YEH HUM NAHEEN

It is amazing that what started as a simple song has gone on to become an unprecedented anti terrorism movement. A campaign around it was devised to address the message of radicalization and terrorism that was at odds with what the majority of Muslims believe. It was time to redress the imbalance, and
from the smallest child to the oldest person, Yeh Hum Naheen sought to give a voice to the voiceless.

Compsed & Produced by: Shuja Haider
Lyrics by: Ali Moeen
Directed by: Waseem Mahmood

The objective of the Yeh Hum Naheen foundation is to build on the essence of Islam as a
faith that promotes tolerance, peace and harmony removing prejudices within the community
and amongst non-Muslims around the world.
It is all too easy to hold faceless agencies or foreign hands responsible for the rise in terrorism
in Pakistan, but simply finding someone else to blame is not the way to resolve this problem.
The fact remains that the perpetrators of these heinous acts are from amongst us. It has
become not only the civil but also the religious responsibility of each individual to ensure
that nobody from our family, our friends, our neighborhoods, our schools or our colleges
gets sucked into committing these acts. It is up to us to root these people out and let them
know in the strongest possible way that what they do, they do not do in our name.
Terrorism is nothing more than Murder and in Islam Murder is Haram.
In June 2008, a unique campaign was launched to encourage the Pakistani people to take
a united stand against terrorism and send a resounding message to those involved that the
majority of the people do not support the terrorists. The main aim of the campaign is to
get people to sign a petition condemning terrorism; this they can do this either in person
with the team of 6000 Contact Ambassadors around the country, by SMS or by this website.
It is time to stand up and be counted –- Yeh Hum Naheen.
Major TV & film celebrities of the country supported the movement by participating in the
ad campaign through which they urged the people to step forward and take part in the
campaign by signing up the petition against terrorism. Separate one-liners were also aired
featuring celebrities that worked brilliantly in building up the momentum of the campaign.
The celebrities that took part included names like Shakeel, Samina Ahmed, Samina Peerzada,
Zeba Bakhtiar, Moamer Rana, Reema, Noman Ijaz, Moin Akhter, Sohail Asghar, Fakhare
Alam, Misbah Khalid, Anoushay Ashraf, Faisal Qureshi, Ayesha Omer, Amir Adnan, Arif
Lohar, Shiraz Uppal, Noor, Usman Peerzada, Irfan Khoosat, Imran Peerzada, Shafqat Amanat
Ali, Farhan Ali Agha and Mehwish etc.
The Yeh Hum Naheen song was a unique musical event in itself. Featuring the vocal talents
of some of Pakistans biggest music artists, including Haroon, Ali Haider, Ali Zafar, Shafqat
Amanat Ali, Strings, Shuja Haider and Hadiqa Kiani, uniting to sing out the message the
world needs to hear.
Capturing the imagination of people across the board, Yeh Hum Naheen has given a voice
to the silent majority, those in the Muslim world who have far too long been mis-represented.
The entire campaign was run for only a month and the results it achieved were astounding.
It managed to acquire over 62 million signatures nationwide. This record response made
news globally to the extent that the campaign made it to the Guinness Book of World
Records. Previously any such non political petition for the people by the people holds a
record of 24 million signatures only. Apart from this, the turnover for this petition brought
forward twice the amount of people than our general elections. The Yeh Hum Naheen song
also made it big by being nominated for the prestigious Grammies in a similar category as
‘We are the world’.
The campaign was a big success in terms of uniting the people of Pakistan on a single
platform to stand and raise their voice against terrorism. The finale of the campaign brought
a message for the entire nation to save their loved ones from getting into the clutches of
those who brainwash them into killing themselves and other muslims in the name of religion.
The next phase of the campaign is being worked upon and it will bring about new messages as to how we as a nation can help stop such activities at our own individual levels.