I feel quite melancholy. Not depressed, but dissapointed.
Dissapointed that Muslims, in their attempts to alienate themselves from negative publicity and affirm that their religion does not advocate violence, also end up alienating the families and people who are suspected of crimes, but have not been convicted. That people are brothers one day, and the next we seem to cut them off. That we claim to the be the people of the Quran, but seem to have forgotten the verse “Truly, they but follow their suspicions – but suspicion can never stand in the place of certainty” (Surat an Najm).
I feel dissapointed because, rather than our representative organizations going to the police en masse and demanding that these young men be treated fairly, justly, humanely – that they be allowed to meet with their lawyers and families, that the police stop leaking information to the media, that politicians stop commenting on a criminal case, thereby influencing public opinion – that instead the heads of our masajid and organizations make a show of going to the police and asking for help to root out extremists in our midst. The image of a conscientious crack addict comes to mind: We know we have a problem – please help us.
Happily, we speak out oh-so-often against terrorism – but I am left dissapointed as we refuse to speak out against state terrorism. The government is reviewing the constitutionality of security certificates that are anything but consitutional. Do we speak out about that? I haven’t heard anything yet. I don’t seem to have any emails alerting me to proceedings and demanding we take some sort of action. Perhaps, of course, I should be sending them. Perhaps, by writing this, I’m trying.
I am dissapointed that the only people who seem to be publicly willing to acknowledge that egregious wrongs have been done to these 17 people, though nothing has yet been proven against them, are their gora non-Muslim lawyers and gora non-Muslim reporters.
I am dissapointed because I read about some of these youths and I wonder if they’re innocent – we’re supposed to assume they’re innocent, but from much of the TV I’ve watched lately it seems most
people assume they’re guilty (quipped one lady on TV: “well, they wouldn’t have been arrested if they hadn’t done SOMETHING”… yet, so many others are, and have been, and will continue to be, it seems) - sitting in their cells. I wonder what its like. I wonder if they’ll get bail. I fear they won’t. I wonder how long before they’ll be given a trial – 4 years? 5? After the next election? I wonder. How the wife of the 21 year old feels, not having been able to speak to him thusfar. I’m 21, I think. I’m married. How would I feel? How would my wife feel?
I imagine I’m detained for having done nothing. That my computer has been searched, that my emails, phone calls, and activities are monitored. I don’t really mind if they are – I’ve done nothing that can be considered a criminal offense, I don’t plan on doing so, and I’m neither violent nor conspiratorial.
But, I think to myself, that it would be very easy to take many things I say and interpret them so that I am suddenly an arch fiend, a public nemesis looking for the right opportunity to strike. That if, as MSA President, I organize a paintballing trip in Edmonton, it is not inconceivable that I should be arrested and charged with training young men to conduct elite terrorist operations. This is the biggest evil that our government has done to us. That they make us afraid. Afraid to assosciate with one another, afraid to join our own organizations. Afraid to do things that other people don’t think twice about. Afraid, now, to buy some fertilizer for the garden. Basit, you live on a farm. Please, don’t cultivate anything this year my friend.
Afraid to own electronics. They say they found detonators. What is a detonator? Do they mean they found wires? What did they find? “detonators”. Israel used a cell phone to detonate a bomb used against Hamas a few years ago. Did they find cell phones? Are those the detonators? We don’t know – all we have are leaked words that paint a nebulous cloud of suspicion. Solution: Muslims should neither garden, farm, nor own electronics.
Afraid of contact. I contemplate, for a brief instant, erasing all of my emails, eliminating pictures of friends, loved ones, erasing all contacts. I wonder, looking at the National Muslim Melee around me, if, were I to be arrested, anyone from my faith would publicly support me. I fear they wouldn’t really speak out, except to say that Islam is against terrorism. I know that people would likely go and help my family privately, but they’d also be worried about bad press. This is what I think to myself looking at everything around me, and it makes me dissapointed, and perhaps somewhat confused.
“Take it all with a grain of salt. We know that police arrested people.
We know they seized some materials — all legal — that can be used to
make explosives. So far, we don’t know much else.”
Also, for those looking for direction:
“Narrated by Ali, may Allah be pleased with him: The Prophet, peace be upon him, said that a time would come when trials would befall like the part of darkest night. ‘What is the solution, O Prophet of Allah?’ I asked. ‘You must hold fast to The Book of Allah.’ ”
Allah the Almighty says “All of you are lost, except whom I guide, so call out unto Me, and I will guide you.”
