Sami: Stop promoting misinformation

India is the only nation in the world that has seven major religions and 22 languages recognized in its constitution. Many other existing religions and 122 other languages in small figures follow behind. Having that magnitude of diverse culture, religion, languages, food and lifestyles, a person tends to get adjusted to the differences.

I mean, look at me. I’m a Muslim who studied in a Catholic school most of my life and lived in a Hindu-dominant state (South Indian). Every day I spent at school was a learning adventure. Every person was different — different in almost every aspect, and probably the reason why I can easily accept differences and believe more in the ultimate results of a person’s character.

During my teenage years, I was hooked to a youth chick flick series. Whenever I wanted to watch it, my mom would already have the remote in hand ready to watch the news. So ultimately, I would give in and we both would end up watching the news. The more I watched, the more I got involved with the politics, the conspiracy, the games played by powerful people while the common people mostly suffered and were hypnotically played like puppets. They are often lied to and used in the name of unity and national security. People were blamed and conflicts were created.

Since I was a teenager, I couldn’t really understand the adult mind and the politics people played. I was angry because I believed almost everything the media portrayed. What was also shocking was the realization of how people let the media influence their thinking, their minds, their perceptions and eradicating the little amount of humanity that one has.

So one day I asked my mom if what the media showed was true. That day my mom said something I follow to this day. She said: “If 50 million people say something is stupid, it still is stupid. Nothing is learned until you see it. Try to comprehend. And when you can’t see it, use your mind and heart. A human has great power.”

I didn’t understand the magnificent meaning behind those words initially. When any religion was blamed, when any sect of people were pointed out, it wouldn’t make much sense to me. I wasn’t entirely a fan with the idea of hating someone. So again I did as my mom asked me to: to not consider someone stupid until I actually meet someone stupid, to understand and comprehend a small truth out of a big lie, to believe a person right next to me rather than a person who is thousands of miles away speaking about people they don’t even know about.

In the world of politics, the world is getting too corrupt. Greed, power and money are destroying humanity. The smartness, the intellectualism we are supposed to instill is turning out to be hard and unkind instead of being humble. We are all being victims of the systems — feeling what another source wants us to feel and think. Most of the actions we do are from the noise of other peoples’ thinking and their results.

Let’s stop promoting misinformation and fear. Expand our knowledge and our worldview, and focus on the many wonderful things that happen in the world every day. People who judge, complain and mourn a nonexistent perfect past are always part of the problem, not the solution.

I’m not writing this column to condemn acts, and prove innocence or anything. My only intension with this column is to help. Help to think.

No two persons can be same. So for one person’s gruesome act you cannot blame the entire religion. The fact that believing or not believing in religion doesn’t allow hurting or killing of innocent people. In fact, there is no religion for the people who kill. No religion teaches to kill. No religion teaches to go against other religion. With this “us versus them” mentality, I don’t know how many more people will have to die when the world finally wakes up to the truth that we are humans first and then Muslim, Christian, Atheist or whatever second. No religion teaches people to think of themselves as superior. Don’t be too proud, because we can’t we tear apart the earth nor can we rival the mountains in height. Stop being a god and start being a human.

We are humans. When we are capable of make machines, going to the moon, studying science and running countries, then we are also capable of loving, giving, being kind and being adventurous and smart — smart enough to think, to think that the world is full of manipulation and conspiracy. But in spite of the bad, you have to get through the good. You have to win being good; no one wants to be a corrupt winner.

The influence of media can be devastating for the present and the future, and one small way to overcome the ugly side of the media is to communicate and think. If you have a problem with someone, if you have a negative perception towards some religion, go do some research. Talk to those people and communicate. Believe the person you sit next to, interact and laugh with people rather than stereotyping the whole group. Stop being numb. Feel and spend every day loving and accepting something different and new. And most importantly, don’t forget you are a human.

Shagufta Sami is a second-year computer science graduate student.