A Letter from the “Toronto18″

Nineteen million, two-hundred eighty-four thousand, four-thousand eight hundred and three. The number of times we inhaled injustice, the breaths that our lungs set free… On the second of June, two-thousand and six, we were coerced out of lightness into dark… Where cruelty was hired, where mercy was fired, where prejudice was the crowned monarch

Our deeply missed family, our dearly beloved friends, our honorable community of belief,
Allow us to share some words of honesty…some facts that may come to your relief.
While we have been pushed to the edge of the cliff, to the capacity that a human could bear…
We invite you to witness some blessings we were given, and we dare you to even compare.

When the hour glass of life started pouring down sand, seven hundred fifty-five days ago
Each one of us darted towards a goal to achieve, like arrows projected from a bow:
We extend our glad tidings, we hereby announce, that one of us has memorized the Quran.
In the span of this time, how high did you climb? By Allah, what deeds have you drawn?

Arms raised to the sky, never daring to ask why, we would stand before Allah for days,
Running empty on tears, losing all of our fears, praying desperately that it’s just a phase…
A pill you can not swallow, a well so dark and hollow; we long for our families, we long…
Our siblings, our parents, our wives and our children, hold on to His mercy, be strong.

When you saw us behind bars, you stared hard at our scars, and temporarily took a sneeze of our flu,
You felt our restrains; turned your watches into chains, and attempted to live through it too.
We thank you for your empathy, and your feelings of sympathy, even though we need not your awe:
Because a cell is not a cell, a cell is not a cell, when you sell your soul to Allah.

But we have one burning question inflaming our chests, torching our conscience from ease…
Why did you regret us, and eventually forget us? Please give us a good reason for this, please…
Please tell us the address to Benefit of Doubt, please give us a Google map to “Fair Trial”.
Please tell us where they wholesale “Friends-no-matter-What”, or if e-bay will auction off a smile.

Please tell us why you ran, as far as you can, avoiding us, ashamed and disgraced…
Please tell us why the steel you saw on our heel, ordered our great times from your memories erased?
Have you forgotten our Love, for The One who forbade, the killing of an innocent soul?
Then why did you stand by, without caring to testify, that your brothers do not deserve this hole?

When one of us earned trial, with a two-year olds’ smile, we would pray to be gifted with wings,
Not so we can fly out of this cage of ruin, but to intercede for our brother like kings.
If only you came out, to support your brother’s bout, maybe then the judge would have agreed,
That eighteen lives have been utterly destroyed, that it is about time that they are all freed.

It may seem unfortunate, and worthy of your pity, that our hours were converted into years,
That we missed watching our babies spill their food; or watching our fathers as their hair disappears.
But we hereby announce, that in the deduction of this logic, there has been one great flaw;
A cell is not a cell. A cell is not a cell, when you sell your soul to Allah.