Orlando Killing: Muslim Community Will Have To Do More To Build Trust

Muhammad Ali passed away recently and his funeral was attended by personalities including Mike Tyson, Will Smith and former president Bill Clinton among others. Billy Crystal (a Jew whom Muhammad Ali used to call his ‘little brother’) paid a fine tribute as to how Muhammad Ali made this world is a better place. It looked like the fissures were drawing close, trust between communities was getting better until Orlando happened, where 50 people were killed in a brutal assault. The suspect, an Afghani man who is as a citizen of the US unleashed his gun on innocent people, killing 50 people in the club. No condemnation can soften the pain of the victims loss. What more? The anti – Muslim rhetoric has surfaced again with new vigour and Donald Trump’s views about banning Muslims has received a new thumbs up, thanks to the terrorist.

Condemning ISIS
Condemnation of ISIS by people, from all communities, from different countries, by about 170 imams from different countries, all have done very little in preventing generalization of ISIS with mainstream Islam and Muslims. The Orlando mishap has added fuel to the fire, the distrust has increased, generalization has widened. The Muslim community’s trust factor with other communities have fallen to an all-time low. But such distrusts between communities are not first, wounds have healed, trust have been built and communities have prospered together.

Muslim’s task is cut out
The Muslim community has a dual challenge now, 1. They have to be louder and more vocal in their condemnation of ISIS and the onus is on them to dissociate ISIS from mainstream Islam through their condemnation. 2. The widening trust deficit among other community members specially the lot who continue to view ISIS as a subset of mainstream Islam. Muslim community have the task to cut out, they will have to take the extra step and raise the voice to an extra decibel level to send out a message that delineates ISIS from Islam and terror from religion.

The Logical Indian’s thoughts and prayers goes to the relatives, friends and families of the people who lost their lives due in Orlando. We hope they will find the strength to recover from the losses. We request different communities to stand shoulder-to-shoulder unified against terrorism and ISIS and not let the terrorists stand in way of peace loving people of all faiths.