Dead Alongside the Living
Imagine yourself sitting outside, on the street, next to the
dead body of your loved one. It is 29o F, drizzling rain soaking
your clothes and the cold wind chilling you to the bone. Yet, you sit there clutching a picture of the
one whose body lies in front of you. You
are not alone. You are surrounded by 80 other dead bodies and their loved ones.
 | |||
| Alamdar Road. Quetta, Pakistan |
You sit there in protest for the lives that were lost. You
sit and wait for someone to notice, someone to act, someone to tell you that
this will not happen again. Not to you or to anyone else. You want protection
for your family. You want your children to grow up in the light of the family
of the Prophet of Islam. You want the freedom to cry for Imam Husain** a.s. You
just want to be left alone.
Yet you sit there, third day in a row, with your dead loved
one. The world notices but your government is ever silent. They want you to
bury your dead and move on. But you will not move. You will not budge until you
are promised that tomorrow you will not have to bury your brother, who went out
for a stroll after dinner only to be caught in the blood thirsty hands of
terrorists.
You want peace. You want protection. You want life.
*Quetta is a northern city in Pakistan. On January 10, 2013,
twin suicide bombings took place on the busy Alamdar Road, located in majority
Shia neighborhood, killing 102 people and wounding 200 others. The victims’ families are protesting the
senseless killing and the lack of government response by a peaceful sit-in
which has grown to a 100,000 participants in Quetta alone. The families are refusing to bury the dead
until their demands for protection are met.
Following Quetta’s lead, 100 other cities in Pakistan and 10
cities outside are holding sit-in protests to show solidarity with their Quetta
brothers.
**Imam Husain (a.s.) was the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.).
He was martyred in Karbala, Iraq along with 72 of his companions while defending
Islam. During the first two months and 8
days of the Islamic New Year, Shias commemorate the tragedy of Karbala and grieve
for the sufferings of Imam Husain (a.s.).
For more information on this and how to get involved, check out the links below:
- Join the twitter movement to protest the #ShiaGenocide.
- Protest in Downtown Chicago.
- Information on protests worldwide.
- Sign the official White House Petition to Condemn the Shia Genocide in Pakistan.
- News article about the third day of the Sit-in in Quetta.
- News article about protests in other cities.
- Google “Quetta Dharna” to read more about this event as it unfolds. (Dharna means sit-in protest in Urdu)
