This Student Was Told Muslims Don’t Condemn Violence, So She Made A List To Prove Them Wrong

Heraa Hashmi went viral after creating a Google Spreadsheet as a comeback to fellow classmates who told her that Muslims don’t condemn violence.

It took her 3 weeks of 2 hours a day to complete the list and she uploaded the list on Twitter. Things got escalated quickly as the post has been liked 26,000 times and retweeted 13,000 times and received tons of positive replies. Adding to the encouraging break the internet moment two of Hashmi followers made a website of the list made by her.

Among condemns in the list are:

1. Yusuf Badat (Director of Religious Affairs, Islamic Foundation of Toronto) is condemning about Violence Against Women.
2. Federation of Islamic Organisation in Europe (FIOE) is condemning about Violations against Christians and Islamic monuments in North Iraq.
3. Naeem Baig (President of Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)) is condemning about Violation of Human Rights in Bangladesh.
4. Harris Zafar (Author of Demystifying #Islam) condemning about Orlando nightclub mass shooting in 2016.
5. Wanda Krause (scholars of Islam, University of Exeter) is condemning aboutterrorism.
6. Homayra Ziyad (Institute of Christian and Jewish Studies) is condemning aboutsexual abuse.
7. Sara Khan (Winning human rights and counter-extremism activist and Inspire’s Director) is condemning about Boko Haram.
8. Joseph Lumbard (Scholar of Islamic Studies. American University in Sharjah) is condemning about 2016 Brussels, Belgium bombings.

Hashmi is 19 year old Indian American Muslim vlogger, author of 3 books and a student at Boulder, Colorado. Hashmi told Buzzfeed News, that it all started at the History Class when two of her classmates start asking about her religion that eventually lead to the topic of terrorism. The question that was imposed on her was why don’t Muslim condemn terrorism if all Muslims weren’t responsible for the terrorist attack linked to Islam?

What Hashmi did next is truly remarkable. Instead of continuing the conversation and telling all of them to find online, she made the 712 page long list of references of Muslim who condemns terrorism acts like ISIS, the bombing event, Boko Haram and others. In her email to Teen Vogue, she stated that a conversation would lead to nowhere unless evidences are compiled and presented.

This project of her by far has impacted the Muslim and Non-Muslim in a very positive manner. She hopes that with this list it will also open up others to the realization that Muslim too, condemns violence. Heraa told Teen Vogue, “Things like this often go unnoticed outside the Muslim community, and I wanted to bring them to light.” Heraa plan to continue adding more to the list as we speak. She hopes to help researchers and activists by turning this into a searchable database.

It is just logic don’t you think? People who believe and practice the peaceful religion wouldn’t agree to such horrific crime. And what this girl did here is the indication that a Muslim shouldn’t just settle in an agreement or avoid uncomfortable questions thrown at us. Instead, you provide the questioners the smart way. After all, we live in the digital age. Everything is just a click away. Way to go, Heraa Hashmi.

This article is written by Nur Zalikha Razali