For we are humans…

It’s 5 am here in Karachi and the day has been filled with sadness, anger and reflection for me, as I am sure it was for many of my fellow Pakistanis and human beings around the world.

Throughout the day, there were lulls when we Pakistanis were alone with our families and ourselves, in a time of quiet reflection, as the television continued to flash the gruesome images on the carnage that happened in the #‎PeshawarAttack at #‎ArmyPublicSchool. Dead children scattered around school grounds, in classrooms and cafeterias like they were waste to be thrown away.

No, they were not waste.

They were lives of future generations that were lost because people can’t get beyond themselves to fight what is staring us in the face.

There are many who are taking great joy in pointing out on various international newspaper websites that #‎Islam is to blame for this violence, forgetting that hundreds of thousands of #‎Muslims have condemned these actions since 9/11. No, they haven’t forgotten. They choose to be willfully blind to our statements. We can never condemn it enough for them to listen or understand.

No, they are blind to the carnage in whatever form, they are deaf to the cries of families mourning the loss of their loved ones and they are dumb in every sense of the word.

There are many who are taking great joy in the carnage that was carried out because they call it “revenge” for the North Waziristan military campaign. They are pretenders to Islam, not real Muslims in any shape or form. But our condemnation of them falls on deaf ears as they are the same breed as those taking joy in branding Islam a #‎terrorism religion.

Both of these group share a similar position, that is significantly different from where a human being would stand. Murder in any form is murder. You can cloak it in any language, wrap it in any faith and present it however you wish — it is still murder. These groups have a shared misunderstanding that Islam is a religion of war, hate and violence. Both do everything they possibly can to make sure that everyone else hears them above all else. They are more important than the dead children’s bodies. They are more important than the families that mourn. They are more important than humanity. They are more important.

And then there are those who are broken in their hearts, minds and souls trying to understand what these poor children did to deserve this brutality. They were not part of any war. They were not carrying weapons. No, the only uniform they wore was their school issued one and the weapon they carried were the textbooks that would guide them out of darkness and into light.

But let’s be honest with ourselves. The attack today was not revenge for the North Waziristan military operation. No, this was a continuation of the carnage that Pakistanis have lived with since 2005. The carnage that has taken 70,000 innocent Pakistani souls from their families, their friends and their country’s future. They were not wearing uniforms. They were not carrying weapons. No, they were innocents just like the children that were murdered today in Peshawar.

They were not fighters. They were not warriors. They were not enemies of anyone. And today, you are celebrating their death with your statements. You are dancing on their fresh graves, washed in the tears of their families, because you are more important than these 200 innocent souls that are gone.

So please go back to professing your hate. Go back to spreading your lies. Go back pontificating on things you have no understanding of. Go back to your self-contained world where only you matter.

The rest of us, those who still cling to humanity, we are calling it murder because anything else would just be inhuman.

Originally published at www.agencyrules.com on December 17, 2014.