Division not the answer
Recently, pictures of French police ordering the removal of a burkini worn by a woman at a beach went viral on media. In a separate incident, construction of a mosque in a Georgia county is facing strong opposition from locals.
To add insight, the Caliph of Islam Mirza Masroor Ahmad (Fifth Supreme Head of the Worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community) has advised Western powers to choke off funding channels to ISIS to stop them in their tracks and defeat them once and for all. If only the intentions of world powers are pure and hell-bent on stopping terrorism.
Banning burkinis and mosques is no solution, but an invitation for more division and religious apartheid. This, in actuality, is déjà vu all over again, a reminder of a deadly past that Europeans suffered during World War II. But back then it was not the Muslims but rather Jews that suffered state-backed apartheid and persecutions. We all know too well the consequences of that.
To conclude, it is sad to see that a century and two world wars later, the world is still divided and seeks to avenge the wrong people in this instance.
Nayyar Ahmed
Pittsburgh
The writer is a member of the Muslim Writers Guild of America