By Qudsia Bano

My eyes are still in shock and body is shivered to the core watching heinous killing act that have taken place in Pahalgam and since then facebook, Instagram, Threads, Tiktok and all the other social media apps are flooded with the content related to it. I am compelled to say that whatever happened should have not happened because killing the innocent regardless of sex, color or religion is a crime and an act of cowardness. No facts and figures or moral judgements allow me to see an innocent dying for whatever the cause or whoever is culprit. Indo Pak is segregated with the hate of Hindu Muslims and each other’s stability, and as I am watching a lot of my Indian friends being upset about the situation, lets just rewind a little bit and have a bird eye view of overall scenario.

The case here is not only Muslims hating Hindus or preferring to demolish them from very present world, but for general, when something happens to the people of one religion, the people from other religions find it exciting because the mindset we all have here is that “We are Right, every other religions follower are wrong”. It’s been quite a long history of Hindus and other religions teasing Muslims, whether in India or any other part of the world. But for now, we will on focus on India. In a most recent outlook, we see the Babri Mosque case, as many Muslims were affected by it and felt side-lined by political narratives and court judgments.

Moreover, according to a recent report by Ballard Brief a Research Library, Anti-Muslim hate speech in india rose by 62% in the second half of 2023, averaging almost one incident per day, according to Washington-based research. Ninety percent of religion-based hate crimes between 2009 and 2019 occurred after the BJP party took power in 2014, with hate speech increasing nearly 500% from 2014 to 2018. BJP-led states witness 80% of hate speech gatherings targeting Muslims, with communal violence claiming over 10,000 lives since 1950. Cow protection mobs, predominantly in BJP-governed states, caused at least 44 deaths and 280 injuries between 2015 and 2018. Recent violence, like the 2023 Nuh clashes, led to 7 deaths and over 70 injuries, highlighting ongoing tensions. Seventy-nine percent of Indian Muslims fear further violence and government persecution, hindering their economic and social participation. India's situation stands out globally due to its significant Muslim population and the severity of violence, prompting attention from organizations like the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

There are thousands of such events taking place every other day in india but I have not seen any Indian friend commenting over it or calling it “Hypocratic Act” and stuff like that. But if The Army Chief of one country, in his own setting speaks something like that, the whole indian media is standing outside the door to tell him how they are going to teach him lesson, and added to that, my question here is “why not my Indian friends intervene when any of such hate speech is raised against muslims in india” Are we all hypocrites here or we all are the puppets of our governments and their personal agendas?

In the end, this is not just about India or Pakistan, Hindus or Muslims this is about our collective humanity. If we continue to view each other through the lens of religion, nationalism, or political propaganda, we will keep losing innocent lives to senseless violence. The silence of the majority in the face of injustice is what allows hatred to thrive. It is high time we rise above our biases, call out atrocities regardless of who commits them, and become advocates of peace rather than pawns of polarisation. Only when we learn to see each other as human first, can we hope for a future where no child, man, or woman has to pay the price for being born into a faith they didn’t choose. Let us not be selective in our empathy—let us be united in our humanity.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)