Whenever there is a terrorist attack I am terrified too. But unlike everyone else, I have an extra burden to be worried about – what if the shooter turns out to be a Muslim. And it’s not just me but every Muslim goes through the same sort of emotions.

And to be honest, Muslims have become accustomed to this pattern – whenever there’s an attack with a Muslim perpetrator, then the Media Channels first start with Why, Who and How; but soon they so tend to always switch their agenda to a debate on whether or not Islam justifies violence while ringing the bells about the extent of homegrown radicalism. At the same time, leaders bugling the policies restricting the civil liberties of Muslim immigrants and citizens. And not to forget the Muslims guests that they bring in so wonderfully always add to the beauty of their show.

So many times have I witnessed the way media representations of Muslims push the anti-Muslim hatred and policies throughout the world. Why? Because that’s exactly what we all want to hear too. To add on only a few of us personally know Muslims and the media’s painting of them as terrorists are so impressive, leading us all to believe that all Muslims are terrorists.

Now this drives me crazy:

Even when there are no terrorist attacks, Muslims still get a bad knock.

Analyses of Muslim representations in news, tv, movies, etc show that Muslims in media are overwhelmingly represented as violent, terrorists, barbaric and intolerant. And yes, these brilliants will never use the words like So-Called-Muslims or Radicals or the Perverts or simply Terrorists but instead they won’t even hesitate to say “You Muslims” like each one of us was right there firing those bullets. Come on dude most of us are afraid to even return a slap if you slap us. We are just as Humans as you are.

At the same time, when Muslims go out rallying or raise their voice against terrorism then there are almost no positive portrayals of Muslims in the media.

Who cares?

These guys are hypocrites; their religion teaches them to kill.

And Muslims are like:

Mam/Sir, do you even bother to look at me or my friends or people near me? We have no desires of ruling the world. Hello? Can you hear me?

According to psychologists, when direct contact is limited or nonexistent, studies have shown that media representations of any group have a greater influence on our attitudes towards them. Ask those who are friends with Muslim, those who eat, drink, party with them or even have sex with them. We are not devils or a Sex-Maniac for God’s sake as what they call us. Even we last more or less the same as a normal being do.

Oh yes, the rotten eggs:

We also have these hate mongers and publicity greedy freaks who keep picking these out-of-context verses from Quran and display them on their walls like it’s some Da-Vinci’s code that they have decrypted. Bro Quran has always been clear and open to the world. Everyone knows what you are showing because it (especially those particular verses) are being displayed for years now. But does anyone even care to find the verses surrounding it? What chapter is it from? When was it revealed? Why? Etc?

“Kill kuffar wherever you find them”

This is like the most famous verse that I people question me with. But when I explain the ’When, Why and How’ attached to it, they agree to everything and at the end, they replace the simple word GoodBye with

“I know, but you may be an exception but most of the Muslims are extremists, they want Sharia, Islam is a cult, Goodbye”.

Come on bro I know more Muslims than you do, don’t I?

I will soon write another article explaining the context linked to these famous verses of hatred.

And yes also the Sharia, that’s like a special weapon someone gets while playing the video game. All I would say is that we Muslims are commanded to follow the land of laws that we live in.

There are already so many situations where Constitution supersedes the Sharia Law. And we have already agreed in peace. Alchohol, Homosexuality, Gambling, Polygamy, who cares I am happy with one wife, bro. If someone is not; talk to him. Don’t target each and every Muslim for someone else’s deed. And if someone really wants to demand something then let the Court or the Government decide whether or not to allow it. Stop fighting on roads or on Twitter.

And hell yeah, Twitter is such a good platform of amusement especially for the ones with Eggs on their avatar.

On a positive note:

Direct contact with Muslims – can truly produce the opposite effect. And clear the misunderstandings of most of us.

Imagine people who are exposed to news clips portraying Muslims volunteering at a food shelter during the holiday season or maybe a charity event or doctors saving lives, programmers writing codes, freaks partying the hell out all night, people getting bullied by their bosses when at work, guys getting dumped by girls, girls getting dumped by guys, people getting married, girls going to work, people spending days and night on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, I mean all the normal things in the world. We do it too.

If we truly can get rid of our pre-conceived notion and start interacting with normals Muslims we would sure be less likely to have an anti-Muslim attitude that most of us have now.

That’s the power of face-to-face contact, along with more balanced media coverage.

To be clear, I am not suggesting that media should not report attacks by Muslims. Instead, all I wish is for the Media to highlight a fair representation of the Muslims and that of Perverts of Islam. After all, there’s plenty of positive news involving Muslims to report on.

But such stories, unfortunately, don’t get nearly the same amount of coverage as a terrorist attack. Until it does,

..I don’t know, I will just hope for the best.