Light at the End of the Tunnel
This post is not for quick scanning so take your time in reading. Yesterday was the 8th anniversary of the horrible September 11th, 2001 attacks known as 9/11. I am still horrified by the shear magnitude of the tragedy either for the event itself or the aftermath during the past 8 years.
Trilogy of Pain
I blogged about this in the 7th anniversary last year, so in this year I am blogging from another angle which is the pain I felt during the past 8 years. It was a ternary one in the matter of fact as follows:
- 1st Pain: As any human being, I shared the pain with either families of victims or survivors and cannot find any word to share with them except that the terrorists who commit this should be punished.
- 2nd Pain: When a normal crime in a society happen we cannot call it anything but crime, hence, when a terroristic attack took place, we cannot call it anything but terrorism. I prefer clear terminology and against any other description for what happened especially by extremists.
- 3rd Pain: I am aware that there are some Muslims who ‘interpret’ their own version of Islam to serve their dirty purpose but to portray all Muslims being terrorists without knowing nothing about Islam was bad indeed.
I respect everybody and believe in the freedom of choice for people to believe in whatever they want to and not to force people into following anything generally and religion specially because everybody is simply unique and humans have minds to think about whatever.
This is simply what Islam calls for and hence any other version, known as the stereotyped image, is not true, however during the administration of President Bush, lights were spotted on this stereotyped image whereas same lights were dimmed on the real image which was something strange for me.
Interaction
Nevertheless, despite welcoming what he said of course, I felt quite strange when President Obama gave his speech in Cairo University on June 4th, 2009 simply because what the POTUS mentioned was as if he read my article that I wrote back in June 2008 and published in I-MAG Magazine.
I interpret this simply as a representation for the difference between someone who is looking forward to engaging people and someone who is not, without -of course- letting down the right of compensation for the victims because again what happened is an unforgivin terrorism from some people who got it wrong all the way.
Consequently, justice is justice everywhere and humans are humans everywhere who should be protected and live in a healthy way. Coexistence is the key to live together in parallel to placing a critique for any volatilisation for human values via stereotyped images from whoever regarding wherever and whatever. I am aware that No utopia yet still we work on better.
In a nutshell, this post is open for all of you; place your tribute, place your thoughts or even read without commenting. I am looking forward to read your thoughts and if you wish, check my last year post + my article.
“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shinning.” ~ [John F. Kennedy]
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Lockerbie: Who deceived Who?
One week ago, I read the news about releasing Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed Al-Megrahi who was convicted in bombing ‘Pan Am Flight 103 (London-New York)’ over Scottish town of Lockerbie on 21st December 1988 which resulted in killing the people on board of the flight plus other 11 on the ground so the death toll was 270.
At the beginning, I thought it was either a joke or flying kite to see the reaction, however when Scottish government released him yesterday on 20th August 2009, I felt very disappointed indeed.
In his statement, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said that he took the decision of releasing him on 'compassionate grounds' since Al-Megrahi is diagnosed with prostate cancer and he -MacAskill- thought it is better for the man to die in home since "Our justice system demands that judgement be imposed, but compassion be available."
Either .. OR!
I do respect judges everywhere, believe in the value of every single human bing, anti-violence. However, in this case, excuse my ignorance; it seems we have been deceived because it has only one of the two following faces:
- One > the man is guilty: If so, then he should complete his 27-year-punishment in jail. Mercy for him can be shown in any way but releasing him because where was his mercy when he intentionally bombed the flight?
- Two > the man is innocent: If so, I wonder why USA/UK caused us headache for 20 years by condemning Libya. Hence all the evidences provided about this case are fake?
I would have been happy if the court released him for being innocent and hence corrected a horrible mistake of sending a man behind jails for nothing, but this did not occur. Consequently, I would have been happy if the court refused his appeal because he is a terrorist who bombed the flight with no mercy for the families of victims but this did not occur either.
On the other hand, let us play the What If game: what if this man was Bin Laden or Oklahoma City bomber, would any court release them ‘on compassionate grounds?’ I doubt because no mercy for anyone who killed people intentionally regardless his faith, or race.
Credibility
Is it clear now why I am disappointed? It is simply because I see a foggy situation where truth is disappearing behind masks of naïve values. How can we be sure about the credibility of any case in the future? I put myself in the shoes of the family victims and ask where and who is the real terrorist in this case?
Ladies and Gentlemen: In a nutshell, the real value of Justice is securing people -victims + their families- by compensating from murderers / terrorists because other than that is simply being naïve or else what is the point of justice system then?
I am very sorry for the 20 years that have been simply lost in less than 2 minutes!
Justice delayed is justice denied. ~ [William E. Gladstone]
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Tunnel Vision!
Humans live in social groups; hence it is normal -and healthy- that its members relate themselves to group of idea(s) such as: religion(s), custom(s), ritual(s), political view(s), future vision(s) …etc, which varies among them but model the general image of their identity among others.
Stereotyping
Nevertheless, such variations of opinions inside one society can be either healthy or unhealthy depending on how citizens deal with their differences.
Citizens deal with each other among different scales of interaction; starting by the local, passing by the national/regional, and ends with the global one. Hence, I can understand debates and appreciates different opinions to be expressed freely in order to reach for something.
I however can hardly understand how such variations lead to friction unless we find the keystone for this which is ‘Fanaticism.’ I indentify it as an attitude that occurs when people narrow their vision among themselves only ignoring other members of the society, in case of local interaction, or ignoring other nations in case of global interactions. Consequently, fanaticism that escalate to reach the peak of dogmatism, is the perfect medium for such unhealthy and sometimes bloody frictions to take place.
Attitude
In fact, -surprisingly- if someone/some people do not share you the same view that does not mean they are blind; it is just because they do not have your eyes but theirs! Nevertheless, you always find that kind of exaggerating portrayed in three common cases:
- Bigotry: How people narrow their vision under the name of ‘protecting their identity’ but who said that this means neglecting, hating, and stereotyping others? Nothing expresses this but bigotry;
- Hypocrisy: How come that they accuse other members of society/other nations of applying ‘double standards’ whereas they apply it themselves among others who do not share their view? Nothing expresses this but hypocrisy;
- Dogmatism: Who have the right to place indulgence for others? No one but bigotries think they are the qualified to do so, regardless the faith, race or culture but it is worse when they manipulate things to serve them!
In a nutshell, if people want to reach for common grounds; they are called to highlight on their common characteristics. Such highlight shall not occur unless implementing something I see as “Awareness Process” which passes by three phases: (i) understanding their differences, (ii) respecting them and (iii) dealing with them in a constructive way that gives a straight forward push to the citizens locally and globally or else, the fog will never lift and the destructive way shall give a backward retreat!
Only two things are infinite; the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former. ~ [Albert Einstein]
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