This Jumu’ah (weekly service) is different. Everyone is on spring break, so there isn’t a service taking place on campus. I decide to attend the service at Masjid Bilal, the masjid at the neighboring Saint Louis University.

When I arrive, I immediately notice the lack of increased security. Something is in the air, and it isn’t the usual blissful and somewhat holy feeling of euphoria that everyone experiences on Jumu’ah. After an eternity of silence, a brother rises to make the call to prayer, his voice wavering as tears flow down his cheeks. The imam, visibly anxious, rises and addresses us with a heavy voice.

La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah.

“There is no might nor power except in God.”

I am unable to focus on the sermon. No one can really focus. In my mind I think of different ways I could escape or protect myself if, God forbid, another terrorist were to fire upon us.

Let’s call it what it is.

Not just another mass shooting.

Not just another hate crime.

Not just another attack orchestrated by an “angelic boy” who somehow lost his way.

This was a terrorist attack executed with the intent to impose fear upon our hearts and incite more hatred and violence.

An Australian senator, whose name is undeserving of the ink that it takes to print it, blamed the Christchurch masjid attacks, executed by a terrorist whose name is even more undeserving, on increasing Muslim immigration.

The senator’s disgustingly bigoted statement is blasphemous beyond comprehension, but what can you expect from a senator whose views are symptomatic of the myths that run rampant within our global community. Everyone who’s helped spread these myths, whether through active vocalization of such fallacies or through complacency when given the chance to take a stance against them, has the blood of 51 martyrs on their hands.

Chancellor Mark Wrighton. Chancellor-elect Andrew Martin. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori White. The Administration.

We, the Muslims in the Washington University community, unlike you, refuse to stay silent on the matter. Your silence in the wake of such a tragedy is, at the very least, unsettling complacency. At most? It’s a painfully clear message that we, as Muslims, simply do not matter as much as others.

How much longer must we wait for a word of solidarity and reassurance? How much longer must we wait before we are sure the University cares about the safety of its students? How much longer before you take a stance on Islamophobia?

You rightfully didn’t hesitate when tragedy struck the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, when members of our student body made disgusting comments referring to “Asian people invading common space” in Umrath House or when 10 of our incoming African-American peers were wrongfully stopped by police after leaving IHOP.

Even after an email from Noor Ghanam, one of our first years, our inboxes are still empty. Where are your words for the 51 Muslims slaughtered in cold blood in their masjid?

Any delay is too much; at this point even President Donald Trump, whom the terrorist cited as a source of inspiration in his manifesto, has expressed some sympathy.

Do you think we’re immune to a tragedy like this happening in our own country?

It’s important to realize that what happened in Christchurch did not exclusively affect the New Zealand Muslim community. A tragedy like this is symptomatic of a much larger problem: the racist, ignorant ideologies that demonize the Muslim faith. We can’t defeat this evil unless we come to the realization that regardless of race, ethnicity or religion, the Muslim community is our community—nothing will ever change our shared humanity. Although Muslims were the primary target of this attack, it’s not enough to simply sympathize with them. We must take initiative and cure the societal ailments that plague our community and served as a foundation for the terrorist attacks at the Islamic Center of Quebec City, the Overland Park Jewish Center, the Oak Creek Sikh temple, the Mother Emanuel AME Church, the Tree of Life Synagogue and now the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Center in Christchurch, New Zealand.

We’ll continue to wait.

“The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.” (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 6011)

Signed: Morad Suliman, Rehan Choudhury, Fatima Anwar
Wash. U. Muslim Students’ Association, any student with a sense of decency and humanity