Music, Love And Manchester...

I was fourteen years old when I went to my first, proper pop concert.  I had seen live music before that, but never a group I had truly hero-worshipped.  911 - a typical 90s boyband, for those of you too young to remember - were my world.  I can still vividly recall walking into Birmingham NEC, seeing thousands of excited fans, smelling snack foods and body spray, buying an overpriced tour programme, just to stare lovingly at Lee Brennan's face before the show started and he'd actually be there, on stage...  So much of that night is forever imprinted on my memory.  It not only strengthened my adoration of a band who put on one heck of a show, but it kickstarted my enormous love of live music, which endures to this day.

I went with my eleven year old sister.  She wasn't even much of a 911 fan, but she'd gone along, just the same.  Two young girls, on an exciting night out without their parents.  

Mum and Dad dropped us off at the venue and promised they'd be waiting for us at the end.  I can still remember the lights coming up, music still ringing in my ears, my face all hot and sweaty.  I was so excited to tell my parents all about it and to thank them for the tickets.

On Monday night, a similar scene would have unfolded for thousands of young pop music fans.  Saying goodbye to their parents, who'd be dutifully picking them up later.  Rushing to find their seats.  Screaming, singing and losing themselves completely in the unbridled joy that live music can bring.

It should have ended just like my first pop concert; with excited stories on the way home.  Kids unable to sleep, because the songs were still swirling through their heads.

By now, we all know that the unthinkable happened, instead.

More than twenty people - over half of them children - lost their lives when a cowardly terrorist detonated a bomb as the concert-goers were leaving the arena in Manchester, causing a blast that also left more than 50 people with serious injuries.

It's unbearable.

It's unbearable, because these were the most innocent people in society - children, teenagers, families sharing an exciting night out, together.  

It's unbearable, because music brings us so much joy, which is in stark contrast with the pain, suffering and anger so many families must be experiencing in the wake of such a tragedy.

It's unbearable, because yet again, the need to place blame has led to Islamophobia, fear-mongering and hate.

And you can't kill hate with more of it.

What this horrendous individual (I won't type his name here; he does not deserve that dignity) did on Monday was not a religious act.  What this sick, twisted little perpetrator did was an extreme act of terror.  And ISIS, who have taken responsibility for this cowardice, want us to be fearful and to spread hatred towards innocent Muslims as a result.  Why?  Because that is how they indoctrinate "soldiers" to their pathetic "cause."

"Look how hated you are by these infidels," they whisper into the ears of naive and often very young men and women.  "It's time to teach them a lesson."

Don't give them what they want.

Don't look at a minority of violent losers and allow them to represent the whole of Islam.  There are 1.6 billion Muslims on this planet and the vast majority of them are decent people.

Like the Muslim taxi drivers, who were offering free lifts home to stranded concert-goers on Monday night.

Like the Muslim doctors and nurses, working around the clock, trying to save the lives of innocent victims caught up in the blast.

Like the Muslim Mancunians, attending the vigil for the dead, missing and injured, yesterday.

Each of those people shares your anger.  Your hurt.  Your heartbreak.  But unlike you, they also too often face the brunt of it from others, purely because these sickening attacks are carried out in the name of "Islam."

The anger we all feel at what happened on Monday is justifiable.  The fear we might experience as the UK's terror threat level is increased to "critical" is understandable.  The demand that terror cells are weeded out and that those who threaten us are properly punished is understandable, too.  I want that.  Every Muslim I've spoken to online, since the tragedy in Manchester took place, wants it, too.

It's important to direct our feelings to the right places.  If every single one of the 1.6 billion Muslims on this planet was a violent murderous terrorist, I would almost certainly not be alive to write this blog, right now.  1.6 billion people is an extraordinary army.  But the fact is, only a very minimal percentage of those people have been indoctrinated into the kind of extremism that promotes terror.  Our justifiable anger - hate, even - must be directed to that minority.

But, as I said earlier, you don't kill hate with hate.

It's love that is proving that terrorism will never win.

It's the people opening their houses to let those who were stranded after the bombing, find a place to stay.

It's the people comforting one another in the streets.

It's the strangers, offering money for taxis, hotels or food.

It's the people taking bottles of water and food to hospitals, so that the parents whose children have been critically injured, don't have to leave their bedsides.

Yesterday, someone I follow on Twitter commented that we have to let life continue, because anything else is cowing to terrorism.  Almost immediately, he had racists telling him he was "an Islamist snowflake," or that he was "dismissing the memory of those killed."

No.

By living, we cherish the memories of those lost.  

By playing the music they loved, by reminiscing over concerts we attended when we were young, we are celebrating the joy they felt, before their lives were so cruelly snuffed out.

By wrapping our arms around each other and supporting one another, we are showing that love is stronger than hate and always will be.  By refusing to smear innocent people, simply because they belong to a religion that has been taken and twisted to fit an extremist agenda, we show that we are better than the terrorists could ever hope to be.  And we show them that their ideals have no place in our world.  We condemn them not only with our words, but more importantly, with our actions and reactions.

Love will always outshine hate.  And it's fair to say that love and music have always been closely intertwined, in my life.  They always will be.  

And it's with love for those lost in my heart, that I will play my music a little louder, today.  Because terror can never take love away.

"La Tristesse Durera..." - Thoughts on the Paris Terrorist Attacks

Credit: Jean Jullien.

Yesterday, I woke up feeling like I had reasons to be upset or stressed out.  Unread Facebook messages, misunderstandings between friends, Christmas gifts that should have arrived ages ago...  All these thoughts - and more - occupied my mind.  And every single one of them was utterly trivial.

This morning, I woke up.  Too often, we don't even think about how lucky we really are.

Whilst millions of us sat down around the TV with our families last night, dozens of people were being caught up in something unimaginable.  Whilst I curled up on the sofa - a cup of tea in my hands and a dog on my lap - not that far away, in Paris, innocent people were being gunned down.  People going to watch a football match.  People out for dinner.  People seeing a band in concert.  People with no weapons, or political agendas.  People who had not signed up to any kind of war.  Just people.

Ever since 9/11, stories like that which unfolded in Paris last night have become depressingly familiar.  Powerful minority groups - and it's vital to remember that these barbarians do not represent all of their religion - have successfully killed thousands of innocent people, in their bloodthirsty belief that they are right and justified in waging war against the West.

Credit: www.worldaiduk.com

The word "Jihad" has been used to describe the violence inflicted by the likes of Islamic State, or Al Qaeda.  But it is done so wrongly.

"Jihad" is not a word intended to refer to the violent slaughter of innocents.  It's not supposed to mean a declaration of war against other religions, or cultures.  The word "Jihad" has many meanings.  It can refer to the act of striving to be a good Muslim, informing others about the religion's teachings, or protecting the faith against others who wish to bring it harm.  In Islam, "Jihad" must only ever refer to force when no peaceful option is available and should such action ever be used, there must never be violence meted out on innocent people (more info here).

It's important to remember that.  In the wake of such atrocities, there is, unfortunately, almost always misinformation and a desire for recriminations.  We must never think for a second that our enemy is Islam.  Our enemy are those who take the name of the religion and twist it in order to "justify" their lust for control, bloodshed and catastrophe.  IS and their like are no more representative of Islam than the KKK are of Christianity.

Despite their words of "battle," IS and other terrorists like them are essentially cowards.  How else can you possibly describe an "army" who wages war against the unarmed, the unprepared and the innocent?  These aren't soldiers, going in to fight against people on anything remotely resembling "fair" terms.  These are butchers, taking the lives of people who cannot escape, because, until it's too late, they have no idea that they need to.  There is nothing honourable or brave about attacking men, women and children who are merely going about their lives.  To do so is despicable.  It's understandable that in the wake of last night's disastrous events in Paris, so many muslims felt the need to publicly condemn the terrorists.  But it's depressing that they feel they have to, for fear of judgement.  Those men in France last night, with their guns and their explosives, weren't representing the whole of Islam.  Anyone with the ability to think for themselves should be well aware of that.

Wembley's arch was lit up in the colours of the French flag, last night.  Many places around the world followed suit.

When I climbed into bed last night, my heart felt too heavy for my chest.  I thought of those people, held hostage and killed in terrifying circumstances, when all they did was go out to see a band.  I thought of so many families, desperately trying to reach loved ones.  I thought of people who had gone out for dinner, or to see a football game, only to have their lives taken, or changed forever.  I thought of the residents of Paris, trapped in their own homes, watching the horror unfolding on their television screens.  I thought of the millions of peaceful muslims around the world, who will now fear reprisals from people too ignorant to realise that Islam does not condone these atrocities.  I thought of the thousands, upon thousands of people killed in acts of terror all over the globe, many of which just don't receive the same coverage, but are equally tragic for all those involved.  I even thought about the people indoctrinated into extremism and how their lives could have been different, had they never had their minds so shockingly manipulated.

And then, just as the tears began to subside and I realised how enormously lucky I was to be in a safe place, able to tell the people I love how precious they are to me, I thought of humanity and how it somehow always manages to prevail.  Because in a city in which murderers were holding terrified concert-goers hostage, there were also taxi drivers switching off their meters and driving people home to safety for free.  In a place where bodies lay in the streets, the residents were tweeting their addresses with the hashtag "#porteouverte" (open door), so that strangers, stranded with no safe place to run, could take sanctuary with them.  This morning, whilst bullet holes remain in walls of old Paris buildings, hundreds line the streets to give blood for those seriously injured as a result of these despicable attacks.

There may be a minority of brainwashed, dangerous individuals, intent on causing us harm, but the rest of the world is united as one.  We are, regardless of faith, nationality or the colour of our skin, just people.  Humanity is capable of horrendous atrocities.  But we are capable of incredible unity, love and empathy, too.  That, more so now than ever, is something we must cherish and cling to.  

There is almost certainly a long, frightening and violent road ahead.  We may all pray for peace, but we are dealing with a force intent on destruction and we must be aware that there is no magical, quick fix in this situation, however much we desperately wish for such a thing to exist.  But we do have a sense of unity.  We do have hope.  We have each other.

Today, I will hold my loved ones that bit tighter.  I will grieve for the people who will never again have that same chance.  I will feel sick to my stomach at the slaughter that took place in France's beautiful capital city last night.  But I will remind myself: 

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness.  Only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate.  Only love can do that."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Let's none of us resort to misinformed hatred towards innocents who do not represent the actions of these terrorists.  Let's refuse to use what happened in Paris to further any kind of closed-minded political agenda.  Let's never allow a hateful minority to extinguish the freedom we are so lucky to have.  Let's instead show love to those who need it.  Let's hold on to hope.

"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise."