Religion and Nationality, both are different, please!

Today, something strange, but nothing uncommon, I experienced in my life. I'm not sure whether I understood it right or am I just over reacting to something which came from someone 'without any ill-intent', i.e. by default. 

It so happened today that I was listening to some Pakistani music,which I discovered only yesterday and immediately traced that particular Pakistani album online and started listening to it with my head phone on. I loved the song so much that I was humming it. My  friend (unnamed) sitting before me and working, looked at me and smiled. I asked this friend, why he smiled stealthily and was curious to know about it till I got it out from this person. 

  This friend told me that it could not be made out which song I was humming. Just before all this, I had shared with this friend about this Pakistani singer/album newly discovered by me and that I liked it a lot. So, I told that I was listening to Pakistani music. This person, I trust, without any ill intention, immediately went on to say that "Oh.. you are listening to the music of your (would be) in-laws' place". I had to immediately abrupt this friend to say that my in-laws didn't belong to Pakistan, just because they are Muslims. I know this friend must have felt sorry for what I understood or misunderstood of his unthought and spontaneous statement. 

 This short instance provoked me to think that how it would actually be for Muslims in our country and around us, who are seen as 'Pakistanis' for being Muslims, followers of Islam, by the majority population. How terrible for them to prove that they are as much Indians at heart as are the other majority sections, the Hindus or other religious minorities, namely Christians (though also seen as foreigners and less Indians). 

This kind of mindset is perhaps deep ingrained in our un/conscious psyche that sometimes even before realising what we want to say and what we convey, we utter words that have already done a damage, and then we get into the act of damage control by justifying ourselves and explaining what we meant.

As I said this is not something unusual in India, and in my case, I witness such prejudices in my family too, with one of my parents, for whom 'Mulsim' identity and    'Islam' as religion are equal to 'Pakistan', regrettably. But, I do try at my level to differentiate between the three, for I also understand that our societal conditioning is such that really doesn't allow one to see through the difference between the three. So, for me, it was no less than a challenge and a cultural shock for my parents to discover of me seeing a Muslim boy as my prospective better half.

I never knew and had never thought that something like this would form the first post of my Blog. However, despite having thought repeatedly, I decided to write it down, and not keep it to myself, for I wonder WHAT SENSE OF MISPLACED NATIONALISM IS THIS & WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?