I am a non-Arab Muslim

I am a Muslim. A proud Muslim. But I am not Arab. I represent the entire non-Arab Muslim Ummah (community). I am the ‘black’ Muslim of Zanzibar. I am the ‘brown’ Muslim of Indian sub-continent which is the largest congregation of Muslims in the world. I provide the largest population base as well as intellectual leadership to Islam. I am home to greatest scholars and volunteers of Islam.

And yes I am indeed proud of who I am. A Muslim. Worshipper of Allah and his great last Prophet Muhammad. I live for Islam. I shall die for Islam. I have laid my life for Islam. I can even take life for Islam.

I was not always a Muslim. Some 1400 years ago, I was just a human being. My forefathers had been following Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. In the Indian subcontinent, I had been following Hinduism – the oldest religion of humankind. I had been doing so for generations since time immemorial. If human civilization is 10,000 years old, I was Hindu for 10,000 years. If it is 100,000 years old, I was Hindu for 100,000 years. If it is 1.97 billion years old, I was Hindu for 1.97 billion years.

But then something changed. And I rejected what I was following for thousands/millions/billions of years! The change was not easy. It is difficult to change habits of only a few years. And here, I was changing my very lifeline since inception of humanity!!

The change was a tough one. But I went for it despite enormous challenges and sacrifices. For this change, looters from Arab killed my father and brothers. They raped my mother and sisters. They conducted mass carnage of my community. They continued doing it for centuries.

And then, for sake of my mother, my father, my sisters, and my brothers – I rejected my foundation. I became a Muslim. I consoled myself that the time of change has come. I had no options. The only solace lied in following the path of the Prophet of Equality. And only then could there be peace in my family.

Those were the most tragic, most bloody, most depressing, most agonizing chapters of my life. So brutal was their impact that I refused to even look into my history so that the old wounds do not revive again. I deluded myself in a history of grandeur where Allah had destined an awakening of mine towards path of truth so that I can achieve Heaven and enjoy the 72 virgins. Whatever happened was for good – to save me from eternal Hell fire. These ideas gave me lot of comfort. I rationalized everything that happened with me. I empathized with my invaders and showed example of Stockholm Syndrome in real life.

So much so that I have today completely forgotten my history. Today even when somebody reminds me of those harrowing experiences, I refuse to take them seriously. I scoff it all off as tales of fiction propagated by anti-Islamic elements and conveniently ignore the most evident facts of history.

I do so because past is past. I don’t care about that. I want to take pride in my proud present and glorious future. My eyes no more shed tears of blood, my heart no more pounds, and my sleep no more disrupts when I see flashes of my gory past suddenly in my dreams.

I have made the greatest sacrifice to be a Muslim. Islam was not served on a platter to me. No Prophet came and talked to me directly. No angel came from Heavens. No revelation was downloaded. I instead destroyed everything that was my foundation for ages or whatever I loved or cherished or was proud of…only to become a proud Muslim. I can bet that no one in history of humankind has made a sacrifice of similar enormity.

And I did it with one single solace – that being a Muslim would make me equal in status and opportunities in entire Islamic Ummah (community) of world. Not that my Vedas did not teach me equality. But lets not discuss past. I don’t want to remember all that anymore because I fear that may trigger those emotions that I have very painfully suppressed for ages.

I just want to delight in the pride of being an EQUAL Muslim. I want to be happy that all Muslims – from whatever geography, community, race or color that they may belong to – all equal in all respects. This EQUALITY ALONE is my source of pride.

In fact I feel that with all the sacrifices I made, I am the most honored Muslim in the entire Ummah.

I have not read Quran properly because Arabic has always been a foreign language for me. Even Arabic scholars have not been able to understand Quran properly; then where do I stand in one single small life? There is no way to verify veracity of Last Prophet, Heaven, Hell, Judgment Day, Gabriel, Kaba mystery, Id story and other assumptions that form foundation of Islam.

But how does it matter?

I care least about it and even if I cared, it still does not matter because neither I can understand Quran properly in one life, nor can Prophet come in my dreams to bring me revelations. The only reason that I am Muslim is because I am told that it offers me Equality. For whatever I had to face in history, if that gives me Equality, I have no regrets.

I am told that Islam offers me a dignity and status that is same for all Muslims across the world. I am told that in Islam – you are either ‘one of us’ or ‘one of them’. If you are one of us – Muslim – then we treat you with equal respect and rights. Only when you are one of them – non-Muslim or Kafirs – then we refuse to pray for Heaven for you even when you die or refuse you the right to preach your own beliefs in a Muslim country. Thankfully, I am ‘one of us’.

As a Muslim, I am told that I am not a slave of anybody except Allah. I am told that no race or tribe can dominate me or treat me as inferior. This is the only reason why I am a Muslim. And I know that I am the most respected Muslim because I made the greatest sacrifices for Allah. This is the sole foundation of Islam for me. And if this does not exist, there remains no reason why I should still follow a foreign religion in a foreign language propagated by foreigners whom I don’t even understand properly.

So far, I believed blindly whatever I was told. I kept deluding myself in my own palace of pride. But then something happened and the foundation slipped. Have you ever suddenly woke up from a beautiful dream because you felt like you slipped?

My Matrix also broke suddenly and new realities emerged.

I fell in love with an Arab girl. But then I came to know that

1. Arab men can marry my daughters and sisters but I cant marry theirs

Now I realized the Islam in practice.

The Sharia Law of Saudi Arabia is against marriage of Arab women with non-Arab men.

In most parts of Arab society, the father can simply deny to a proposal for his daughter from a non-Arab.

Yes, it is true that non-Arabs are considered inferior Muslims.

In my case, the story ended with refusal of her father. I was humiliated for daring to marry an Arab woman!

My friend was luckier but had to face more turmoils. Her fiancee was able to convince her father to agree to the marriage proposal.

To marry a non-Arab, a special permit was to be obtained from government. The laws are different and much more encouraging in case an Arab wants to marry a non-Arab woman. The permit took more than a year. And after that, the husband was refused residency. On contrary a non-Arab wife easily gets the residency.

The ordeal was so torturous that finally they decided to leave Arab forever and settle in Canada where Shariat is no more applicable.

You can read about their miseries at:

http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article30078.ece

http://www.altmuslimah.com/a/b/a/3664/

I initially tried to reason it out as not a religious issue but a national issue. However when I scratched the surface, my foundation broke completely. Islam was no more the same for me.

Kafaa’at in Lineage

….the Fuqahaa (Jurists) have stated that among Arabs, a non-Quraishi male is not a match (Kuf) for a Quraishi woman, nor can any person of non-Arab descent be a match for a woman of Arab descent, no matter that he be an Aalim (religious scholar) or even a Sultan (ruling authority). [Sources: http://www.shariahprogram.ca/women-islam/kafaah.shtml and http://www.islam.tc/cgi-bin/askimam/ask.pl?q=6225&act=view ]

The hoax of equality was now exposed.

I suddenly realized that this is nothing but slavery where Muslim males can enjoy any of their slaves whom their right hand possesses but any male from the slaves can never be the match to master’s women/sisters/daughters.

So as per Shariat and practice, non-Arab Muslims have same status as slaves. The real Islam is for Arabs alone and non-Arab Muslims are merely being fooled to fulfill their political ambitions in garb of religion.

THIS WAS THE MOST SHOCKING REVELATION OF MY LIFE. I don’t know how Prophet Muhammad would have felt when he first got the revelations. But for me, this reality was far more shocking and gruesome than the violent history that led me to embrace Islam.

I did not want to give up so easily. I still had faith in Religion of Equality. So I went down the rabbit-hole further. And I was destined for some even more rude shocks.

2. Arab Muslims call Non Arab Muslims as “Mawali”

This word Mawali used by Arabs for non-Arabs is same as the one used in Indian subcontinent derogatorily as “Gunda/Badmash”. Though in Arabic, it means “heirs” as per Islamic scholar Ibn Kathir, but it was used exclusively to mean ‘slaves’ for centuries. This is how the word got its prevalent meaning in this region.

The famous Shiite Islamic scholar Mumtaz Ali Tajddin in his “Encyclopaedia of Ismailism” writes-

The Shi’ites from Iran were not granted equal status by their Arab co-citizens in the social system of Kufa, and thus they were called mawali (sing. mawla) means clients, a term to indicate inferior social standing, or second-class citizens. [Ref: http://ismaili.net/heritage/node/10590]

So if not Kafir, I am a Mawali. Instead of calling me a pig, they call me swine!

After all that sacrifice I made to embrace Islam, this is the equality that I received. I was just a puppet in hands of Arabs all the way.

I could not face myself in mirror anymore. I had my family butchered, I had my mothers and sisters raped, I had my traditions destroyed, I refused even to relook at history, and loved my own Qatil (murderers) – all to earn the title of ‘Mawali’ and be termed inferior to their breed!

But now I decided to review the history. I reviewed the available Quran translations and tafseer (commentary) by noted scholars and I found that

3. Arabs converted Non Arabs into Islam by tying them in chains on their necks

Quran [3:110] says- “Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah.”

In this verse, Arabs have been called as best of peoples ever. Many of the Muslims can argue here that “Ye” in this verse has come for Muslims in general and not for Arabs only. But their argument gets flattened when we look into the description of this verse by Ibn Kathir in Tafsir, it says-

“You, Muslims, are the best nation of people for the people, you bring them tied in chains on their necks (capture them in war) and they later embrace Islam.”

This description needs no further clarification. It clearly separates a nation of believers from those of unbelievers whom the formers used to force into Islam by tying them in chains on their necks (capturing them in war). Thus every tribe/people/nation which was converted to Islam through sword of Jihad was/is actually the slave with their necks tied with chains like cattle and dogs.

Now I knew why I was a ‘Mawali’. I could never be a true Muslim because I was not born as an Arab. I am actually only a slave who has embraced Islam after having been treated as animals and hence eternally inferior.

Thus to distinguish between the masters and the slaves, the term Mawali was/is used.

4. Arab Ummah of Muhammad was made best among all

I always thought that Ummah (Muslim community) of Muhammad is the group of all Muslims in the world and not Arabs alone, so there is no supremacy of Arabs over others in this claim.

But to understand what “Ummah” actually means, I went back to Quran [14:4], which says- We sent not a messenger except [to teach] in the language of his [own] people, in order to make [things] clear to them. Now Allah leaves straying those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases: and He is Exalted in power, full of Wisdom.

This verse unequivocally states that any group of people gets the messenger in its own language. It means that Quran and Muhammad both being Arabic were sent for Arabs alone. If Quran was meant for non-Arabs, it would have been sent in vernacular languages and not in a language that hardly anyone understands in non-Arab world.

The Ummah of Muhammad was comprised of Arabs alone. Quran [3:110], as shown earlier, claims that Arabs are best of peoples, evolved for mankind. This way all non Arabs are left with no option but to obey the commands of the best of peoples- Arabs.

Perhaps Prophet wanted to guide only the Arabs and never even thought of global expansion. But after his death, his followers misused his message. And for generations non-Arab Muslims like me have been fooled despite all our loyalty.

5. Quran and Muhammad were sent for Arabs only

The Mullahs would shout on top of their voice that Quran and Muhammad are the final book and final messenger of Allah respectively sent for whole mankind. However just have a look at these verses

1. Had We sent this as a Qur’an [in the language] other than Arabic, they would have said: “Why are not its verses explained in detail? What! [a Book] not in Arabic and [a Messenger] an Arab?”…[41:44]

2. We have made it a Qur’an in Arabic, that ye may be able to understand. [43:3]

3. …Say: “I am commanded to worship Allah, and not to join partners with Him. Unto Him do I call, and unto Him is my return.” Thus have We revealed it to be a judgment of authority in Arabic. …[13:36, 37]

4. [It is] a Qur’an inArabic, without any crookedness [therein]: in order that they may guard against Evil. [39:28]

5. A Book, whereof the verses are explained in detail;- a Qur’an in Arabic, for people who understand;- [41:3]

6. If [We had] not sent thee to the Quraish/people of Mecca,- in case a calamity should seize them for [the deeds] that their hands have sent forth, they might say: “Our Lord! why didst Thou not sent us a messenger? We should then have followed Thy Signs and been amongst those who believe!” [28:47]

7. Had We revealed it to any of the non-Arabs, And had he recited it to them, they would not have believed in it. [26:198, 199]

• Thus Quran was not supposed to be for non-Arabs in first place. However being large-hearted non-Arab Muslims interpreted these verses to imply ‘entire humanity’ despite obvious contradictions. After all this equality was our only hope.

• We naively forgot that Quran itself says that the revelation applicable for us is that sent in our own language by our own people.
• Were we fools to reject our own texts and heroes and embrace a foreign revelation which we don’t even understand and was forced down our throat by those who claimed racial superiority over us? This question stirred my soul.
• And Arabs take these verses still differently! They claim exclusive rights to Islam based on these verses and simply use Mawalis like me as tools for their political agenda.
• I also realized that Prophet did not want Quran to be followed by non-Arabs in first place. Had that not been so, why would he have asserted that non-Arabs could not have believed in Arabic Quran even if it were revealed to them? (Refer Verse 7 above).
• And that is why Arabs are convinced that despite their loyalty up to death, non-Arabs cannot understand Quran! Quran is for the Arabs by the Arab prophet. Non-Arab Muslims can only read the translations- the man made stuff.

That is why we – the non-Arab Muslims – are ‘Mawalis’. That is why we are inferior to their race.

6. Caliphate sealed for Arabs only, Non Arabs can only be loyal servants to Arab masters

I will not comment about Islam of Prophet Muhammad. But the Islam of today is nothing more than a political agenda for racial superiority of Arabs.

That is why, as per Islam, the ruler of Muslim Ummah – the Caliph should be a Quraish (Arabic tribe which Muhammad belonged to). Any Non Quraish can never dream of becoming Caliph because Quraish are born rulers and Non Arabs are born slaves 🙁

Sahih Bukhari 8.82.817:

…After a pause he (Abu Bakr) said, ‘O Ansar! You deserve all (the qualities that you have attributed to yourselves, but this question (of Caliphate) is only for the Quraish as they are the best of the Arabs as regards descent and home, and I am pleased to suggest that you choose either of these two men, so take the oath of allegiance to either of them as you wish. …

Sahih Bukhari 4.56.704:

…Beware of such hopes as make the people go astray, for I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, ‘Authority of ruling will remain with Quraish, and whoever bears hostility to them, Allah will destroy him as long as they abide by the laws of the religion.’ “

Sahih Bukhari 4.56.705:

Narrated Ibn `Umar: The Prophet said, “Authority of ruling will remain with Quraish, even if only two of them remained.“

Thus, howsomuch loyal a Muslim I become, howsomuch Zakaat I pay, howsomuch Deen I follow, howsomuch strong my leadership skills be, I cannot become Caliph of Muslims.

A Yazeed who killed Prophet’s kins can become Caliph, his children can become Caliph, but not an Indian or Pakistani or Bangladeshi or Indonesian or African or European Muslim.

We will just remain ‘Mawalis’. Our job is to blindly follow what our Arab rulers say – because only they are the blessed ones to have received Allah’s last message in their own language – and work for propagation of Islam so that an Arab can tomorrow become a Caliph.

7. Only seventy thousand seats available for Muslims in heaven, will those be filled by masters or slaves?

Non-Arabs cannot even find consolation in hope that eventually after Judgment Day, Allah will grant them 72 virgins in Heaven forever for dying as Muslims, as claimed by Mullahs. Because even the seats of Heaven have been already booked by these Arabs as per Sahih (True) Hadiths.

Sahih Bukhari 8.76.550:

Narrated Abu Huraira: I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, “From my followers there will enter Paradise a crowd, seventy thousand in number, whose faces will glitter as the moon does when it is full…”

So the quota was long over for non-Arabs 🙁

8. Allah hates Blacks

I am not very fair but also not that dark. Perhaps you can call me brown. I don’t know what my status is. But for ‘blacks’, this Arabic supremacy is even more humiliating. There are countless references in Hadiths and Quran that Allah dislikes Black. He would thus ensure that before entry to Heaven, everyone would be made ‘white’. And all who enter Hell would be made dark.

No text in the world is more hateful of ‘blacks’ and glorifies ‘Arabs’ then Islamic religious texts.

For example:

• Tabari IX:69 “Arabs are the most noble people in lineage, the most prominent, and the best in deeds. We were the first to respond to the call of the Prophet. We are Allah’s helpers and the viziers of His Messenger. We fight people until they believe in Allah. He who believes in Allah and His Messenger has protected his life and possessions from us.
• Tabari II:11 “Shem, the son of Noah was the father of the Arabs, the Persians, and the Greeks; Ham was the father of the Black Africans; and Japheth was the father of the Turks and of Gog and Magog who were cousins of the Turks. Noah prayed that the prophets and apostles would be descended from Shem and kings would be from Japheth. He prayed that the African’s color would change so that their descendants would be slaves to the Arabs and Turks. (Thus Blacks cannot be either prophets, apostles or kings in Islamic Ummah. They instead got black color so that they could be slaves! Can anything be more insulting to blacks?)
• Ishaq:243 “I heard the Apostle say: ‘Whoever wants to see Satan should look at Nabtal!’ He was a black man with long flowing hair, inflamed eyes, and dark ruddy cheeks… “Gabriel came to Muhammad and said, ‘If a black man comes to you, his heart is more gross than a donkey’s.”
• Ishaq:144 “A rock was put on a slave’s chest.
• Bukhari: V9B89N256 “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘You should listen to and obey your ruler even if he is a black African slave whose head looks like a raisin.’ Just look at the derogatory remarks for a ‘black’!
• Ibn Timiyya (Vol. 32, p. 89) “Slavery is justified because of the war itself; however, it is not permissible to enslave a free Muslim. It is lawful to kill the infidel or to enslave him, and it also makes it lawful to take his offspring into captivity.“
• Ibn Timiyya (Vol. 31, p. 380) So Islam not only allows for Muslim to capture slaves in wars, yet the sons and daughters of these slaves are also legal properties of the captor Muslim!
• Ibn Hashim: “Prophet’s Biography” (Al-Road Al-Anf’) (Part 4, p. 177) This question was delivered to Mufti Ibn Timiyya. “A man married a maid-slave who bore him a child. Would that child be free or would he be an owned slave?” Ibn Timiyya (Vol. 31, p. 376 – 377) Ibn Timiyya replied: “Her child whom she bore from him would be the property of her master according to all the Imams (heads of the four Islamic schools of law) because the child follows the status of his mother in freedom or slavery. If the child is not of the race of Arabs, then he is definitely an owned slave according to the scholars, but the scholars disputed his status among themselves if he was from the Arabs – whether he must be enslaved or not, because when A’isha (Mohammed’s wife) had a maid-slave who was an Arab, Mohammed told A’isha, `Set this maid free because she is from the children of Ishmael.’
• For more references, visit http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/127866 and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2067472/posts

Why does Allah hate my color? I am proud to be brown. My friends are proud to be black. To me they are more handsome than rest of the world because I respect them for what they are. Why does Allah want to change our identities when we enter Heaven? Why has he destined ‘blacks’ till Judgment Day? What’s so wrong with being Black?

The real reason is that Arabs were the fairest and hence this dogma of Arab supremacy was bound to exist in Islam.

It was my folly that I did not read it so far and got manipulated.

Thus, the brutal Arabic truth is that:

a. I am a Mawali

b. I was converted to Islam by getting my neck tied with chains

c. Arabs are best among all humans and I belong to an inferior race

d. Final message and messengers of Allah were sent in the foreign language and land and still I had to surrender to Arabs because I was inferior

e. I cant rule Muslims/world because I do not possess ruling genes unlike Arab masters

f. The women belonging to my country/race can be offered to master Arabs but I cannot have women of the master race Arab

g. Allah hates Blacks

So what options I have today? I still feel like a loyal Muslim as Islam runs in my blood today. Its part of my ego now. I have fought many battles for Islam and they define my pride. I killed my own self to take birth as an Islamic Jihadi. Where do I go now?

It would be a disgrace to Allah if I allow to be treated unfairly merely because Allah made me non-Arab. My pride of being Muslim cannot come at cost of insulting the Almighty Allah.

Thus Islam HAS TO change and provide me total equality for sake of my self-dignity and pride, my sacrifices, the blood of my ancestors, the atrocities on my mother and sisters.

Now some may say that whatever verses I have quoted are out of context and mistranslated. In reality they mean something else.

But that’s the whole point. Arabic is a foreign language for me. Arabic is a foreign language for majority of Muslims today. Even Arabic scholars refuse to claim that they understand Quran completely. So this argument is baseless distraction. One cannot merely point at the Chanda Mama (Moon Uncle) to distract a grown up person who is no more a baby.

To decide whether translations are true or false is not something that any non-Arab Muslim can do in this small life. It is impossible even for Arab Muslims. All I know is that these translations have been taken from established texts of Islam published by official sources of all major schools and bodies of Islam.

Demands of a non-Arab non-racist Muslim

The proof of cake lies in its eating. So instead of passing the buck on wrong translations or conspiracy of Kafirs or inadeqaute intelligence of Mawalis, all major schools and preachers of Islam have to officially announce the following if they are indeed not fooling non-Arab Muslims:

1. Whenever the next Caliph is appointed in future, whenever Muslim Ummah is strengthened, he would be a non-Arab Muslim. We prefer him to be from Indian subcontinent because it is the largest Muslim group of world. But we do not mind and would instead welcome if he be a native African of ‘black’ color.

2. The next chief Imam of Masjid-al-Haram – the largest mosque of world that surrounds and manages Kaba area – would be a non-Arab. And the team of Imams would have a proportionate representation of all ethnic groups.

Till this happens, they would boycott and condemn Saudi Arabia government and call for ban on Hajj to oppose racism. After all, when EQUALITY – the much touted foundation of Islam – is mocked, rest of the rituals become mere jokes.

(So far not one single Imam in history of Mecca mosque has been non-Arab. Shame on this blatant racial discrimination in a location that is sacred for entire Muslim Ummah.)

3. They would force Saudi Arabia government to change rules regarding marriage of Arab woman to a non-Arab Muslim man. They would force Saudi Arabia government to proactively denounce recial discrimination in marrige as a social evil. And till that happens, they would condemn Saudi Arabia government officially for being anti-Islamic.

4. All those translations of Quran, Tafsirs, Hadiths and other Islamic texts that smell of racial discrimination in any manner as fake and hence should be banned. They would issue fatwa that all these translations are ‘haram’ and any person involved in promoting, distributing, recommending or quoting these is guided by Satan. For example, works of Ibn Kathir, Muhsin Khan, Yusuf Ali, Pickthall, Dawood, Jalalyn, Al-Tabari etc as available in English and Urdu deserve the fatwa. One can give benefit of doubt to Arabic verses assuming that their meanings can be understood only after Judgment Day. But there has to be zero tolerance for all these translations.

5. The term Mawali be officially banned and there be heavy punishment for usage of this word for non-Arabs.

6. There should be official apology and repentance for the fact that ever since inception of Islam, none of the above points were forcefully adopted by any prominent Islamic group and no concrete steps were undertaken to destroy racism. This should be cited as the greatest disgrace to Muslim Ummah of non-Arab world.

I demand that my pride be restored. I am and want to remain a proud Muslim. But I also want to be a proud Indian, a proud Pakistani, a proud African. And above all a proud human being.

Religion that comes with strings of slavery is not a religion, but a farce. Vedic Dharma – which is applicable to all human beings and all religions – clearly states that Allah’s blessings is same for all – men, women, all nations, all creeds, all races, all colors.

I demand that my religious leaders and preachers ensure that Islam is formally adhering to this noble Vedic precept. All it has to do is to announce its support to the above points.

I love Islam. I live for Islam and can die for it. But not at cost of my nation and my roots. And definitely not at expense of dignity as a human. I refuse to be treated as a slave anymore.

Liberty is my first and foremost birthright that no ideology can dupe me to reliquish.

Like all rational people of this great nation, I am first a human, then an Indian and only then a Muslim.

I am a proud Muslim. But first I am a proud Indian and even before that I am a proud human being.

I can afford to even be a Murtid (apostate) but can settle for nothing less than exactly equal treatment and equal rights as Arabs. I also demand unconditional apology for the blunder so far.

O Allah! Forgive me if I am wrong. But it were You who taught me that I have right to smile and seek happiness simply because I am a human. You taught me even as a baby that all human beings deserve equal treatment regardless of race, gender or color.

This was the first lesson you taught me even before I came to know that I am Muslim and he is Hindu, Christian, Jew, whatever.

All other lessons were taught by humans. But this smile and equality was taught directly by You. I can leave everything else, but not this divine revelation of Yours.

I can forget my gory past, I can forget how I became a Muslim, I can forget the cries of my ancestors who were murdered and raped, I can forget my roots, I can forget what I had been following ever since inception of humanity, I can forget my culture, but I simply cannot forget the first lessons of liberty and equality taught by You.

I would rather reject being called Muslim than reject You and Your lessons.

If I have to be a Muslim, let the above points be fulfilled first by the representatives of Islam. Let them officially support my demands.

Till that happens, I am simply a human being.

And I am not from Arab.