Not In My Name
A young Muslim woman looks directly into the camera. In my religion,
she says, we are taught tolerance toward women. And you have no respect for women.
She’s part of #NotInMyName, a UK movement where Muslims are publicly distancing themselves from ISIS, reclaiming their religion from something that’s claimed it for atrocities.
I get why they had to do it. When something monstrous wears your identity, you have to say out loud: that’s not me. You can’t assume people will figure it out.
The video works because it doesn’t sound defensive or rhetorical. Just people stating what their faith actually means to them, no filter. Maybe it won’t reach anyone already radicalized. Maybe it changes nothing. But it still matters that they said it, put their faces to it, took this back.
There’s something almost physical about having to reassert your identity when something else is wearing the same name and committing atrocities in it.