An American journalist of Iranian origin, Borzou Daragahi, tweeted the news of India’s first death due to Coronavirus. A few hours later, he retweeted the story, this time with the caption, “Retweeting this story again, just for the fun of it. Enjoy.” He, driven by the overpowering hatred for India, derives joy from the news of death of a man he doesn’t know. This man is an educated, twitter verified, journalist. An established “moderate” man who doesn’t appear to be very distanced from the radicals in his fold, who share the same burning hate for the infidels, and who gloat at their death.

Ali A. Rizvi, a Pakistani-Canadian author and a self-proclaimed atheist, sent out a tweet on February 28:

What to do if you have coronavirus: 1. See your healthcare provider — make sure you call ahead.

2. Separate yourself from family and friends.

3. Wear a face mask.

4. Cover all coughs/sneezes.

4. Attend every Trump rally in your area. (Do all steps in reverse order)

Overlooking his numbering gaffe – so much for being an educated one — we find ourselves incapable of ignoring the catastrophic cerebration at play. With the Covid-19 crisis worsening into a global pandemic, every individual carrying it is a ticking time bomb with the potential of taking down enormous numbers of the people they encounter. The “atheist” of sorts has not been able to come very far from a typical “fidayeen” or a “suicide-attacker” who enters crowds with explosives strapped to him and explodes. The aim is killing as many as possible if they belong to a conflicting school of thought – religious or political. In the case of Trump vs Rizvi, it’s both.

Corona seems to be the latest favorite among a particular fold of like-minded fellows. Even after having served as the 17th Chief Election Commissioner of India, Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi couldn’t get above his congenital pettiness, and ended up wishing for Prime Minister Modi to get infected with coronavirus. After a huge outrage across social and mainstream media, the former CEC tendered a “sincere apology.”

Speaking of India, American comedian Hasan Minhaj suddenly woke up to his “Indian origin” right before the 2019 elections and tried to wield his minuscule influence by running derogatory commentary on Modi. He had conveniently stayed away from this “Indian” identity when a Muslim politician in India declared that that 25 crore Muslims would need just 15 minutes without the police to show 100 crore Hindus who was more powerful. He didn’t stir up the Indian inside him to condemn this bigotry, but without knowing the first thing about Narendra Modi — except that the “Muslims of India detest him” — in solidarity with his brethren, he showed up to spew venom about an elected leader.

So powerful is the Muslim brotherhood that it compels the moderate Minaj to lie through his teeth to vilify Modi and claim that he was denied entry to the “Howdy Modi” event. The truth was that he didn’t visit the premises as a media person, and was offered a seat that he refused. Such mindboggling fraudulence!

While the world mourned as billowing flames engulfed the Notre Dame Cathedral, Hafsa Askar, a member of the national board of the left-wing students’ union UNEF, took to Twitter to share, “How much are people going to cry for some bits of wood? I swear to Allah you like French identity too much while we don’t give a rat’s ass objectively it’s your madness of little white people.” A student Vice President! And these are her thoughts, her venom-infused, hate-slathered thoughts.

When the New Zealand masjid attack shook the western world in 2019, Christians worldwide stood firmly by their side. Television hosts went on to sport the hijab while reading the news. After a Muslim child was violated in India, millions of Hindus flooded Indian streets deploring the heinous act. Liberal, secular Hindus cried on social media, saying they were “ashamed to be Hindus.”

Remind me if you have witnessed moderate Muslims coming out in crowds condemning the numerous terror attacks perpetrated by their coreligionists, which have left mankind bleeding. Twinkle, Geeta, Sanskriti and Divya are just a few of the Hindu children who were raped with unthinkable brutality. Neither did the Hindus get an apology, nor did any Muslim hang his head in shame for the depravity of his coreligionists.

Have oceans of moderate Muslims taken over roads protesting the unremitting Christian genocide by Islamist militants in Nigeria? Have they initiated a movement to fight the persecution of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh?

This paradox has been overused to water down the inhumanities of radical Islamists, the paradox of the “moderate Muslim”. Each time one calls out the barbarity of Islamists, a crafty liberal beckons, “Hey, don’t stereotype. Look at the moderate Muslims”.

This weekend, grab your cup of coffee or chai, seat yourself in a comfortable chair and reflect: “Who are the moderate Muslims, and when was the last time you chanced upon them?”

The journalist cited at the beginning of this article, the one who finds an Indian’s death “funny,” is one of the finest specimens of a “moderate Muslim”. While the radical goes out slaughtering the innocent, all too many moderates celebrate the deaths of innocent people.