#iwillnotapologize

I will not apologise for being a Muslim to a society that fails to understand that Muslims have been, and continue to be, the very first victims of the same terrorism they associate us with!

I will not apologise for the grief caused by a minority, a grief of which I hear about in every other home in my country. A grief that your media chooses not to talk about. I will not reassure your propagandized Western mentality about how they should feel a sense of security around me.

I will not apologise for the attacks that happened in Paris or even in the house next doors because I did not cause it. My religion shouldn’t be the deciding factor if and of what I am guilty of and why should it? Why should it so be that by default I am expected to feel a surge of guilt and remorse for something that I haven’t done, for something the rest of 1.57 billion of us haven’t done?

I will not apologise because I have never quite grasped the idea of blaming and punishing an entire stratum of people for the crimes caused by those who are their very murderers.

I will not apologise because no one outside of Islam has ever thought it would be their place to let me know how blameworthy and liable they were over the hundreds and thousands of people who die in my country every day as a result of terrorism.

I will not apologise because my apology will be taken as a validation to justify of what I am being accused of as a follower of my religion.

I will not apologise because the media in the West has normalised the suffering of my people to the point where they do not find the need to acknowledge it at all. Death toll has become a mere statistic and their agony has been belittled and reduced down to “they deserve it, they are Muslims”.

I will not apologise because no one has ever apologised to me for all the times I have been made to reconsider what I believe and have faith in.

I will not apologise for what has happened but I will empathise with its tragedy. I will remember and mourn the loss we share in this numbing humanity. And I will pray that people realise that what happened in Paris yesterday, is what Muslims go through everyday.