An Indian Muslim

Dear Mr. Terrorist,

My name is Shoaib Daniyal. No, that won’t do. My name is Shoaib Mohammed Daniyal.

You say that they killed 130 people in Mumbai to avenge the maltreatment that people with names like Mohammed have faced in India.

Let me tell you something about my self. I did my schooling in Calcutta in one of the city’s finest schools—-La Martiniere for Boys. I completed my graduation in Electrical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra and am now employed with a premier business research firm in Gurgaon.

Maltreated? How?

If there was wide spread discrimination against Muslims as you claim how did these institutions take me in?

That’s not to say that India is perfect. To get a house in Gurgaon I had to lie about my religion. I claimed I was Christian, playing up the similarity between ‘Daniel’ and ‘Daniyal’. People would not let out their house to a person named Shoaib Mohammed Daniyal.

But for that will you kill 130 people. For that will you hold hundreds more hostage? For that will you destroy a city?

And even if you do, how will that help the Indian Muslim? Will people now let out their flats to me? Will future landlords now say, “Bravo! Terrorists destroyed Mumbai for you. Here are the keys to my flat. If you need anything, I’m at your beck and call.�

I don’t need scum like you to make my life better. If anything, your barbaric actions will make my life worse. Much worse.

The Indian Muslim doesn’t need people killing in his name. He needs reform. The community is one of the most backwards communities in India, a large part of the blame for which it will have to shoulder itself. Partition had already crippled the community, giving him that easy tag of a ‘foreigner’ in his very land of birth. Do you think the Indian Muslim now needs Pakistani terrorists to come in and create mayhem and anarchy in India?

People across India are angry, and justifiably so. And people who are angry often act irrationally. There are calls for tougher anti-terror laws—a demand that the Congress could stave off—till now. Our PM has already announced that his government will tighten existing laws. By carrying out this attack you have provided just the opening fundamentalists in our country needed. Who will stop the Right Wing now? The BJP has already taken out ads which read “Fight Terror. Vote BJP�. Rediff boards ring with calls for Modi as PM. And in a perverse sort of way, I agree. This government has totally failed to protect us from you.

So thanks for your concern, but no, thanks. If you want to blow yourself up and ascend to heaven please go and do it while destroying your own country.


Yours,
Shoaib Mohammed Daniyal