My thoughts and the Garissa attack
On a Saturday afternoon earlier this year, I
was invited for lunch to a relative’s house in Westlands, Nairobi. I decided to
have my midday prayer at the Westland’s mosque before joining my relatives. At
the mosque, I noticed a Somali man to the right of where I was seated. He
certainly wasn’t the only Somali man in that mosque that day but the exact
reasons why I noticed his presence in the mosque is something I would probably
never find out. Later, while I was leaving the mosque, I saw the same guy squatting
next to a beggar – he was most likely helping the poor man.
Earlier, while leaving my house, my wife had
informed me of her younger sister’s colleagues who were joining us for lunch.
Unfortunately, since my appointment was a long standing one, I couldn’t cancel
it. I thus excused myself from the lunch being prepared for our guests. After
the meeting with my relatives, I rushed back home to at least meet with our guests
before they left.
Arriving at home, I was a bit surprised to
realize that one of our two guests happened to be the guy I saw in the mosque.
While my sister-in-law was introducing him to me, I told him about my seeing
him at the mosque earlier for the midday prayers. He acknowledged his presence
in the mosque but couldn’t remember seeing me. This gentleman’s name was
AbdiHamid. His friend, Dhugad, was also at the mosque, however, I couldn’t
remember seeing him.
Sadly, two Fridays later, my wife called me
from her office informing me of an Alshabaab attack at Mogadishu’s Central
Hotel and that AbdiHamid who was in that hotel was missing. Later, AbdiHamid’s
body was found. Incidentally, AbdiHamid was also attending Friday prayers at
the hotel. His being a Muslim was certainly not in doubt because I met him at
the mosque in Nairobi for Duhur, prayed Asr together at my place (the only
times I met him) and the last I heard of him, he was killed while leaving a
prayer hall.
The ones who killed him cannot certainly claim
to be more pious than him. To the contrary, I believe the ones who kill
innocent human beings are the filthy dogs that deserve to die a painful death.
They certainly couldn’t accuse him of being a kuffar for he was clearly a
Muslim. Probably, AbdiHamid’s only sin, in the eyes of his attackers, was the
fact that he worked for a western organization – as if that were an abhorrent
sin. Far from.
Ironically, the ones who killed him, used
weapons which were most likely to have been manufactured by non-Muslims. The
attackers had actually lived in the West and perhaps still have very close
relatives over there. I have always believed that what is good for the goose is
also good the gander. So, do we also look for the relatives of these attackers
in the West and “neutralize” them – to borrow a Kenyan security parlance – for
living in the West? I wouldn’t actually advise anyone to sink to the lowly
depths of the Shabaab dogs.
Be that as it maybe, the same filthy dogs
attacked my hometown of Garissa, yesterday. This time round, they separated the
Muslims from the non-Muslims and, in cold blood, murdered close to 150 innocent
people. The only crime these people seem to have committed was being
non-Mulims, as if that were a sin punishable by death during the noble
prophet’s time. So, the Muslims in Mogadishu deserve to be killed but the ones
in Garissa and Mandera deserve not to be killed? Well, I thought, an ideology
needed to be at least consistent for it to be believable. I have heard of other
cases where innocent civilians – even non-Muslims – were spared.
Unfortunately, from experience, many people who
do not overtly subscribe to this misguided ideology would silently rejoice at
what happened in Garissa. One such person, is a commenter on the Guardian’s
website who goes by the name of Darwishland. Sadly, to him, what happened in
Garissa would not have happened if the Kenyan army “did not invade Somalia”.
So, why exactly was AbdiHamid killed for he didn’t work for the invading army?
And, why should Kenya - for the better part of
half a century - bear the responsibility of housing hundreds of thousands of
Somali refugees within its borders and yet not have the right to pacify the
part of Somalia that borders it? Mark you, a good number of these refugees fled
from Somalia during the worst famine in decades that happened under the watch
of Alshabaab. It is common knowledge that whereas drought is a natural
phenomenon, famine is caused by political actions and Alshabaab was the entity
in control of the worst affected areas in southern Somalia, then. Thus they
should bear the greatest responsibility for causing that famine of 2011. Though
there were other reasons, this was one of the reasons why Kenya “invaded
Somalia”.
Unfortunately, our so called religious leaders
are responsible for the mess we are in at the moment. In the wake of the
Charlie Hebdo attack, I attended Friday prayers in one of the mosques in
Nairobi. As a Muslim – or so I think I am – I expected to be guided on what to
do when such things happen. Unfortunately, the only thing that happened was
condemnation of certain publications in Nairobi which ironically reminded me of
a satirical piece by Amin Amir where President Hassan Sheikh’ achievement were
noted to have been condemnation of everything that happened – that seemed to
have been the only good thing his government was good at.
While condemnation is one thing, the most
important thing that needs to be done by religious leaders is to guide the
naïve and impressionable youth (and all else as well) to first have the
attributes of a good human being even before becoming good Muslims. These needs
to be subjects of all Khutbas in all the mosque continuously. In the absence of
that, unfortunately, we will continue seeing people professing the Muslim faith
but somehow – overtly or covertly – believing that for them to be pious Muslims
they need to be horrible human beings that can’t socialize with people of other
faiths. It is as if being a good human being is somehow mutually exclusive to
being a good Muslim.
My condolences goes to the families of those
affected in yesterday’s barbaric attack. Those young boys and girls did not
have to die in such a beastly way. I
also pray for the quick recovery of the injured ones. May Allah also grant
AbdiHamid Janatul Firdows.