It takes a mother nearly ten months to create a human child. It takes so much love, patience and effort to care for the treasure developing in her womb. She becomes restless and exhausted in pregnancy while tolerating her daily life of work and struggles. She then goes through the most joyous and painful process of time to bring another life into the world. You can call it the disposition of human biology or the gift of divinity—but to a mother, that little treasure is forever her life.
The moment of birth has pain and blood and tears and joy—it’s like fireworks setting off inside the heart and mind. The mother becomes increasingly more restless and exhausted caring for the child day and night, while still managing to go about everything else a day has to offer.
The child thrives in the care of his or her parents under the warmth of their love. And then religious zealots walk into a classroom with guns and bombs and end that beautiful life in a matter of seconds because they are fighting for the love of their god. They wanted to “teach” people the price that must be paid when one either directly or indirectly associates themselves with the infidels.
Nearly 10 months. All that time and effort are violently put to waste in mere seconds by the entitlement of a group of men fighting for the delusion of wealth in the afterlife.
Senseless violence—why? God? Political contempt…? And it felt right to slaughter the most innocent of life to prove that point? The Taliban are as cowardly as an Islamist can get. They will murder children because they know they are transparent in their acts—for they will not be able to do the same as easily with adults who are armed and capable of defending themselves. So they do what Islamists do best—kill innocents for the sheer purpose of terrorizing the masses.
How many more schools must be destroyed and children lay murdered before Pakistan, and the rest of the world realize and acknowledge the trigger of such violence?
When religious tyrants murder children for god—it strikes a different kind of chord in the most decent of people. If the enragement and cries of mothers can truly curse these cowards that harmed and slaughtered children for the sake of tribalism—then I curse every last one of these men.
Only a mother knows how much her womb is burning [as if it had been set on fire] at the realization that the life she had nourished inside her own body and birthed had been threatened and/or murdered for the most incomprehensible of logics. The white hot rage swelling in a mother’s heart is felt by millions of mothers and fathers worldwide. Should that not be the common ground we must embrace for unity?
The children of Peshawar and every other life taken by religious fanatics; you will never be forgotten nor will the crime committed against you be forgiven.
What is innocence if not a child? And what is evil if not the one who murders such innocence?
Those who lack honesty [the usual suspects] will hide behind the banner of “Islamophobia” and will use the abhorrent act of violence against children to defend their religion first—so it is time they are held responsible for their apologies. They are the enabler of Islamist violence; they promote a culture of tolerance for bigotry. Without their solidarity for denialism of facts regarding an ideology—the Taliban and other Islamist groups [like ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, Boko Haram, Hamas etc.] would not have risen in popularity as far and wide as they did.
There is blood on an apologist’s hands unlike any other for they have rushed to defend an ideology at all cost [over human life] for well over a decade now. By continuously defining the acts of terror as mere response to modern foreign political interference while history is a testament that Islamist militants like the Taliban have been terrorizing the world in the same manner [long before the birth of the U.S. and Israel] have only resulted in the prolonging of the growth of Islamist sentimentality.
To claim “My heart goes out to the victims of Peshawar!” and following that statement with “Oh, look, there’s Islamophobia over Peshawar!” in the same breath is as repelling as an apologist can get. Wounds will keep bleeding and festering for as long as the apologia continues. But I know they won’t let that sway their dishonesty—not one bit—because history is a testament to that too. Narcissism before humanism!
Aki Muthali is a freelance writer, who's a feminist. Born and raised in Sri Lanka, she currently lives in Canada. She’s also an illustrator and a painter. Follow her on Twitter