First, let’s be clear that I’m not looking for sympathy or even empathy. I’m just hoping and searching for realistic ways to enlighten those that can spark further intolerance.
You know the door locks of most apartments and condominiums? I’ve had a recurring nightmare about this type of lock, for well over 20 years, at least twice a month, every month. In my dream, everyone is either out or sleeping or somehow I’m just all alone. And somehow I hear a noise coming from behind the house door and see the lock about to open as if someone has the key and I walk over and try to close it against the other person. Look through the peep hole and sometimes I see the stranger but most of the times, it’s blocked view and I keep closing it. Everything is always incredibly quiet.
In my younger years this dream would take up practically the whole night and exhaust me. Sometimes the perpetrator would break the door open and I’d run up and down some stairs to escape but most of the times it was just about the door lock and a door. Nowadays, it still takes up that long, but I guess I control the dream a bit more and try to scream or call the police, but I think the fact that I try to control the direction of the dream actually exhausts me even further.
I pray and I’m thankful. I’ve reformed my life and am still in the process of it. This all stems back to when I was a young child living through the Iran and Iraq war. I go through life as a normal and actually a happy person but with one minor difference. I never feel safe or secure at home alone or most other places. I’m horrified of fireworks. I don’t and furthermore can’t watch war movies or most action or horror movies and avoid the news as much as possible. All they do is cause my blood to boil and bring on more nightmares.
I’m sure I’m not the only one like this and I’m also sure there are people who are just fine or even forgotten their traumatic experiences. Either way, if you haven’t personally lived through a war, you’ll probably never understand it to this level. That’s not to make you feel inferior or superior but to actually say that you are amongst a different set of people. Wars are and will always be presented as patriotic, as acts of defense while we all know that’s just pure crap and it’s all politics and worse intolerance of others. And even worse a way for super-powers to manipulate impressionable, money driven and intolerant countries to go to war against their imagined enemies.
That’s why it pains me to see Muslims enrage further intolerance and ignorance between the different religions and sects of Islam. Be it against Ahmadis, Shias, Sunnis, Ismaelis. Whether or not you like it, they’re all Muslim and I pray that all preach and practice peace and tolerance and stop judging others and strive towards Allah and work on improving themselves. Allah will judge how good of Muslims they are, we don’t have such rights.
So before another war starts, I’d love to make such people think to themselves. What are they so afraid of? Why do they feel threatened that someone is another sect or has varying beliefs? How does that affect their lives? Is it worth their families and future generations suffering at their own hands? Do they really think Allah would forgive them for such crimes?
So to all the ones who actually don’t feel the way most of the intolerant ones do, how do we stop intolerance and ignorance amongst everyone? How do we make people see that hatred feeds on hatred and it breeds more hatred AND this is not how anyone should behave?
Wasalam.
