The one thing I have noticed online is we all seem to have ‘labels’ for people, for example people who defend Islam or are more challenging are seemed to be labelled ‘lefties’ and those who are ‘true patriots’ and want to have their ‘free speech’ are labelled as ‘far right’.
I do not have an issue with anyone who believe in free speech, their belief or how they choose to live. I do however have a problem with people who try to abuse the ‘free speech’ line and start insulting and abusing others.
Previously I used to get very upset and very angry when I would come across people who would be insulting Muslims and the religion, in fact not just Islam but anyone who would bully and abuse someone based on what they believe and think. I would get myself worked up and it would end up in some kind of slanging match on twitter. They would say something insulting then I would get annoyed and say something back etc.
As time went on I started to view things differently, maybe it was me getting older or the fact I was getting stuck in this horrible vicious negative circle, but I did not want to continue like this. I mean how am I challenging someone on their belief that all Muslims are bad if all I am doing is reinforcing their views by being rude back?
I started to see if maybe I could change some minds on Islam, and over my time online I have met some very very amazing individuals. Individuals who have not met any Muslims before, and had created this view on Islam based on what the media showed Muslim’s as (let’s be honest, they do not tend to show us in a great light majority of the time!). I am not the most knowledgeable person in Islam but what I do know I started to share with people who were curious and wanted to know more.
Which brings me to someone special who I came across last year, we actually clashed at first on a thread about immigration and children. However this person listened to my views and we ended up messaging about Islam and any concerns they had. We talked about how I had read the bible when I was young, as for anyone who does know me will tell you I am a huge book worm! This individual is Christian and we discussed about going to church, about mosques, about the fact even at a young age my parents did nothing but encourage me to learn about other religions. I told this person how during a religious lesson at school I started to learn about Christianity and asked my parents for a Bible to read as I loved the stories!
Although this person still has his concerns and maybe some views about Islam, they have dramatically changed as the biggest problem was they had not interacted much with Muslims before, their views had been derived from what they saw online and groups such as “For Britain” etc.
This is why I continue to do what I do (being totally random and annoying), I believe if I can change just one person’s mind that is enough for me. If anything this shows together we can overcome people’s fear and worries and show them a different side to us Muslims.
#WhatMuslimChickOppression 