapon is not a warrior. He is nothing but afraid. Afraid of dialogue, of compassion, of the courage it takes to pursue peace.
Religion is not to blame. Islam is beautiful. Hinduism is beautiful. Their core values like those of every great faith are rooted in peace, compassion, and the sacredness of life. It is not faith that fails us, but those who corrupt it to serve their own darkness. Men who lie behind the façade of religious immorality.
Behind the veil of religious justice lies nothing but violence, masked as vengeance for a crime never committed. The tyranny of evil men continues to cast its shadow over this nation, perpetuating suffering under the guise of righteousness. The existence of human beings like this were a misstep in evolution. Nature’s one fallacy.