In the wake of the latest terrorist attacks in New York and New Jersey, Hasan Ali wrote an op-ed for Bustle on what it’s like to be a Muslim man “right now.” Here are some snippets from the powerful piece:
“… when I learned of the Chelsea bombings last Saturday, I was assaulted by a circling sense of familiarity. No matter how much we try to distance ourselves from these events, Muslims around the world cannot help but wonder why it is that this has continued to persist.”
“… you go to work thinking everyone’s looking at your face. When your colleagues start talking about it, you stare at your screen. You work with greater industry and keep your thoughts to yourself. You go home in a taxi because you don’t want to be seen. You get into your apartment and lock the door behind you. You curl up on the floor and begin to kick and scream.”
“… from the Irish Republican Army to the Puerto-Rican FALN, terrorism predates the current wave of Islamism, and will unfortunately succeed it with some other comparable menace. Violence is a sad part of the human condition…”
“…those of us who have any kind of connection with Islam — whether we believe in the theology or merely hold a cultural interest — must wrestle back the narrative from these murderous barbarians who do not care whose blood they spill, as long as they paint the town red with it. The Irish Nobel laureate W.B Yeats once wrote that “the best lack all conviction while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” But if we allow the worst among us to terrorize the world in our name and do not drown their bombs out with the values of peace and tolerance, we are just as impotent as they are full of evil.”
