Qandeel Baloch

Before you read this I’d like for you to ask yourself a simple question. What kind of human are you?

If you see a poor stranger at 2am on a cold December night, shivering in pain as he’s just become a victim of hit-&-run – would you stop your car, walk out & do all that’s humanly possible to save this man.

Would you recall your mother’s wisdom & keep driving, knowing god exists & he will save the man. Knowing how stupid it is to get into someone else’s mess. And for all you know the human is an imposter.

On September 11, 2001, I watched live, on TV, as the second of the twin towers was pierced by a plane & then came crashing down. In the fifteen years since, I haven’t shed a tear for the dead. Paradoxically, I’ve celebrated 9/11 for the last 6 years. No, I didn’t get turned and hit it off with Al Qaeda - I fell in love with a girl, who happened to be born on 9/11. But, I digress. I haven’t shed a tear for the thousands of dead Kashmiris, millions dead in the holocaust, the Boston marathon dead, the Bastille Day dead, the Paris bombings dead, the Charlie Hebdo dead, the Dhaka dead, Qandeel Baloch dead & all those who are killed in the name of Almighty.

Before I proceed, here’s another digression. But, this one is warranted, almost indispensible.

I’ve been bleeding on paper for a decade. People often ask me why I don’t crack jokes or write inflammatory letters [articles] about Islam. Frankly, it wasn’t because I didn’t have anything funny or cutting to say about Islam, it’s just that I didn’t have the balls to voice my wise-cracks & caustic observations. But, I always knew a day will come when I will stop being a coward & bleed my heart without inhibition.

Today is that day.

Qandeel was honor-killed by her brother, now a hero - a soldier of Allah in the hearts of millions of people.

After she was asphyxiated, I scoured through youtube to find who she was. I found some videos. I’d rate them in three categories – bad, terrible, awful. People called her Pakistan’s Kim Kardashian. Now, I don’t think much of Kim, but Qandeel was worse & boring as a cow. If my sister put up videos like Qandeel, I will not say anything at all to her - my honor doesn't reside in her cleavage. But, if I were to say anything I will ask her to be authentic, less boring, and raise the stakes – go truly risqué.

No way on earth, I will be offended to strangle her in sleep. Yes, did you notice that he sedated her & then strangled her as she slept peacefully. By taking one glance at him, and at her, it’s easy to say that she would have floored him with one left-jab punch had this puny man tried to mess with her while she was conscious. Her brother is a superstar coward. And a coward is never a hero. And if your hero is a coward who kills his sister in her sleep, you've got a lot of thinking to do.

Wahhabi Islam states that music [playing or listening] sends you to hell, manipulates people into thinking killing infidels [all non-wahhabis] teleports them to sweet heaven, and annihilates women's liberty & reduces them to sex slaves. That’s where I draw the line. That’s evidence enough for me to say that Wahhabi Islam is bogus as flying dinosaurs. One can never be blasphemous to your religion, sir. Your religion, in your twisted humanly interpretation, is a blasphemy in its essence.

Islamic State {IS} claiming - Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel - the man who butchered hundreds of humans [including muslims & kids] their soldier makes me feel ashamed to be human. IS – are you so desperate that you’re calling a man – who beat his wife, abused booze, snorted drugs, committed repeated felonies, never read Quran, never prayed, never fasted during Ramzan a soldier of Allah. That’s proof that you’re cold broken humans, and you are closer to Hitler than God. And Allah is sending all you lost souls to Gold Class hell.

When fat oil rich Islamic countries such as Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia took in a massive total of zero refugees from the war torn Syria, Germany embraced 800 thousand within 2015. Yes, Germany, the ground zero of Hitler’s Holocaust. And guess what a small faction of the migrants did. They went around molesting and raping women on new year's eve. An ISIS inspired teenager went around stabbing people in a train in broad daylight. Another fatal shooting happened in a mall in Munich as I was writing this letter. Super way to payback a country that welcomed you with songs & celebrations. Of course the majority of the muslim migrants did nothing of that sort & have worked hard to earn their place. But, the destructive acts of a small bloc have destroyed the future of integration & John Lennon’s hopes of seeing the world as one are all but, smashed.

I’m not comfortable with how the West is reacting to this maddening bloodbath. They’re doing what they know – retaliate and fight the bad guys. How has that worked out so far? Pretty shit, one would say. Hey, all bigshot political leaders of all the fancy first world countries, think differently to what you’ve thought till date. Accept your own mistakes & introspect why things have come this far. And if your only option is to fight guns with bulldozers, then you’re merely fuelling further terrorism. Rather sit back & take a luxury vacation to the Bahamas instead. In fact don’t do anything if you can’t change the hearts of the cold broken humans. Everything else you’ll do is pointless.

I’ve met & observed thousands of muslims who will cringe & apologize if they hurt a microorganism, pray five times a day & don’t get offended when they see a girl in a mini-skirt. ‘None of my business,’ they say & walk on. Millions of muslims exist whose heart bleeds everytime they hear anyone being killed in the name of Allah.

But, one doesn’t need religion to do the right thing. Without exception, we all have a heart & it knows right from wrong. I’ve no religion – no god. All I've got is a promise that if you’re muslim [or follow any other majestic religion] & I’ve offended you, come get me.

And I promise to you that I will let you abuse me, hit me, or if you prefer, let you slit my throat with a rustic meat cleaver, without a shred of protest. In death, I’ll pray for your change of heart. And you can bet your ass that no matter what you do to me or my loved ones, I will never hate you. Nothing will make me hate you. My god – that’s my heart – doesn’t believe in hate or bitterness. And I won’t let you change that.

The only way I [or anyone] am going to hell is if I have hate flowing in my blood. For all those who’re bitter about something or hate somebody, you’re already in hell.

You don’t have to be.

Humans must stop trying to protect god, rather protect all that are living - humans, animals, trees, everything.

The poor stranger shivering in pain on a cold December night is all our human souls. The poor stranger about to die is all our hearts. May be for once we gotta stop listening to our mothers, stop believing in god, and start believing in goodness.