By Nasreen Habib
It was ‘Latin Night’ at popular nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida. 20-year-old Luis Velma who operated the Harry Potter ride at Universal was there, having a good time on a weekend like many of us. But what turned a regular Saturday night into a terrifying one was the presence of Omar Mateen, who in the deadliest mass shootout in America, gunned down 50 people and injured 53 others. It was also the month of Ramzan, where many Muslims around the world fast from sun-up to sun-down, a time for self-reflection and rejuvenation. America was also celebrating a month of gay pride, but one in which unfortunately the community was the target of a deadly attack.
Mass shootings are not a rarity in America, thanks to the rampant gun culture. Where else does a third of the population own a gun? The gun industry, whose annual revenue amounts to around 13.5 billion dollars enjoys substantial political clout. Presidential candidate Donald Trump in one of his election rallies impressed audiences with a simple logic, the best way to stop terrorism is to arm all the ‘good’ guys with arms all around. Effectively, the ‘right to a gun’ is the most important one of all in America. Now, after the shootout, Americans might go on a gun buying spree like they did after the San Bernardino shootout, assuming that more guns and not less is the answer to the solution. National Gun Victims Action Council, a voluntary organisation, conducted simulation experiments that showed inexperienced gun users more often than not shoot innocent people or get shot by the criminal or even by the police. But thanks to fanaticism of a different sort, Christian fanaticism in the face of Islamic threats, all caution will be thrown to the wind.
A 38-year-old Indian-American Mainak Sarkar had a PhD in mechanical engineering from UCLA. In a shocking incident, he first killed ex-wife Ashley Hasti at her home and then his former professor William Klug at his work before taking his own life. Now, consider this: If Mainak was in India instead of America where buying a gun is as easy as getting popcorn from a store, would the unfortunate incident still have taken place? We may never know for sure, but a gun in the hand of a disturbed person is a recipe for disaster. Only, it is highly avoidable.
The 29-year-old Omar Mateen was a New York born resident with parents of Afghan descent. According to reports, he had never been directly involved with the Islamic State though he did owe allegiance to it. When asked by investigators about a possible motive, Mateen’s father’s reply was simple, ‘It had nothing to do with religion’. I only wish this was true. Instead of asserting over and over again that no religion in the world teaches us to hate one another, we need to understand why so much hatred is being propagated in the world in the name of religion. Both Islam and Christianity do not support homosexuality and see it as a sin is the dominant refrain. Does this effectively mean that we can’t be religious and yet more accepting of other identities? I sure hope not! For religion too is not unequivocally one thing, and is open to a multiple interpretations. And, if we are condemned to only be allowed to adhere to one dominant narrative, then we need to rethink religion altogether. I am not being radical here, just practical.
All of us live in multi-ethnic societies with people of all religious beliefs and sexual orientations; can we really co-exist together without respect for each other? Religious leaders wield a lot of influence and can do a world of good in today’s high pressure lives; why are they then advocating violence against homosexuals or anyone for that matter? Why are they not talking about inclusiveness, empowering women and other pressing issues? It has been reported that Mateen was influenced by an imam of a local mosque who advocated ‘death threat’ to all homosexuals. The Westboro Baptist Church was no less vitriolic, a message on its twitter handle read ‘God sent the shooter’. More than religion itself, we need to be wary of its ‘interpreters’.
Liberal spaces are shrinking as absurd justifications about what the Holy Books say or doesn’t say are widely debated. We have forgotten to assert that humanity is the most important religion of all. Let’s not justify killings in the name of God; we need to stand against both Islamophobia and homophobia. Replacing one evil with another is no solution. If we truly want a saner world to live in, we need to gather in solidarity and emphasize time and again that the rights of minorities, religious or otherwise, are important. The right to dissent and to hold views that are not in accordance with the popular narrative are welcome, even necessary in democratic societies. We might hold the morally superior view that American gun culture is the real culprit, the truth is: it is easier to criticize them. It is much more difficult to look inwards.