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| R.I.P victims of recent terrorist attacks at Nigeria and France |
We were all still soaked in languid hangover of rose tinted, fervid enthusiasm of the New Year and they did it yet again! This time, at Paris! As usual, in name of Islam. Needless to say, it evoked unimaginable contempt, gathering millions, including some world leaders for unity march in France. Truly impressive show of unity and strength indeed!
Unfortunately, just a few days before this dastardly attack on Charlie Hebdo office, as many as 2000 innocent lives were massacred in Northern Nigeria by Boko Haram Islamic extremists but this shocking, barbaric incident failed to get global attention that tragedies of such scale deserve to receive!
I have never read any magazine by Charlie Hebdo. I don't understand Islam or for that matter any "religion". And, politics is not my forte either but I can't comprehend what is wrong with us as society! Why is our reaction to two different tragedies different? Why do we subscribe to selective rationality?
At risk of sounding repetitive, I really yearn to understand what kind of people don't flinch before committing heinous, barbaric sins of taking innocent lives? What kind of religion endorses killing in name of its God and honours the culprits as martyrs/heroes? I fail to understand logic behind any religion that demands people from other religions to be killed! It is difficult to fathom politics of hatred that makes inhuman acts of violence not a regrettable necessity but the whole point and make people who subscribe to their ideologies, barbaric savages. With high stakes invested in terrorism, it has become a new currency to establish religious, political and economic power games for global domination.
Every time, there is a terrorist attack, we are buried in cacophony of elite rhetoric and tokenism that barely helps offer any solution or directs to concrete action. A few people make fervent claims that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Candle marches commence and tributes are paid and everybody forgets about it till other terrorist attack wakes us and makes us realize harsh truth of our vulnerable life.
I don't understand what "religion" really means but I know that if any religion expects its followers to perform inhuman acts like killing innocent people, it fails to serve its purpose. Maybe, its time for "Allah ke bande" to come out in open and take a stand for REAL Islam and stop it alienating from rest of the world!
