By: Mehran Daregh❖ Introduction
The prolonged stretch of pain signals a nearing cry of agony. I am just as much a part of this world as you are. My heart weighs the same as yours. No one is born brutal—so how did we become so? Come closer and hear me out.❖ The Turning Point
Why did my heart suddenly start beating with those who struck down Charlie? This question burns in me today, and for once, I’m not afraid to ask. I've long awaited someone to speak—perhaps now is the time.Our artists never mocked the faces of Ram, Gautam, Jesus, Mary, Moses, David, Solomon, Lenin, or Marx. We never displayed their caricatures in galleries. Did anyone ever question why Lord Ram had so many marriages? Who said that the Mahabharata was just a struggle for power among brothers? Did anyone ever reveal why Gautam Buddha fled into the forests? Why were black Indians sacrificed for their "ugliness"? What hands committed these acts?
❖ Selective Accountability
Where was the outrage over how women were treated in the church? Or how Caesar of Rome turned men into gladiators before humans even knew of dog fights? In the name of the cross, 50 million were incinerated—who did it, and why?Nelson Mandela carried a gun for forty years and was then rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize. And yet, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is made to bear the burden of Hudaybiyyah, the Constitution of Madinah, and the Conquest of Makkah even today. Are we always the culprits? Why aren’t others held to account?
❖ The Broader Truth
This is not just the outcry of an atheist. Every soul that boils with the pain of injustice is my companion. As Che Guevara once said—when blood boils in response to oppression, would you curse his mother?This age has poisoned the very air we breathe. Every breath now escapes in clouds of cigarette smoke. Centuries of oppression and tyranny have soaked history in blood. Silken bodies sold in markets. Corpses in rags. There’s much to write, to say, to show—but when reason dies, the gun is born.
You killed reason. That was the moment you lost your right to exist.
