IMAGINE sending your child to school in uniform in the morning, and finding him in a casket in the afternoon. Imagine having your child’s blood-stained clothes brought back to you, the dreams that you had for them shattered. Instead of your child arranging for your burial one day you have to pick up the greatest load in your life — the casket of your child. More than 140 families endured this trial one year ago. These families did not live in Paris or in San Bernardino, nor were these families ‘infidels’. These families were Muslim, the victims lived in Pakistan but the devastation was just as great as any other terrorist attack. As a matter of fact, these cowards decided to attack the future of Pakistan — its children.

The next time an Islamophobe talks about ‘radical Islam’ or a ‘Muslim terrorist’, we should tell him that these terrorist organisations don’t have a religion. They attack freely on the followers of any religion or ethnicity. What can we as Americans say to the Pakistani soldiers who, while fighting these terrorists suffer the loss of their children to those very extremists?

Let’s stand up in solidarity with the Pakistanis who have been fighting this war alongside us. The next time we point a finger at another Muslim, realise that more Muslims than non-Muslims have fallen victim to terrorists. Muslims are on the front line of the fight against terrorists.

Zeshan Hamid

New York

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2015