COLORADO – When Heraa Hashemi was told by her colleagues at the University of Colorado that Muslims do not condemn violence, the 19-year-old Muslim teen decided to respond with a 712-page long list of incidents when Muslims worldwide denounced various acts of terrorism.
“Things like this often go unnoticed outside the Muslim community, and I wanted to bring them to light,” Heraa told Teen Vogue in an email, Mvslim.com reported on Wednesday, December 21.
It all started when Heraa, who is studying molecular biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, was challenged by a fellow student who claimed that Muslims never denounce acts of terrorism carried out in the name of Islam.
She decided to reply, making Worldwide Muslims Condemn List, a spreadsheet with 5,720 instances of Muslim groups and leaders denouncing various acts of terrorism.
The 712-page reply took her 3 weeks of 2 hours a day to complete and upload on Twitter.
classmate: why dont muslims condemn things
me: *goes home makes 712 page long list of Muslims Condemning Things with sources*
me: fight me pic.twitter.com/sDhwUMIAK1— Heraa Hashmi (@caveheraa) November 12, 2016
The post went viral, being liked 26,000 times and retweeted 13,000 times. It also received tons of positive replies.
Adding to the encouraging break the internet moment two of Hashmi followers made a website of the list made by her.
“I felt that the conversation would go nowhere unless I presented his ‘proof’ on a platter,” Heraa said.
“And to respond to not only him, but any news agencies, public figures, and even the common layman, I began to compile a list with every source I could find.”