Image of the 'Muslims'

“Yeah, I know. That area is not that good, quite a ­­­­Muslim population resides there you know.”

This is the general perception about the community that prevails amongst people. As much as I was taken aback by this statement, equally helpless I felt. I couldn’t argue with that person with whom I otherwise had limited, in fact, zero conversation. These are the sensitive issues that need to be addressed wisely.

But it left me with a thought that why do we tend to generalize things. More importantly - generalize people – amidst the screams of uniqueness. No two people can be exactly the same in every aspect.

Feeling disturbed on listening to such views, I went to another person with whom I could discuss the subject more openly. Who knew more such inputs were awaiting my query? Even that person went on to bash Muslims and their founder.

He supported his point in a blunt manner. “Does Kuraan preach to be violent to protect the religion?” was one of the debatable points. I denied it on the basis of the facts gathered through social media and he stressed upon the opposite confidently. I felt the need to double check my facts on Google. What I found was that Kuraan asks to take up arms in self-defence, it was said in a particular context and not generally. (which terrorist organisations failed to interpret correctly.)

No religion preaches violence, but it’s the preachers who defame it and mislead the followers.

Not on that serious mode, but people tend to confuse Muslims with Pakistanis and vice-versa for a moment (at least in this area), for unexplained reasons; then correcting themselves on immediately realising their mistake.

Writer’s Note: I didn’t intend this post to be centred on a particular community. I was going to talk about generalisations just ‘generally’. But now on looking back, I see that I diverted from that topic completely, thus putting that topic on the upcoming slate.

“While writing the rough draft of this post, I was so perplexed as to ‘Should I disclose the identity of the community I’m referring to?’ but I didn’t want anyone to be agitated on reading such views. But on trying to write it the other way, I felt this post had lost its sheen.”