Personally, I’ve never quite understood why so many of my co-religionists are so keen to kill or maim those who ‘insult’ Islam, Prophet Muhammad or the Quran. What is behind such rage and, dare I add, insecurity? Is their God so weak, so sensitive, so precious, that He cannot withstand any rejection?

Mine, for the record, isn’t. 

ugh this guy is just so damn basic.

You know, this piece has a lot of really good stuff in it, including a forceful condemnation of the recent detention under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws of an 11-year-old girl who allegedly has down-syndrome. The case is horrifying, and the overall treatment of minorities in some parts of Pakistan is even worse. But I’m so sick of Muslims who write these pieces that cater to a Western-apologist mindset.

I mean, congratulations Mr. Orientalist special-sunflower on your inability to understand why “so many” Muslims are “keen to kill” everyone who insults their religion. You must be the odd one out.

What is behind such rage and insecurity you ask? Perhaps it’s centuries of colonialism and imperialism that resulted in a crippled education system and stunted economic, political, and social infrastructures, the remains of which are still being seen today. Maybe it’s the continued reaction to all of these things and the perceived (and/or real) threat of Western aggression. Or perhaps, in the case of Pakistan, it might help to point out that Zia-ul-Haq, the Pakistani dictator who instated the blasphemy laws in the first place, was a political puppet of the United States whose promotion of Islamic law in Pakistan was directly inspired by American conservatism. 

But no, of course it’s much easier to write a self-serving piece about how backwards, how barbaric, how simple-minded those Pakistanis are.