Have you ever thought about what goes through each muslim's mind everytime their life, their dignity, their very existence, is challenged. Muslims who live knowing they might at any moment, be arrested for madeup charges of sedition or such.
#MuslimLivesMatter
#MuslimLivesMatter
Are they calculating the possibility of bail, or preparing themselves for a lifetime of lock-up? Do they find solace in the belief that those on the outside will rally for their release with posters and protests?
Is this what went through the minds of Sharjeel Imam, Kafeel Khan,Khalid Saifi, Chengiz Khan, Meeran Haider, and all the others?
As day by day the number of hashtags, each for a cause, keeps increasing, what do we tell ourselves?
As day by day the number of hashtags, each for a cause, keeps increasing, what do we tell ourselves?
That this is and has always been the fate of muslims, or that what's happening now is just a side-effect of the protests going on?
We're not the first to wonder why the majority of citizens jailed in India under false charges are Muslims and Dalits.
We're not the first to wonder why the majority of citizens jailed in India under false charges are Muslims and Dalits.
The truth is, it has been like this, for as long as this country has existed, the biggest 'democracy' in the world. Many loved ones are in jail. Even more are under constant surveillance or investigation.
Perhaps what awaits them is a lifetime of imprisonment. You see the muslim experience of imprisonment in india is a book that writes itself with no end in sight.
But in a country that treats us like the rotten apples at the bottom of the bucket, we must keep on protesting, we must charge ahead, against all odds
