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Opinion

Happy birthday to you ... BOOM!

Mubaraka Saifee
Opinion columnist 

OK guys, enough is enough. I understand your deep hatred of anyone who doesn't agree with you … well, actually, I don't understand. To get to my point: It was the Prophet Muhammad's birthday last week and you had to do what to celebrate? Blow up a few dozen people? Cause bloodshed and mayhem? Create terror and pandemonium? Get a hold of yourselves! For just one day, I ask, one day, could you please stop the violence and just celebrate the joy and pray peacefully. Or is that just too much to ask?

It was a day like Christmas is for Christians -- the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, and some wise-guy suicide bomber in Karachi, Pakistan, blew himself up in a mosque where people were gathered for prayers. 

Everyone has their differences. I mean, I barely agree on anything anymore with my 13-year-old child. So why don't you just let them be? What's the worst that can happen? They all go to hell and burn for all eternity? All the more room for you guys up there in heaven.

All joking aside, I feel bad that it has come to this. People should be able to leave others alone and not have to annihilate anyone who does not agree with their viewpoint. I know sometimes anger can overwhelm a person. I'm human. I've felt that way dozens of times. (Remember, I have a 13-year-old). 

But isn't that what self-control, maturity and discipline are all about? Isn't that what every prophet, parent, teacher and health expert has been trying to tell us since time immemorial? 

Control yourself: don't eat too much, don't watch too much television, don't spend too much money, don't lie, don't steal, and don't kill. We know you deeply revere your messenger, but what about the message? Did he say anything at all, besides "kill the infidels"?

Actually, he did. I don't want to sermonize, but there are verses in the Quran about love, justice, truthfulness, piety and a variety of other things. You can't just pick one line and base your entire life on a misguided interpretation of it.

Darn it, the Danish will have a field day with this.
 

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