Only We Can Fight For Peace

Religious Discrimination

I know that whenever I mention religious discrimination, some people instantly tense up.

And sometimes even I feel instantly guilty because I remember times when I was younger, and I hadn't understood religious discrimination. Sure, I've never intentionally wanted someone to feel bad for their beliefs or hate themselves for it, but even if I was pretty young then (7 to 9 years old). I have once discriminated without realising it. 

Let me tell you the story of 8 or 9-year-old me:

When I was younger, I lived in Austria, and during that time, Austria experienced their first ISIS attack. It was so bad I remembered people spreading rumours that they were even writing the government letters. And, as a young child, I would be pretty alert and scared. And as we all know, the news loves propaganda, so every time these things happened, they'd find the need to mention the fact that they were doing evil because of the Islamic belief ( ISIS don't really follow it, but they still call themselves Muslims.) However, during that time, I thought ISIS were simply bad Muslims, and the Muslims I knew were good. Anyways I had a misunderstanding with my friend at that time (I can't remember what it was), but I knew I wanted to make her feel bad for whatever she's done, but I was a pretty sensitive kid. I didn't know how to handle things, and hurting people was hard, so I always tried doing it indirectly. 

I knew this my friend was Muslim, and directly I never saw her as a threat because of it or associated her with any of those things; however, because I was acting stupid, I felt the need to tell her I was scared of (some) Muslims (Which I wasn't really) knowing entirely well she was one. And I think I expected her to say something or hurt me or something I don't know, but just as I was about to act like what I said wasn't bad, she just chewed her lip, gave me a sad smile and looked down. And that was all it took for my heart to lay heavy. I remember it hurting, and whenever I remember, I still feel bad, so I decided to rephrase my sentence. 

I remember saying, "No, no. I don't mean it like that. I like you and your family, and you're good Muslims, and I like other good Muslims. Not all Muslims are like that. I don't like the bad ones that do that.", in my german baby voice.  And even if I didn't know what racism or religious discrimination was, I felt like that was the day I realised two types of the mean.

Just being a mean person and trying to make someone feel bad.

And being mean by trying to blame someone for something they can't control.

And just like that, all the hurt that she would've had to live with and the guilt that I'd have to keep dissolved like that. We've all said religiously or racially insensitive things; however, instead of running away from them, stop and think and look into that boy or girl and put yourself in their shoes. This girl beamed, and we played on the swing how little kids would do. Just imagine how this girl would have grown up thinking that she should be ashamed of her belief but because I looked at her face and changed it, I believe she can live on, and I hope no one will hurt her because of her belief because her belief is terrific.

Some of you may think, "She was just 7. It probably doesn't mean anything".There's only one thing I've got to say to that, they're some things I experienced when I was seven, and up till this day, I still live with it.

Watch out for part two. 

LOL, I'm sorry this story took a while.