The Kite Runner, lagi

Then one day, I was in Baba’s study, looking through his stuff, when I found one of my mother’s old history books. It was written by an Iranian named Khorami. I blew the dust of it, sneaked it into bed with me that night, and was stunned to find an entire chapter on Hazara history. An entire chapter dedicated to Hassan’s people!
In it, I read that my people, the Pashtuns, had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras. It said the Hazaras had tried to rise against the Pashtuns in the nineteenth century, but the Pashtuns had “quelled them with unspeakable violence.” The book said that my people had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their lands, burned their homes, and sold their women. The book said part of the reason Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras was that Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras were Shi’a. The book said a lot of things I didn’t know, things my teachers hadn’t mentioned.

The following week, after class, I showed the book to my teacher and pointed to the chapter on the Hazaras. He skimmed through a couple of pages, snickered, handed the book back. “That’s the one thing Shi’a people do well,” he said, picking up his papers, “passing themselves as martyrs.” He wrinkled his nose when he said the word Shi’a, like it was some kind of disease.
[The Kite Runner, Bloomsbury, Paperback edition 2004, page 8]

—

“Why are you here? I mean, why are you really here?”
“I told you.”
“For the boy?”
“For the boy.”
Farid shifted on the ground. “It’s hard to believe.”
“Sometimes I myself can hardly believe I’m here.”
“No… What I mean to ask is why that boy? You come all the way from America for… a Shi’a?”
[The Kite Runner, Bloomsbury, Paperback edition 2004, page 233]

—

Ngilu. Itu yang saya rasa.
Kerana sejarah memang membuktikan ahli Sunnah sentiasa menzalimi dan menindas pendokong Syiah zaman-berzaman. Bukan cuma dalam novel manipulatif fiksi ini. Tetapi juga ditinta dalam buku-buku sejarah.

Malu. Kerana saya Sunni.
Kerana saya adalah dalam golongan yang menindas itu.

Sunni atau Syiah, kita sama-sama Muslim, kan?
Kita sama-sama manusia, kan?