WHEN our courts accept to look at what is called cases of tribal incompatibility and stop marriages for this reason, in legal jargon legally it means that our rules and regulations do not object to racial discrimination. If the courts had, during the first hearing itself, punished any one attempting to practice racism through lawsuits, the perpetrators of this crime would have kept quiet and would have never dared to come up with such inhuman utterances. In fact racial discrimination in our society has extended to the degree of murder. We may all remember the story of the young Saudi man who killed his own sister because she wanted to marry a foreigner. The story should still be vivid in our minds because in happened less than three months ago. Recently a Rashidi man wanted to marry a Harbe woman. The racists adopted a disappointing stance which should never have happened in the 21st century. The security forces should have moved fast against the criminals who terrorized the girl and her family. These criminals made the Twitter a platform to spread their racist venom while they were feeling assured that they would not be held accountable for their detestable actions. As a matter of fact, I do not really know where racism will take us in the absence of deterrent rules. Racism is a feature of the backward societies. Leaving it to mushroom among our generations is simply a consolidation of our inherited backwardness. I wished so much that our racism had stopped right at our geographical borders. The biggest tragedy is that our racism is at our very home not outside. This makes me always question: what are the genetic characteristics that we may be liable to lose if we have inter-racial marriages? We only have the worst kind of skin and color, black pigments in the knees and our eyes are neither green nor blue. So we have no outstanding features to lose. We, therefore, have no reason to fear that our “unique” genetic features may be forever lost if we marry people from other races. There are no fears that our “distinguished” race may be something of the past as a result of intermarriages. What are the logical reasons behind this abhorrent racism in our society? The world is changing. Racism has become part of the history of the people who have overcome their backwardness. Regretfully we are still practicing all types of racism even among our own people. More than that our society is publicly boasting of its racism. This should never have happened because we are a Muslim society. Islam is totally against any form of racial discrimination. This great religion has revolted against racism. It considers all human beings equal without any consideration of race, creed or color. When will we correctly apply the teachings of Islam? When are we gong to stop being proud that we are Muslims while we practice the worst kind of racism? By so doing we are moving far away from the spirit of Islam. How can we ask certain segments of society that their complete loyalty should be to the homeland while these people are feeling the brunt of racism and racial discrimination against them? We are practicing all forms of racism whether in our direct dealings with the others or in our social norms such as marriages. The tribal racists are filling the courts with lawsuits and are organizing campaigns to propagate tribalism. These are ignorant people who need to be stopped come what may. We need a radical revolution against racism. Without this sweeping revolution and stern laws, racism will continue to flourish in our country. Racism will further increase our illiteracy and backwardness whether we feel it or not.
