Just deleted my first hate mail/comment just now.

It feels so weird to think that someone would be so irate that he’d take the time and energy to leave a hate-filled comment on a blog like mine.

In a way though, I kind of see it as a bit of a triumph.

What did Gandhi say? First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win.

So when you start getting attacked/made fun of, it means you’re entering a new phase of the game. They can’t afford to just ignore you any more.

It reminds me of how I felt when I debated this anti-Muslim ‘Muslim’ a while back. I was invited onto a TV show to respond to her accusations about Islam. And just sitting out in the waiting room, waiting to enter the studio I realized that with the way things are going, these kinds of attacks on Islam are going to become more frequent. And it’s not like in years past where white ‘Orientalists’ would do the attacking. People are savvy. They’d get other Muslims to do it for them. They’d prop them up and promote the bejeezus out of them and attack Islam left right and centre, and that’s precisely what’s happening.

And up till now they were ignoring me too.

I’ve had a few incidents. Nothing much yet, alhamdu lillah, and they’ve all been unnerving but very very educational.

And whenever it happens I’m always kind of naively shocked that these people attacking me, don’t like me! LOL

And I remind myself over and over again, “Get over yourself honey, NOT everyone is going to like you!”

Even though another part of me replies, “But why not? I’m a nice person!”

LOL

Oh well. What can you do.

I submitted some proposals for a conference coming up in the States. And I finally got my paperwork ready for my trip to Pakistan.

I had to ask myself, “Wait a minute! How many authors these days are lucky enough to be getting invited to international conferences, and getting paid for it!!!” I really am fortunate alhamdu lillah.

And I was chatting with a friend in America and she was saying how some Muslim editor she’d been talking to admired my work and I asked, wow, she knew about me? And my friend said I shouldn’t be so humble. That I was the first ‘real’ Muslim author and she’d admired my work for so long.

And I thought okay, wow.

Sometimes you’re so deep in the trenches just trying to work out the hiccups in your next project that you don’t see that hey, things are pretty good! Masha Allah.

Perspective.