There seems to be no end to the brutal actions of Daesh and we continue to witness innocent people’s lives going to waste. In the most recent act of barbarism — the burning of the Jordanian pilot and beheading of the Japanese hostage left the whole world in silence. These people claim that they want to spread our religion, yet all they seem to accomplish is to tarnish the image of our peaceful religion, leaving us all to feel guilty and ashamed.
I woke up to #IamMuath trending, and I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that there is yet some humanity left in this world. It is interesting to note the fact that every uprising or tragedy that seems to be dividing people is in fact uniting people in the virtual world, by the use of hashtags. If we dig deeper in to it, and while it makes me happy that we can at least unite in commemoration of others, it saddens me that it takes a death to unite a world. Are we ever going to witness a time in which all of us, irrespective of colour, gender or nationality can stand together and ignore the differences? With the daily killings of innocent people, will we ever be able to move forward or will we be forever stuck in the past? If we can unite over a hashtag, why can we not unite in the real world? It is time that we all look past our differences and hold hands against violence, at least for the sake of Charlie or Muath.
— The reader is an Iraqi student based in Gothenburg, Sweden
