The Peshawar incident involving the
brutal killing of 130 school children has created a wave of strong reactions
across the world. In fact it was so agonizing that many even in India, have
been psychologically impacted by it. While the incident has been unequivocally condemned
by almost everybody –except of course the Taliban and many of its ‘silent’ supporters,
there are many who have tried to further their political, religious and ideological
views as an addenda to the condemnation messages. The official reaction of the Indian government
deserves applause at this juncture as it was devoid of any political references
in spite of the fact that India remains one of the most impacted countries due
to terror emanating from Pakistan.
There are also those who have given
references to past massacres and genocide in Iraq, the implicit question being –
Why does this incident deserve ‘more’ condemnation than the ‘others’. The ‘others’
supposedly being more or equally horrific. Well no one knows the answer. After all, statistically speaking there have
been numerous ‘similar’ incidents which could have changed the course of
history .But only some of them did. Going by the mass reactions and official
statements I honestly wish this could and should be an event that would change
the course of history. Taliban and their
brothers, whatever they stand for, have taken the biggest hit in terms of brand
value and this should be leveraged to the maximum to exterminate them once and
for all.
This has also brought many
questions to the fore. The foremost of them is – Is or should terror be linked
to religion? The political answer is ‘no’. But facts suggest otherwise. While
there have been many violent struggles in modern history, fact remains that
today terrorism has become synonymous with Islam. In fact history of Islamic
expansion and growth has been associated with terror and violence much more than
any other religion. There are many who come out with explanation of how the
philosophy of Islam doesn’t support violence.
Even if that is theologically correct, the question still remains – Then
why is there so much of variance in its interpretation? After all, mere concepts don’t matter .Their interpretation
and application does! So, however nicely one wishes to put it, the moral of the
story is, there is something seriously flawed with the religion as it is
practiced today or for past few centuries at least. And it is for the Muslims to fix it. As a
consolidated group (which many wish to believe or make others believe they are)
Muslims are a majority in the world. So there is no reason, not to be able to
fix this, unless there is a lack of willingness to do so.
Reason number two – Western hegemony
and the injustice done to the Muslims. Well you are not the only ones! Hardly
any nation/population is unaffected by it, including the western world itself.
We have never seen such a violent expression of revolt anywhere else. So again
time for introspection. Is it that the interpretation of religion promotes
violence more than others? Unless the Islamic world wakes up and fixes the problem,
we will see it getting worse day by day. Another thing, for those who dream of
an Islamic Caliph and world dominion, even if there is a chance of that happening
in the next 10,000 years, it will NEVER NEVER NEVER happen if you continue to
use violence as means of propagation. So
forget it!
Many hope and expect Pakistan to
wake up to the dangers of terrorism at least now and stop supporting terror as
an instrument of state policy. Well I would say it is a hopeless expectation! Simply
because they do not have any other means to further their agenda. Given the
fact that the very survival of Pakistan is anti-India, it would need sufficient
means to inflict damages on India. Currently there are none except terrorism.
So, we might see a lull in terrorist activities, even ‘milder’ versions of
terrorist attacks for some time, but it will not go away. Because unlike the
Taliban or ISIS , this is not about furthering of an ideology or economics ,but
a battle for existence on part of Pakistan !.
The other topic doing rounds is
around violence. Generally speaking violence doesn’t have or should not have any
place in civilized society. However I find it amusing when people try to
promote religions which are supposedly ‘nonviolent’, in the guise of Peshawar
tragedy. Singling out Islam doesn’t absolve other religions at all. All religions in various forms have been guilty
of wars and violence, though not necessarily on the scale of Islam. All you
have to do is go couple of millennia back and/or look around the globe! There is
enough evidence of it. So, while it may be an ideological (or interpretative,
whatever way you want to look at it) problem in Islam, in general violence is a
human problem. Or is it even beyond that? Are animals, or rather life in general
violent in nature? If it is, why do we expect humans to not be so? By expecting humans to be different (and even
if that is on the basis of ‘intellect’) are we not expecting a deviation in the
concept of evolution or the ‘oneness of universe’? On the contrary, if life is not violent, the
question would be, where did we humans get the traits from? Is it ‘intellect’? If
so, hasn’t intellect done more harm than good to humans and the world at large?
To go even deeper, what constitutes violence?
Lots of questions and even more answers!
For now, let’s pray for peace and sanity.
“Sushantir Bhavatu”
Let there be peace!
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment