I remained silent
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; for I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
Finally when they came for me, there was nobody left; nobody left to speak for me.
I recently came across this English translation of the German poem called, ‘I remained silent’. It is believed Pastor Martin-Niemoller wrote this haunting poem to highlight the complicity and cowardly behaviour of German intellectuals and the media during the rise of Nazis.
After reading this poem I asked myself, ‘Today, aren’t the Muslims repeating the same mistake the Germans did?’ The answer my mind gave me was, ‘Yes’
Today in all Muslim countries people are being killed and abducted by Muslim Governments and various agencies linked to it. This is happening everywhere be it Pakistan, Central Asia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Malaysia or Sudan. If the majority of the Muslims didn’t remain silent their governments will not do these things.
If at all Muslim don’t remain silent, just think, whom do Muslims blame for these abductions and crimes? They blame the Americans and Israel and come up with all sorts of excuses for the state of the Muslim world. True, other countries esp. America play a huge role in the things happening in the Muslim world but it is ultimately the incompetent Muslim Governments and rulers who are responsible for these crimes. Where is the protests against the Muslim Governments? Why are Muslims silent?
“The cruelest crimes in history was not done by the tyranny of a few but the silence of the majority at the face of tyranny.”
PS. Shall I tell you a secret? Do you know who these ‘silent Muslims’ are?… It is no one else but you and me…
See also
The Problem (with the Muslim World)
1 MUSLIM NATION 
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Assalamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullah
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Wa’salam
Waalaikum salam,
alhadullilah, I am very happy to hear this. Jazakallahu haira.
Poignant and powerful thoughts here!
i’ve getting pretty fed up with the silence and am begining to believe the silence is do to agreementwith radical beliefs or just hatred of americans or anyone non-muslim. I’ve never seen anything more idiodic than to get so worked up over a cartoon or a personnaming a teddy bear after your profit. the contrast speaks volumes .when a chistian is confronted with opposing views they typically pray for that person that GOD may show them love and understanding when a muslim is confronted the answer seems to be to kill or wip that person there is no logic in islam.how can you say you are a religon of love and peace when your actions or inaction are so oppisite the way you treat your women is also medevil.I’ve heard the purpose of the clothes you make your women wear in to prevent the men from being tempted do muslim men have so little control over themselves that they have to compensate for they’re shortcomings by imposing such a hidious restriction on they’re women I feel sorry for you try to stand up and take some personal respousiblity please.Are muslim men really men or just mice that go along with what they are told out of fear.my personal thoughts are thatislam is an insecure religion that uses theats and intimidation to keep its people in line. Why do most muslim nations make it illeagal to convert to another religion and whats up with this 72 virgin thing is that really what GOD wants us to focus on to get to hevan thats pretty peverted.
Muslims these days are acting very unIslamic, preaching violence and doing very crazy things. El Hamd lilah i know that Muslims don’t always follow Islam, because if i was not a Muslim and i didn’t understand the beauty, peace and mercy of Islam i would think it was a crazy fanatical Arab Cult!!
please if you haev a minute take a look at my view on my blog
http://www.modernpharaoh.blogspot.com
i am not sure whether you are tariq or someone else
but you know nothing about islam and what’s happening all around the world
YOU ARE ILLITERATE JERK
The poem you posted actually has various versions. It is called “First They Came…” by the author you noted, and in its original form it reads (translated into English):
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Variations of this poem appear on various Holocaust monuments in the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came…
asalamualaykum all,
pls note that the link posted by Tareq is of pro-secular ideals.
may Allah guide you!
talking about being a muslim?? and u have a picture of gay dictator mustafa kemal …. lol
kids with blogs nowadays….
regarding to ur post, i want to clarify that in Malaysia, no Muslim government abducted and killed the Muslim. Its very false statement to make.
I’m Malaysian Muslim and i’m very sure about it.
except for the mistake of the fact, the intention of the post was great.
i’ve worked in malaysia. this is posed to the malaysian in here.
the fact that the mainly muslim government has oppressed and suppressed the Indians and Chinese for like the longest time ever, how do you explain that?? the muslims may not have killed them, but pushing them far off is a form of slow death
2ndly, whats up with the Bumiputera system?? where RACE is superior???
its just bullshit and the Malays in Malaysia are the biggest racists in Asia.
funny how for a nation who dislikes eating pigs – you sure love acting like one!
about Malaysia, I suggest you all people to searche in google, how some of their people treat Indonesian workers and Indonesian women. Search “Nirmala Bonat and Siti Hajar” on google, there are such many and many more cases. How some Malaysian people ironed their backs, how they did such abusive things like animals..I said some, because not all Malaysians do these thing. Jerks are Jerks. No matter from where they are. No matter what Nationality you have, no matter you live in Khilafah sistem or seculer sistem. Psycophats don’t choose blood or Nationality. There will be always bad-good people around us.
Real muslim doesn’t hate other muslim.
For your info miss Laila, Nirmala and Siti Hajar was abused by non muslim. Like you said, real muslim doesn’t hate other muslim. Now, who is the jerks?. I worship the same God as you are. So, please be fair. May Allah S.W.T bless you.
It’s obvious that some of the people who commented know little to nothing about islam, because if they did they would never talk about islam in such a degrading way. I suggest you inform yourselves before you start talking about things you aren’t part of. you can study Islam in Universities and become a Proffessor but if you don’t live the religion you can’t know the beauty behind it. All some of you see is veiled women and men with long beards on the TV protesting against the western world. Did you ever think what truly is behind all this? Or are you blinded by your clichés? We are veiled because Allah wants us to, men have beards because it is sunnah, we don’t eat pig because it is an omnivore and thus it is forbidden. If you knew the true islam then you would know the following hadith, too: The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:
“Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is oppressed.” The Prophet was asked: “It is right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?” He replied: “By preventing him from oppressing others.”
{Sahih Bukhari, Volume 3, Hadith 624}
Totally agreed. They’re simply media-victims.
And who want to lift their asses from tv to find about islam directly to the source if the tv providing good-to-watch-listen-and-cursed news about those muslims. I think really not too much. But still hoping afterward..
Well said s. t.