Harda (Madhya Pradesh), Jan 15 : Nine people were arrested after a brawl over misbehaviour with a Muslim couple travelling on the Kushinagar Express on suspicion that they were carrying cow meat, police said on Friday.
Harda resident Mohammad Hussain and his wife Naseem Bano were returning home when a few people barged into the train compartment at Chhnera railway station in Khandwa district on Wednesday and began searching the passengers’ belongings.
These people claimed to be members of an organisation working for the protection of cows. They found packed meat from under a berth in the compartment.
Harda’s additional superintendent of police Kiranlata Kerkatta told IANS on Friday that a brawl ensued between the two sides after Hussain relatives arrived when the train reached Khirkia railway station.
The General Railway Police from Itarsi station arrested nine people from both the groups. A test later revealed the meat found in the train was of a buffalo.—IANS
Situations for Muslims of all ages, irrespective of their gender, age, country of origin is very similar to what the above post is describing.So, in lieu of my own writing, I submit below two responses. The first one is by a seventh grader, from the same town that Gerald Ford represented for more than two decades, and was elevated to be the president, when Nixon had to avoid/evade impeachment.Here it is:
Elsa Hossain, 12, grand daughter (nawasi)of Mohammad Hassan
7th grader, East Grand Rapids, MI, USA
13 January 2016
Feeling Like An Outsider
I have been trying to understand the madness happening around the world, thinking no one else would be as worried and mad as I would be, even though I could tell the people around me were falling apart, just as I was. It was on September 11, 2001 that things really changed for us, but mostly my mom, although she wasn’t in or near the World Trade Center, the event that day affected her, more than you can imagine. Being Muslim after and during 9/11 was and still is extremely difficult. It was even harder to be known as a Muslim if you wore a headscarf, which at that time my mom did. I remember asking my mom what people had done to her, and her answer was full of malicious and vivid stories I’ll never forget. Although I knew my time would come to face the hurt Muslims were getting, I didn’t know it was going to be right when I had feared the thought the most.
“Ring, ring.” The bell rang and it was time for me to go to 5th hour, which was Social Studies with Mrs. XYZ. Once I got up to her room, a wave of conversation hit me and I could already tell people were making assumptions. Great, just what I need, I thought. Then from there on the situation just got worse. I found my seat and sat in it with my stomach ready to flip over and die.
As I put my stuff down, Mrs. XTZ stated,“Okay class it’s time to watch CNN.”
“Even better,” I muttered under my breath.
As we got further into the news, Carl Azuz, the anchor for CNN Student News started to talk about the attack in Paris and ISIS. Just then I heard a voice come from the front of the room. It was that one kid who almost always had something to say and this time it was something I will never forget. He had yelled across the room that he would kill all of ISIS and that all Muslims are bad. By now my stomach had twisted into a knot and I felt like throwing up, and believe me that feeling is unforgettable. That day was just the beginning of my realization that talk about ISIS was about to spread everywhere.
As the days went by my pride in who I was got thinner and thinner, almost to nothing. All I wanted to be was invisible. A nobody to my surroundings, but all I was was that one person who everyone knows is different. Unfortunately I was surrounded with people who took my difference in a bad way. Although those people continued to say extremely offensive about Muslims, they made me think back to the day when I first figured out that ISIS had attacked Paris. It was also the day when I really grasped on to the whole “ISIS situation”, but I found that out the hard way by having to hear my worst nightmare. Despite the fact I was trying to fix all of the misconceptions happening, I still felt as though I was failing myself because no one around me understood what I was trying to say.
It was a normal evening at my house, the smell of spices tickling the inside of my nose and a hint of raw chicken. My dad and I were watching a soccer game and eating some popcorn.
“Dad why did you change the channel?” I whined to him.
“Elsa just listen there’s something-…”
“There was an attack in Paris, France and we don’t know who the suspects are,” the reporter of CNN had announced.
The moment he paused to take a breath, I looked over at my dad and through the corner of my eye I could see worry flooding his face. Then I knew something had gone terribly wrong. After I figured out that ISIS had probably set this attack up, which they did, I immediately felt anger rise in my body.
“Why don’t these people get that ISIS are crazy people and that Muslims have nothing to do with the violence that they are doing,” I moaned to the T.V.
Even though many of the people I saw in this experience put a negative effect on me, they taught me a lesson. I learned I can’t hide or stop the fact that there are going to be hard parts of my life to live through, but also that I have to move on from the bad parts in life because hiding does nothing. All in all, the strongest feeling that I felt in these hard times of my life, even though parts of this experience I felt I had none, was pride, pride in the person I am today, and most of all pride in being Muslim.
The other one is from an old friend of mine, originally, from Punjab. Pakistan, a chemical engineer, whom I requested to join MMNL, and help them financially. He wrote as follows.
Zahir Saheb
The prejudice, discrimination, hatred, pride are human qualities. Muslims have yet to create a well defined image. Currently there is no image. Majority of us just disappear in the crowd except women with hijab and men with unkempt beard and Arabic dress.
Muslims consider themselves as superior on religious or moral basis. However that goes only up to Sawm and Salat.
I have been trying to form a volunteer group to help young people and seniors. I am not getting any enthusiasm. On the other hand the cemetery project and masjids are getting full support.
I understand it very well. All of us have historical memory. We act or react based on what we heard during our childhood, what we read in books and what we listened in Juma khutba. The environment make human beings.
I am not very concerned about future of Muslims as long as there is a rule of law. I also believe that USA will not go back to slavery and discrimination of civil rights era.
However what is slavery? Just look at the people working in grocery stores, restaurants. They are like modern day slaves.
I have always raised my voice for the best education, high SAT scores, and the best universities. Whether Sawm or Salat people get it, I really do not know.
Nasim
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