There are currently seven other genocides happening in the world right now. The Uyghurs of China, the Tigrays of Ethiopia, the Armenians, the Congolese, the Sudanese, the Rohingya of Myanmar, and the people West Papua.

This is the part of genocidal tactics that targets the memory. That targets the coffee shops you used to study at, the library you used to read in, the bench you used to watch the ocean waves mingle with the shore. It targets the amphitheater you graduated in, the yard you planted trees in, and the roads that led to everyone you love and hold dearly. It also targets your photographs, your identity papers and documents.

Patrick Wolfe, credited with establishing the field of Settler Colonial studies said “settler colonizers come to stay: [and settler colonization] is a structure not an event.”

A simple illustration of how settler colonialism should not be regarded as some past phenomenon, but that it is constantly being reproduced in front of us today. It is a structure that persists over us.

This happens both through new-age colonial projects such as Canada, Australia and Israel. But it also depicts that, though we are often unaware, we find ourselves in the late stages, sometimes the most important and critical stage, of settler colonialism.

In 1947, after years of uprisings and mob violence, the Indian Subcontinent, filled with uncountable cultures, languages and histories was split into two new countries. East and West Pakistan for the Muslims. And India for the Hindus and Sikhs.

The border, the western-most one which split down the middle the land and culture of Punjab, the Land of Five Rivers, caused unimaginable horror and pain. One small part of a gigantic land mass that witnessed terror in every corner and crevice of its heavenly lands. Pain that has been passed on in ways we still don't understand in South Asian bloodlines across the globe today.

I, Bear, Witness.

To be a Muslim is to bear witness to the suffering and injustice in this world. To recognize the significance of every lived experience. To recognize humanity, and the value of a single life. Because in Islam to save a life is as if you’ve saved all of humanity itself.

The name I carry. One I gave myself: Qi Yama. Comes from Yawm Al Qiyamah, known as the Day of Reckoning. Or the Day of Judgement. On that day, when humanity will be scattered like moths. We will be called to testify. As will every tree, rock, bird and living or non living being on this planet. We’ll be called to testify against you and your crimes. And against ourselves as well. Our tongues will bear witness to what our hands and feet used to do.