The Tree of Terrorism and the Peshawar Attack - An Introspection.

16th of September, 2014. I would try to distract the mind for a while. I would look outside the ambulance window. On my way to the hospital with a sinking heart, I saw how indifferent and normal the life outside this vehicle was. It was hard to decide; the burns hurt more or the realisation of the pain of children burned in the air strikes in Gaza and the ones burned, torn and ripped apart in the drone attacks in Pakistan or the fear of hospital staff at the Burn Centre who looked like butchers to me. This happened every time I was on my way to the hospital to get my skin drafted. But at least my pain was acknowledged. I was getting doctors to attend to me. Those children end up falling among a long list of 'casualties'. This made my pain look smaller to me.

Two months from the accident, last week, I feel like I was burned again. 16th of December 2014; For two days, everything around me was going round and round. I relived that painful realisation. Everyone was hurt. People changing their profile picture to black, organised candle light vigils and Qur'an Khuwanis. Government resolved to take action against the 'extremists' and 'terrorists', suddenly started targeting and killing them successfully. It has become normal to listen to news casters telling the number of terrorists killed and arrested and the explosives that have been recovered. I wonder how did it suddenly become so easy? A not ending dread, hatred and lament for 'mullahs' commenced especially on the social media. People protested that this bunch of people spread hatred and should be hanged. They are a cause of extremism and terrorism. This resulted in the arrest of some of them.

Why did it hurt so much when kids dying such a brutal death is a norm today? This is because this time we had accounts. Those children were not just the ordinary children. They came from families of the officials in defence. We saw them, we heard them.

 For me also the lexicon was disturbing -- 'Religious extremism', 'jihadists killing innocents' etc. How to make semantics out of it? These are oxymorons!

Ignorance is one of the problems here.

There are those who want to kill kill and kill. Perhaps it gives them a sense of achievement to give it a religious colour. They can justify it by quoting the scriptures. Whatever their understanding of it, I Learnt only peace from where they claim to have learned heinous crimes from. Qur'an says:

"Killing an innocent is as if you've killed the entire humanity"

Second are those who want political interests to be met. Even if takes creating more and supporting these killers in every way possible. On the other hand, there are the ones who couldn't find anything else as a profession so they became community's religious leaders or imams. And here we are, too good at 'fighting' terrorism by abusing mullahs on our twitter and social media. Abuse of any kind is an indicator of poverty -moral and ethical. The plant of terrorism which has almost become a tree, feeds on our ignorance. Sectarian violence is a stem of the same tree. Until we study the Qur'an and understand it, someone else will come and plant more trees of unrest and terror to be fed. They say:

"Knowledge is a sea, ignorance an ocean"

I believe, in times to come, more trees will be planted upon this ignorance. So we better get to understand our religion and look at the ocean of ignorance in the eye. Rather than saying things like 'religion is an opium' etc. Because, in the long term, no matter how many operations we launch, until the very ideas are not uprooted, this won't end. 

May the sweet souls rest in peace and the families be blessed with patience to cope with the great loss. Ameen.