Operation: Dard and Devotion

The Beginning: February 17, 2015

The Completion: March 20, 2016

BEFORE YOU PROCEED, KNOW THAT THIS SECTION IS THE GRANDFATHER OF ALL SPOILERS.  

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Alright, kids. Grab some milk and cookies because it's story time (if you're allergic to either of those items, find something else :p)

The idea to write something regarding the Middle East was on my mind for over a year (anyone remember Bloodied Innocence?), but I kept putting it off because I wasn't sure how to go about it. The region is filled with a lot of sensitive issues and I did not want to offend anyone or mess up the facts, so I decided to not write about it all, that is, until something changed my mind completely.

In January 2015, I had stepped foot into a required Public Speaking course. I had been absolutely dreading the semester because public speaking is one of my biggest fears. I figured I would somehow make enough effort just to pass the class and then be done with it. We were required to give four main speeches throughout the span of the semester. We had the freedom to choose our topics and initially, I thought I'd do something easy until one Monday morning, the professor asked us to share what we did over the weekend, and then he shared what he did. He went to see American Sniper, a film that had been playing in theaters.

Now, American Sniper is a film based on a memoir of the same name, written by Chris Kyle, an American soldier who went on four war tours in the span of six years in Iraq post-9/11. With the claim of having killed over 255 Iraqis - even though only 166 have been confirmed - Kyle is notorious for having been "the most lethal sniper in U.S history". In his book, Kyle says that he "loved" killing "savages" and that he "doesn't give a flying **** about the Iraqis". As a side note, Kyle was killed by a fellow war veteran in Texas, USA in February 2013. Here are two quotes from his book. Interpret them as you'd like (yes, I took these out of context, but these seemed like standalone quotes to me):

"Savage, despicable evil. That's what we were fighting in Iraq...I only wish I had killed more. Not for bragging rights, but because I believe the world is a better place without savages out there taking American lives."

"...When God confronts me with my sins, I do not believe any of the kills I had during the war will be among them. Everyone I shot was evil. I had good cause on every shot. They all deserved to die."

That's quite a statement, especially considering that Iraq had a) nothing to do with 9/11, and b) had no traces of "weapons of mass destruction" as it had been widely believed. In simpler terms, America invaded and bombed a country without tangible evidence that it was a severe threat. I've seen interviews of minorities, including Christians, who actually said life in Iraq was better under Saddam Hussein, who is also responsible for a number of lives. Think about it the intensity of that statement. And who is beginning to take over there now? Daesh.

Trying to find reasons so that I would not totally lose faith in American troops (I don't find much reason in hating a whole army because of a handful of cruel soldiers. That's like saying all Muslims are bad and that all Muslims should be judged based on the small percentage of rotten ones), I came across so many interviews from soldiers who had served in Iraq and said wonderful things about Iraqi people and their culture. It was truly heartwarming to read. Some of them even openly stated that they did not understand why they were sent to Iraq in the first place. Just as an "Islamic" terrorist is a horrible representation for all Muslims, Chris Kyle is not a sufficient spokesperson for all American soldiers. Chris Kyle's war is not every soldier's war. I hope you all understand that.

Back to my story. When my professor spoke about the film, he glorified it, he really loved it. In the beginning, I thought it was merely an appreciation for the cinematic effects, which, I have to admit, were pretty good. But that wasn't it. He loved every second of the film, also called the Iraqis "savages", and even proclaimed Kyle to be a "true American hero". Needless to say, I was kinda disturbed despite not having any Iraqi roots.

On a side note, I do genuinely feel that if a film that was recently released (as in, if it had come out within the past year), labeling all Caucasians or all Africans as "savages", surely there would be a huge uproar, no? And rightfully so.

Now, to be fair, my professor was perhaps in his 70s or 80s and overall, a fairly amiable man. However, when it came to issues of religion and politics, that is where he and I had extremely opposing views. He, of course, is entitled to his own opinion, but I was more bothered with the realization that he was just one of the many people who thought that way about those in the Middle East. As dramatic as it sounds, the thought of such close-mindedness sickens me to the core. Day after day, he'd throw in little snippets of his extreme viewpoints on various things and I kept my thoughts to myself, until the day we were discussing the triple Chapel Hill shootings the day after it happened (which, by the way, my classmates had not heard of until he brought it up). This execution-styled shooting occurred on February 11, 2015 and Craig Stephen Hicks brutally murdered Deah Barakat (age 23), his wife, Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha (age 21) and her sister, Razan Mohammed Abu-Salha (age 19). Like a lot of people, my professor said it happened due to a parking dispute, and that it was not a hate crime.

And that was the first time in my entire life where I had spoken out against a teacher.

I felt like a fool, arguing with someone who seemed to have believed that anyone who was non-Catholic (specifically that Christian denomination - he didn't seem so fond of other Christian sects) and non-white was up to no good. As the teacher, he had the upper hand in the Chapel Hill dispute, since it was just me vs. him, and nobody else in the class knew enough about the issue to speak up. I went home that day feeling horrible that I wasn't able to defend Deah, Yusor and Razan further. I felt very sick, literally, and put myself on mental shutdown for the rest of that week. That's when it hit me.

Even it was only to twenty people, I could use the required speeches to help inform others about what was going on in the world. And for each speech, I did a truckload of research. I talked about things ranging from 'Terrorism All Over the World' where I pinpointed extremist events committed by people of all skin colors, and of various religions - not just the deeds done by the stereotypical terrorists, the brown Muslims. I showed graphic, gory pictures to the class as much as I hated looking at them myself. I had to. People simply won't care about something just because you tell them about it, you need to show them why they should care and why this all matters. In other speeches, I focused on stereotypes regarding terrorism, I spoke about positive influential Muslims and how it certainly is possible for people of different backgrounds to unite, and my last speech was exploring the different reasons why people join terrorist groups. My overall point of each speech was that terrorism cannot be defined by race, religion or by any other demographic. There is just one similarity between all terrorist activities: they're all purely evil.

Some classmates came up to me and told me they weren't familiar with a majority of the things that I had talked about and that they had learned a lot. I watched as their faces had contorted every time I had switched the presentation slides to a gruesome image - they really had no idea that such things were actually happening out in the world. What really surprised me was that my professor had emailed me after my final speech and said while he and I have many differing views, he admired my effort in wanting to educate the class.

Then I thought about it. I felt that as a human, I am indirectly obligated to speak out on these things, not just for a class but on other platforms as well. I figured I could use all that I've learned and use my love for writing to compile everything into a book, so Operation: Dard and Devotion was born.

But, I am only one person with a Wattpad account and a decent amount of followers. This story may not go farther than thousands of reads, votes, and comments, but it's definitely a start. There are a whole lot of people who simply don't know or don't care what is going on in the world, or perhaps they just need a wake-up call. That type of ignorance needs to change because it will only worsen the situation and benefit nobody.

We often blame the media for how minorities are perceived. While the initial reaction is to hate the media, in my opinion, that only further insinuates how the media portrays minorities. One way to counter that and go beyond the stereotypes is to do whatever you can so that the media has nothing but good things to say. As with Waheed, you may also have someone in your midst who might be inclined to join an extremist organization. Don't let an opportunity pass if you are given the chance to divert someone away from that kind of evil.

World peace, in my opinion, is just as far-fetched as the existence of unicorns. It most likely will never happen because nations and groups do not profit from peace. They profit from war. Money, profit and selfish/personal gain run this planet and our ignorance will just further distance us from world peace. Don't add to the ignorance, please. With that said, please be mindful that there are many other ethnic/religious groups who are suffering: Kurds, Kashmiris, Native Americans, tribal groups, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Yazidis, and that's just to name a few.

If you are religious/spiritual, don't just pray for one group of people because - depending on your belief system, or lack of - we were all created by One.

Another thing: people have been asking me if Hayat, Ahsan, or if any of the other characters are real. As far as I am aware, no. I took some real events and entwined them into one story (simply because these stories need to be told; more often than not, they are overlooked). However, I will not rule out the fact that many Faizans and Zaakhirs run rampant in our world. There are even people like Ahsan, who struggle with what is good and evil. In addition, there are also people like Hayat, who are oppressed/tortured for simply being honest and good. While she escaped from captivity, she still had a long journey when it came to her mental health.

In the matter of Islam, there are self-proclaimed Muslims like Faizan/Zaakhir, confused and torn Muslims like Ahsan, and simply good Muslims like Hayat. Which one are you?

Beheading Christians and dumping their blood into the Mediterranean Sea is not Islamic. Raping and buying/selling captured women is not Islamic. Murdering people on the spot if they don't show signs of being a Muslim of a specific sect is not Islamic. The list goes on. If that was really "true Islam", then at least half of the world's population would be dead by now. None of that is Islam, it's just pure evil.

Likewise, Buddhists murdering Muslims (Southeast Asia, in particular) is definitely not something Buddha would approve of. Hindus murdering Christians and Muslims in India are completely straying away from their beliefs. And, would Jesus be okay with Christians murdering non-Christians? Absolutely not.

See how terrorism cannot be pinpointed by a specific demographic, be it religion, race, or ethnicity?

One last thing I'd like to mention, this goes without being said, but I need to say it anyway. It is very easy to fall for someone like Ahsan, at least, in a book. I had to romanticize Ahsan slightly more than necessary because if he was not the way he had been, Hayat would've been dead within the first three days upon her arrival in Jordan and the plot would reach an abrupt dead end. Since this is just a story, this attraction is okay, but in reality, I hope you don't let someone into your lives so easy just because that person seems charming and nice. It is not my intention to romanticize a terrorist nor do I condone terrorist activities. What I'm trying to say here is that extremists, who you can't label with stereotypes or give them a one-size-fits-all label, are literally scattered everywhere now and I hope all of you make smart decisions, especially those of you who live in the Middle East where extremism is dangerously thriving more often than not, unfortunately.

I've explored a bit in regards as to why people join terrorist organizations, and in general, I've narrowed it down to these reasons. People do get heavily brainwashed, believing that these actions are granted divine rewards. People may have also stooped low on the scale of poverty and joining an extremist group is their only means for financial stability. Also, people who do not have much to their name, like an education, a job, a family, respect, and more, tend to also join terrorist groups. I know from our point of view, these reasons seem absolutely bizarre and completely the wrong thing to do, but in their war-stricken situation, joining such a group - which promises financial assistance, protection, and divine rewards - seems like the only way out. I'm not condoning this by any means, but if you look at it from another perspective, joining a terrorist group would seem like a reasonable thing to do. That's why some of them join extremists. I said some, not all. Then there are also a bunch of idiots who actually do strut around, wanting to destroy anyone, anything and everything they do not approve of.

So, there you go: I am not a terrorist, nor am I affiliated to a terrorist organization - in case that was on your mind throughout the course of this story.

Phew. I'm done rambling. I'm sorry this was so long, but I wrote all this from my heart and it all needed to be said. I hope this answered most, if not all, of your questions. This is the quickest I've ever completed a story (yeah, just about a year...) and I'm pretty sad that it has come to an end. 

I want to thank everyone who read this story, whether you discovered it a year ago or just yesterday. I know it must have been irritating to wait for updates since I don't have a steady update schedule. Truth is, the reason why I take somewhat-lengthy breaks in between chapters is because a) I do have a busy schedule and b) I need to take a break from writing a lot of gore. While some chapters are a mere four Wattpad pages, there is actually quite a bit of background work and of course, my life doesn't solely revolve around Wattpad.

I really want to thank you ALL for reading and cherishing the story like you did. I found it amazing that so many people were so emotionally invested in something that my wee little brain racked up. I stalk ODaD on social media from time to time (is that creepy or no? Me stalking my own story just by typing it on Google...) and saw that people mention ODaD on their Facebooks, Instagrams, Twitters, Pinterests, and more - even though I'm not active on social media. Thankyou all so much :)

Throughout this entire journey, I have gotten countless amounts of messages of people telling me that I've helped to strengthen their iman (in simple terms, faith) and that they've been reminded of all of the people who are suffering throughout the world and that they learned to truly count their blessings. Every single comment and every vote on each chapter really means a lot - this is just something you will truly (as cliché as that sounds, I really do mean it), and since you all take the time to comment, message me and post on my wall, the least I can do is respond. Even if you are a silent reader, I really would like to know your concluding thoughts on the story overall :) I'd like to know who you are too! :)) I tried my best to get to everyone at least once, which I found harder to do towards as the story reached beyond the halfway mark because there are so many of you and only one of me, haha.

All I ask is that if you plan on rereading and re-commenting, please do not comment spoilers on the earlier chapters. And of course, you should vote on the chapters you liked, if not all ^_^

IT SEEMS LIKE I'M SHOUTING, BUT PLEASE REFRAIN FROM POSTING SPOILERS ON MY WALL OR ON A CHAPTER WHERE IT DOESN'T BELONG. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!

Once again, thankyou so, so, so much for all the support and encouragement. Stay blessed & positive! :)

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BUT WAIT.

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There's just ONE more plot twist.

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Yes, I am the sort of person who includes a plot twist even in the very last author's note.

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...as if this entire book wasn't already filled with cliffhangers and plot twists.

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Sabr (patience), my fellow humans, sabr.

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Keep scrolling, you'll get there.

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...eventually...

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Just a bit longer.

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Just please don't put the following "plot twist" on my wall for everyone to see (if they wanna know, they better read it themselves! :P)

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Okay, ready??

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I am a Christian.  

[UPDATE: As of March 27, 2016, there are sections after this Final Author's Note]