Don’t Be A Religious Bigot!
Omotayo Toheeb
DaPenWarrior
According to Dare Akogun, “Don’t limit yourself because of the bigotry of others”. The first time I heard about that motivational quote, I couldn’t fathom the real meaning behind it. I thought it was some random idea until this friend of mine came to my WhatsApp DM to question my religious affiliation.
Both the friend in question and I attended the same Polytechnic for our National Diploma (ND) program some two years ago, but we stopped hearing from each other after we signed out. It has been two years since our graduation then randomly, I happened to get her contact from our general WhatsApp group containing all the 2022 Mass Communication set.
Truth be told, I was delighted to finally rebuild a Communication channel with her after such a long time, and so she was. We chatted for some times and exchanged pleasantries — during which we both shared our experiences of life ever since we left school. She then did something very annoying. She sent a message to greet me “Happy Sunday”. As someone who is not ardently immersed in religion, I replied to the greeting text with “same to you, dear”, not realizing that I had touched her in the brain.
The next message I received from her was; “is it because you’re a Muslim?” So weird and disgusting question! At first, I felt thoroughly offended that I wanted to hold her to her statement and fire back at her, but then I realized she might be one of the religious bigots who only see the negative side of things.
To everyone generally, Sundays are known as the end of the resting days of an expired week and the gateways to new ones. But her statement got me wondering why someone — who is alive and well — would choose not to live such an auspicious day with everything they’ve got knowing it only comes once in every week.
If you’re the kind of person who takes solace in attacking and condemning other people’s beliefs, cultures, traditions, ethnicities, God didn’t bless at all. So, change!
DPW-P 