The Whatsapp message that came to me was from a phone number of an Indian in America, it said, ‘Terror has no religion’. However it was not making a statement, it was mocking a particular religious community, with statistics and data that had sarcasm dripping from the pen of the writer.
After sending it to a group which had a sizable number of members from the same community he’d attacked, he then sent another message saying, ‘Sorry wrong group!’
Clever tactic by someone who wanted to get a point across, then say, ‘I didn’t mean it for you!’
I looked at his message, and pondered over why he’d sent it.
I had seen the fellow, an inconsequential, insignificant fellow of little or no importance: Therein lay the problem; therein lies the problem.
These are men and sometimes women, who have no confidence in themselves, highly insecure, and instead of trying to pull themselves up by their britches, to use an old English term, they use every means possible to pull others down.
Unfortunately for them, being weak, and having to deal with stronger people around, they use the easiest weapon available, one they know they can get away with: Either language or religion.
‘Look!’ they shout, ‘he’s speaking in English, but this is Maharashtra!’
Or “Hey, he’ wearing a turban, be careful of him!’
Many fall prey to this clever weapon.
Most politicians use it well and to advantage. When they want to divide a vote bank and get votes for themselves, they draw on the religion/ language card and like sheep, voters forget reason and follow.
It is time all of us learn to avoid this trap. And for this we need to understand that the person who’s language we don’t understand, who’s religion we don’t follow, still has a mouth, a nose, two ears and a tongue like ours that can wag, thirteen to a dozen. He’s as human as you and I are.
There’s this story of a man who’d camped in a desert. As he looked out into the darkness of the night, he beheld a monster. The monster walked closer and closer to him, and the light from his lamp made the monster look even more monstrous in the sands.
The man unsheathed his sword and ran to the figure, and suddenly realized what he’d been looking at was the gigantic shadow of a man. He ran closer, peered hesitantly at the face, and found it was his brother!
When you get messages hitting out at a particular religion or lingual community, look closer, recognize it is an attack on a brother: Then find the real monster, most often an inconsequential, insignificant fellow of little or no importance: Attack that monster..!
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ENROLL…
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
Yes often forwards are blindly shared ahead without verifying facts It is so important to stop, think, crosscheck and only then share, or not share, esp on sensitive issues We should apply the triple filter test and then we won’t go wrong
What’s worse is gossiping about a dead man without evidence of the wild, false (possibly)accusations and not introspecting if it’s out of jealousy the slandering is snowballing. It’s useful only when good news is repeated. If it’s true, useful and good, we can spread information.It’s a blessing.