A lot has happened since my last update; an ongoing presidential election in the US with surprising upsets, the Delhi riots in India, my own discussions with Ex-Muslims of North America members on Twitter over their selective outrage, and so much more.
I didn’t want to make an angry retort as a blog post, so I decided to wait until I was sure that I was calm and wouldn’t ramble with vitriol. Before this process, upon seeing the initial response from the likes of Sarah Haider, Muhammad Syed, and especially Abdul Hurayrah, the lesser-known but no less important project administrator of Ex-Muslims of North America on Twitter, a metaphorical switch just seemed to flip in my head and I decided to just give-up on them entirely. Seeing subsequent responses from them towards their own Twitter feeds and to me personally, it only strengthened this strange internal click that overwhelmed my emotional state. I’ve since unfollowed most of the Ex-Muslims throughout social media, I left a do not recommend on the Ex-MNA Facebook page, and I’ve decided that if they really are hellbent on their current course of action then what is the point of even listening or trying to communicate with them? They’re ignoring the human rights of Hindus in India and don’t even seem to consider CAA from a rational standpoint such as comparing the effects of Islamic immigration in places like the UK where grooming gangs are becoming the norm. Worsening the issue is a resolute refusal by the UK government that it is disproportionately occurring in Muslim communities with perpetrators being overwhelmingly Muslim. The CAA law of India isn’t even a Muslim ban, it’s a fast track for particular religious minorities that are in serious peril to gain Indian citizenship for their own safety, but even this discrepancy – and their own work in pointing it out in places like Pakistan which have rape conversions of minority religious girls – seem to be facts which slip their mind. It’s as if they refuse to connect the dots and as a result, they have no clear objective and seem more like angry nihilists whining about political people in power. Most importantly though, any serious criticism for their views is shut down by Ex-Muslims as being filled with ill intent, it is often mocked as idiotic, and the criticism is never addressed. They usually cherrypick the dumbest comments; when they select serious comments, the criticism expressed in those comments is not addressed. I’ve stopped seeing them as an earnest human rights group fighting for secularism as a result of their behavior and it instead made me view them as a group of circlejerking nihilists who believe they have all the right answers and any criticism is viewed with contempt and suspicion.
I had perhaps thought of making a 5-part refutation of their views by using several different lenses ranging from personal experience to different subsets of philosophy, but that would just be adding fuel to the fire like before. It would have been very harsh too. Most of what I’ve said before still holds true anyway. The only difference is that the anti-Hindu bigotry was just more blatant from how they expressed themselves after these past Delhi riots, but I was well aware that their bigotry had been there for some time. Given all of this, what would be the point in criticizing them? What would be the point in expending such effort and time? I only do that for issues that I care about and the switch that went off in my head has made me stop caring altogether about Ex-Muslim issues or the supposed “secularism” that Ex-MNA purports to be advocating. This position I’ve taken has troubled me so much, I asked a close friend for their advice and they told me it was the right decision. Heck, even before I asked a close friend, another Ex-Muslim group had privately contacted me and informed me that I shouldn’t feel guilt-tripped into helping any Ex-Muslim group several months back. I had thought that I could perhaps use their feeds to gain a different perspective, but their complete refusal to even acknowledge the human rights of Hindus in their selective news coverage and discussion of the Delhi riots, and the overtly bigoted comments by Sarah Haider of all people, has made me realize that it’s probably not worth my time.
For any fellow Hindus who expended time and effort to follow Ex-MNA, comment on their feeds, and give careful and lengthy responses or angry retorts; it should be made clear that you’re absolutely wasting your time. They don’t care, they won’t listen to you, and they’ll usually accuse you of being a Hindutva boogeyman even if you slightly disagree with what they’re saying. They behave the same way towards Christian Conservatives and sometimes Western Atheists who support Secular causes (judging from the positive responses I received in my criticism of them on Twitter), so it’s not just Hindus. What is to be done then? I recommend doing what I do and I’m speaking as an erstwhile fanboy of Ex-MNA:
Choose indifference.
It’s been made abundantly clear that they don’t care about what Hindus think, so there’s no point in making angry twitter responses or Facebook comments. That’s not worth your time. Relax, listen to some music that helps express your feelings on the situation, and go do something productive with your life that helps benefit Hindu communities, Secularism, persecuted minorities, or whatever important issue that you feel needs better representation. As for me? I’m currently cutting back on internet usage to focus on writing a fantasy novel since I am still technically employed, but not currently working due to the Coronavirus infecting the inventory that would have been imported from China to my workplace.
Although I doubt it, if anyone cares about me writing a 5-part refutation of Ex-MNA from different philosophical perspectives, then let me know in the comments. I sincerely doubt anyone does, but if there are people who care enough about the topic then I’ll start up an outline and begin writing it. Meanwhile, here is some music that, in my personal view, helps express my newfound indifference to Ex-MNA:
