A message to extremists

To all of you, I hate you from the tip of my toes to the tip of my head. Every cell in my body is consumed by hatred for you. What you think is right, what you believe in, what you do; I hate it all.

On March 22nd, you decided to strike again. You decided to show the world once more how inhuman you are. On March 22nd, you tried to take my sister away from us. You tried to make her a victim of your beliefs. But she is still standing. She is safe at home, traumatized, but surrounded by love and by her family.

You have turned many lives from tranquility into chaos. You claimed the attacks as your victory. You claimed that your martyrs and your religion were victorious. Well, let me tell you, you have only one victory. You managed to change the lives of many innocent people who will have to rebuild themselves with the constant reminder of what they heard and saw.

But still, you are wrong. We do not fear you, we hate you. We want vengeance. We want you all to suffer as much as we do. We want you to live what we are living today. We want you to see what it feels like to see one of the most important people of our lives being hurt because of you.

You will not get our fear. You will not make us stay at home. You will not make us avoid going to major cities because we are afraid. You will not make us stop living our lives. You have proven that you can hurt everybody, but we will not stop believing that one day it will stop.

When you brought your “martyrs” to our country, put bombs in travel bags and convinced them to blow themselves up in the Brussels airport, you did prove that you could hurt anybody, including my family and myself.

Today, I read news about you, I see pictures of your fighters, and I am shaking from hate and disgust. You think hurting us makes you stronger, but once again, you are wrong. It makes us stronger, not you.

Some grieve the death of a loved one, either a victim of the recent Brussels attacks, or a victim of all the attacks you have perpetrated over the past few years. Some try to support their loved ones who survived.

Either injured or not, those survivors are heroes. All these people are the living proof that you are not as strong and powerful as you think you are. Yes, you took their smiles and their joy, but no, you did not destroy them. Yes, you showed your power. But it did not kill them. You are not that powerful, and we will not give up.

No, she will not give up. You failed. You tried to take her, but you failed. You took the lives of so many people, but you failed to take the lives of so many others, including hers.

We will always remember those who fell under your bullets, but we will always remember that they brought us closer. Our people are more united because of the pain you caused. Our people are stronger because of the tears we shed together, hand in hand. Our people are still standing and will stand against you forever.

What happened to the person I have known all my life, whom I have loved even when we disagreed and fought, whom I have looked up to these past 19 years, is out of our control.

You turned her smile into a straight line and her joyful answers to simple yeses. But she will get better, because you bent her, but you did not break her.

Everybody on this Earth touched by the tragedies you have caused will be okay. We will all be okay. You did not win. You will never win. We will.

PS: As Gui Home, a Belgian humorist said, “March 22nd was a ‘black’ day, but today it is a little bit more black, gold, and red. I am thinking of people of all countries who suffered from this violence. I am so sorry.”

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