As the US is gripped with days of unrest and protest, one has to finally come to terms with the fact that this happens when change is desperately needed. Change that is not easy to attain from those who yield power.
It is this same power that allows for injustices and murder until the masses can’t stay silent anymore, and then there’s no peace. A lack of peace usually brings about many different players out to the field.
Only a few bad apples have become violent; and they can steal the show and lead to the real message being lost. But you and I should be smart enough to distinguish between them and stay focused on the real issue at hand.
“The truth is that peace and justice are inseparable; you cannot have one without the other. Certainly, this principle is something that all wise and intelligent people understand. Leaving aside those people who are determined to create disorder in the world, no one can ever claim that in any society, country or even the entire world, that there can be disorder or a lack of peace where justice and fair dealing exist.” said His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad Khalifatul Masih V, worldwide leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, during a historic address at Capital Hill in 2012.
These are profound words that the Khalifa of Islam said for a reason. That we take heed & correct course. But it seems like we didn’t really grasp this until all that has unfolded between then and now.
One life lost is too many; yet we have continued to lose one innocent life after another, as if wearing a uniform is a license to murder recklessly.
In his last very notable sermon in 632 AD, the Holy Prophet of Islam said: “No person is above another by virtue of race or ethnicity.”
So you see that this is by no means a new idea, but a core idea that has been ordained by God himself, and a principal foundation of Islam.
Equal rights for all is not and should never be considered a privilege and even though our constitution was established during slavery, it would behove us to look at it in light of this principle and try our best to really unite the divided masses in the country. After all, we are called the United States of America.
Sabiha Ijaz
Los Altos Hills
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Milpitas
