I was tagged in a story on Twitter about an Afghani Exmuslim man who killed 3 individuals. A Muslim tagged me and wanted to know what I thought. I asked him why would he do that when he already knew my position on this.
A family member of one of the victims decided to call all exmuslims terrorists, cancer, a threat, and a tumor. What do you do with tumors? You cut them out. Now, the purpose of this article is not to dwell on the particulars of this horrific incident, as I don’t know the family and only have a bit of information that has been released, but to reply to the comments being said above about exmuslims.
I’m willing to excuse comments said out of anger as emotions would run high at times like this. But we are discussing what is said here, not why. We can put the why aside for now. The dehumanization and demonization of exmuslims.
Based on early reports, an Afghani by the name of Shams Hassib walked into an Afghan grocery store and shot three customers, 2 of confirmed Afghani descent, who have died, and then himself.
Omar Ansary posted
“A distant relative of mine was shot in the head today in Sacramento, California. His name is Mobeen. Only 19 and in critical condition.”
Then he posted
“My Cousin was shot by an Ex-Muslim. Yes ex Muslims are a cancer and threat to our Ummah. They are obsessed with us. Be vigilant of these munafiqs. Keep Mobeen in your duas”.
Munafiq means those who pretend to be Muslim but really aren’t.
He then said:
“The perpetrator of this crime was a lingering tumor in our Afghan community. He was an openly declared atheist and always harassed and mocked us for believing in Allah. He was the Abu Lahab of our Community. He took his life on the scene of the incident.”
The Sheriff’s spokeswoman said earlier this week
“detectives did not believe the suspect and victims knew each other. Detectives have not determined a motive for the shooting, but sheriff’s officials have said there was no indication the shooting at the market, which sells halal and Afghan groceries, was a hate crime.”
Hassib’s only prior criminal record in Sacramento County was a 2014 traffic misdemeanor. He didn’t have a record. One screenshot of a message posted in a freethinking/atheist group from Hassib purportedly says:
“SOS (Save Our Soul) I am an exmuslim who left Islam. The apartment I live are full of Afghan Muslim who will go above and beyond. I believe the apartment is bugged .. Stand with me and million others and protect me”
What I will say here is based on this message he appears to be suffering from paranoid delusional thinking. Saying that “they are out to get him” is already a bit nuts, but then that his apartment is “bugged”? This isn’t really a good sign. The man appears to have had mental health issues.
And then Omar retweeted
“terrorist’s supporting their fellow terrorist. I am not surprised.”
As I said before, the politicization of a personal tragedy in order to paint all individuals of that group as terrorists.. what does that sound like? Does the word Islamophobia come to mind? I am going to be consistent and call this bullshit out. Muslims hate it when they are held accountable for the actions of Islamic terrorists just for sharing the same religion, yet this man is holding all of us responsible for the actions of one man!
I have been consistent from the very beginning and gone out of my way to defend Muslims. I don’t even need to say this. My track record is there for anyone to see and is highlighted in my Medium post “The fine balance between criticizing Islam and demonizing Muslims”. And not just me either, other major exmuslim organizations like CEMB and EXMNA have fought against anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry.
The other thing is that we exmuslims don’t have a holy book. There is no holy book that we have that says fight the unbelievers or subject them to a humiliating tax, or what not. We don’t have a canonized text of sayings of a prophet who taught us that believers are filth and should be pushed on the side of the road when you see them and kicked out of Arabia. Exmuslims are of all flavors and types. Some are left wing, some right wing. Most are atheist, some are Christian, and even a few are Hindu. We are all over the place. The exmuslim label is just a marker for being a former believer in Islam. It’s frankly ridiculous to blame this incident on Shams being exmuslim. Where is the evidence that this was a crime against Muslims? And why did he then kill himself?
Omar posted
“When Atheists and Murtads get tired of their pointless existence, Some may think they can Kill others and themselves without being held accountable by God.”
At least he said “some” here. Exmuslims leaving Islam and committing murder-suicide is hardly “a thing”. You cant say that this is because he didn’t believe in god. Believing in God never stopped anyone from committing violent murder. Just look at the list of Islamic terror groups which is too long to mention here. Boko Haram, AL Qaeda, ISIS, Islamic Jihad come to mind just for a start. All of them believe in god and even justify their crimes according to their religious beliefs!
As a disclaimer, the majority of Muslims do not accept the extremists view of Islam. I know this as a former believer myself. But Islam can and should be held to blame. The doctrine is full of violent ideas such as martyrdom and jihad which ARE directly responsible for the resulting horrors brought to the world.
First victim Shuja Jamal Omarkhel from Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Kheil was a father of two young kids, a 4-year-old and a 6-month old. He came to America with his family in pursuit of a better, safer life in 2018. He was studying at American River College in Sacramento and also had two jobs to be the main provider of his family. $76k so far has been raised for his family on GoFundMe, and from the comments much of it from non-Muslims. Second victim is Mobin Andishmand, who was also a young Afghani man, and has now died in hospital.
Omar, you are not my enemy. Your dear cousin was not my enemy. Muslims are not my enemy. I am sorry for your loss. I truly am. But I do not think its right for you to politicize this tragedy as an excuse to demonize ex-Muslims in the same manner that you would hate to be demonized. The use of crude terms like “Murtads”, “munafiqs”, “kafir”. Do we ever hear Muslims condemn attacks on apostates? I don’t think I’ve ever heard an Imam ever say this from the mimbar – that its wrong for exmuslims to be killed for leaving Islam. That Saudi and other countries should not criminalize apostasy. That killing someone for being a member of a certain faith is wrong. Yet you are doing the very same thing to us. Using language to make us “the other”.
You didn’t want my sympathy. I don’t know your cousin. I don’t know you. But it is tragic that his life was ended like this, and he was only just starting it. You wanted my money, you got it. I have donated $20 to his fund. May he rest in peace. Link is in the description if you’d like to donate.
This is your friendly neighborhood exmuslim signing out.
Links
https://twitter.com/Sabr33_/status/1313656502415060992
https://www.facebook.com/shujauddin.omarkheil
https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-young-sacramento-father-of-two-has-been-killed
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-mobeen-and-his-family?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&rcid=180d2d88e92d4addb6e72938d03aacb1
https://www.kcra.com/article/edd-oversight-hearing-california-capitol/34304079
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article246281375.html
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