“I have Muslim friends that I’m close to but they have never expressed their anguish to me.” It’s because they don’t trust you enough with their emotional well-being. They don’t even have the luxury of venting out their anxiety. Just as men will never truly feel what it is like for a woman to live her life with her guard up, looking over her shoulder, a Hindu will never truly know what it is to live as a minority in India - your identity under threat 24x7. From casual remarks in social circles to outright hatred being peddled in the media and on the streets, every single Muslim citizen is in some form of anguish over what’s happening, no matter where in the country they live. This is not who we once aspired to be. Everyone who has chosen to stay quiet when the fringe was just fringe - has enabled this venomous ecosystem our future generations will grow up in. "I have *minority* friends” is a statement to make yourself feel better. They are not specimen samples to prove your misguided sense of inclusivity. We all have hate-spewing relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbours. Call out their bigotry to their face or disconnect/distance from them. Please exit that toxic WhatsApp group. We are far too deep within the rot to simply "adjust". Do you realise that if those brainwashed youth on the streets had access to education, they would have been demanding jobs instead of blood? It is easier for their masters to keep their raging testosterone occupied with destruction and unrest. None of those youth have any clue what their own religion stands for - let alone someone else’s. Their frustration with life and lack of purpose has been brutally and strategically weaponised. Maybe we don’t speak out enough because it is truly emotionally taxing to deal with trolls and online assault. Compare that to people who are likely to be ostracised, disenfranchised, or even killed for merely belonging to another religion or to a tribe that’s settled for centuries on valuable land. I pray to the universe that the hate doesn’t come to your door. That’s the nature of hate. Once released in the air, it finds its way into everyone’s nostrils. Remember… for the one in love with power, everyone else is the enemy. 💪🏻🇮🇳❤️