Not Heard but not Silent

11:30 am, Saturday, July 2, 2016. After a sleepless night, I learn that Ishrat Akhond was at Holey Artisan Bakery. I immediately call her, only to find out that the phone is disconnected. And then my last SMS to her . . . It's all over by then.

Bangladesh is on the map for all the wrong reasons. #HoleyArtisanBakery, #Gulshan, #Bangladesh are all trending on Twitter. For once, I wished these were all nondescript words. 

Within 72 hours of the Holey Artisan Bakery tragedy, we, the social media warriors, reach solid conclusions covering the whole gamut of our imaginations, based on our unquestionable expertise on counter terrorism, intelligence gathering, operational planning, multi-dimensional force deployment, commando operations, post operations debriefing, video analysis, facial/pattern recognition, forensics, postmortem, criminal psychology, hostage negotiations, investigative journalism and comparative religion. I am optimistic that within a week, we will successfully conclude the investigations of the BDR mutiny, the murders of Sagor, Runi, Tonu, Avijit, … all the way to the assassination of JFK, who shot JR and last but not the least, find out Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Meanwhile, there is the expected rhetoric on whether it is an incident that is isolated, foreign controlled or home grown.

The word 'isolated' gives a sense of security. Then again isolated planets make a solar system and isolated solar systems make a galaxy which when we look up into the sky to observe, we see clear, defined shapes. And that clear shape consisting of isolated events is the ideology of intolerance, hate and violence. That is perhaps the more important thing to take note of.

And so all of a sudden, even the Columbine High School, Virginia Tech and so many other school shootings in the US also don't seem to be isolated incidents. The perpetrators are young, but more so, very, very angry from being lonely, shunned or being an outcast. And then, somewhere, somehow they find solace and meaning, either through solitary 'soul searching', or through the 'comforting' yet highly organised beckoning of a highly organised force. 

If the latter is so successful in luring the confused, impressionable minds sitting on the fence, then there surely can be a force a thousand times stronger, fueled by a populace a million times larger, pulling the same solitary figure on the fence in the other direction.

So, to wake up the already woken up silent majority, let us start with us parents. The Holey Artisan Bakery tragedy is another reminder of the fact that it is not money that our kids seek, but it is our love, attention and most importantly, our time and friendship (yes, that's right, friendship) that they crave for when they're young. It is exactly the same things that they desperately need, but may not necessarily seek, once they are young adults. Giving an iPad to the kid keeps him distracted and happy while we, the parents, are free to pursue our own needs and pleasures, not knowing where our children end up getting (probably through that same iPad) that very love, attention, time and friendship that we, as parents have selfishly deprived them of.

When the Nazis were beefing up their arsenals, there was a silent majority in Germany. When the Japanese imperialism was brewing up, there was a silent majority in the Land of the Rising Sun. Even when George W. Bush and cronies decided to storm into Iraq (and in essence give birth to ISIS), there was a silent majority, who, according to Mr. Bush himself, were 'with them' by default from not being 'with us'.

The deviation from peaceful Islam, as in all these major upheavals in history, is once again engineered by a few. But one slight difference this time is that the one billion plus peace loving Muslims are not quite that silent a majority anymore, but working away in disparate pockets around the world to address this cancer called radical terrorism. Being unheard, thanks to global media's disinterest in reporting on this as opposed to the mayhem, is not the same as being silent. 

After I come out of the Janaaza prayers of the Holey Artisan Bakery victims, a person comes and tells me, "Naveed, do NOT stop making us laugh. In fact, you need to do it all the more now to show how resilient we are." Maybe – that is part of the exercise of not remaining silent. 

But after this unthinkable tragedy that happened less than a mile from my home, who will cheer ME up?

The writer is an engineer at Ford & Qualcomm USA and CEO of IBM & Nokia Siemens Networks Bangladesh turned comedian (by choice), the host of ABC Radio's Good Morning Bangladesh and the founder of Naveed's Comedy Club. 

E-mail: naveed@naveedmahbub.com.