As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect. The truth is that the violence and the bloodiness continues. As much as we offer condolences, minutes of silence and take the time to comfort one another. It helps to heal the wounded hearts. It does not stop the terror, the aftermath, and more endless bloodshed. It does not stop, its like a vicious cycle of violence, a vicious cycle for greed, for power, for the harms upon the dignity of humanity because of religious affiliation or the colour of a skin. I have always considered myself a spiritual person who does not favor one religion or another. I am happy about this, I am happy that I have the capacity within myself to surpass the bounds and view all as integral to our humanity. However, it is with sadness that I write about the recent attacks in Turkey, where there was a mass murder that claimed 42 lives and injuring 239 civilians (CNN News). Sources say that these attacks were planned by ISIS. Then we saw the brutal attack in Afghanistan that wounded dozens and claimed 30 lives. This bombing was claimed by the Taliban which took place on 30th June, 2016. Then of course we can remember the deadly attack in Orlando that took place on June 12th, 2016. A gunman killed 49 people and wounded about 53 individuals (CNN News). The shooter pledged allegiance to ISIL. However, since this attack occurred Wikipedia has removed this attack from the Islamist Terror Attack list because it cant agree if this was indeed as "Islamist attack." Summary
From the above summary we can see how many lives have been lost, this loss of human life is horrific. These mass murders are simply horrifying. On the same day as the attack in Kabul, Afghanistan we learned of and American Israeli girl who was 13 years old shot by a 16 year old Palestinian in Israel. She was shot dead whilst she was sleeping. This happened on the same day as the deadly bombings in Afghanistan. From the above reading we are probably feeling tired, tired of hearing about the losses, the horrors that are claiming lives. Nothing can replace human life. Nothing can. As I take a moment to pause and reflect upon the Prime Minister of Israels tweet after this young teenager was shot he said "You don't murder a sleeping child for peace" He was absolutely right in saying this. So I decided to re-tweet this tweet on my timeline. However, throughout the day feelings of horror, hurt, just looking at the posted video, well it made me feel scared. So scared. I undid this tweet. As much as it is painful to hear, I couldn't bear the pain of a Palestinian killing an innocent child, it made me feel like a murderer. Then as the day went on we see tweets with #'s saying "I Stand With Israel" It made me think. What is Israel? Who's is Israel? Israel belongs to everyone. Yes, Israel belongs to everyone. It is this sacred land, this region that is holy to the three major religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. And what are these mass murders and killings causing and continuously digging? They are deepening the separations, deepening the divides. This is a land that should be loved greatly by all. The killings are staged to cause and infer more and more hatred towards groups and religious affiliations. Why would I say staged? I would like to offer the word staged because these are exactly what these groups are. They are the actors of the stage. "ISIL, ISIS, Taliban" and whatever else there is! I don't think these groups should ever be associated with Islam, or even be associated with the name Islam itself. What a term "Radical Islam" Who made this one up? It is absurdity to associate any of these groups with Islam. These are murderous plots that are the result of a stage and actors. These plots should not be associated with a faith of Islam. The very translation of this word it Peace. I continue to think and wonder: "Why would the "Taliban shoot people who they consider to be of the same faith as they are" in the holy month of Ramadan? Why would they? If the "Taliban" group claims to be associated with Islam - then why kill in this holy month when you know how important this month is for Muslims who are fasting? The ironies and contradictions astound me. Can we place the loss of one human life above the other? Is the loss of one life more important than another? Isn't all life precious? No loss of life is more important than another loss of life. The killings, the group formations, the constructions of these murderous plots are efforts to divide and stray humankind from one another. The aftermath The true victims of these murderous terrorist plots are Muslims. There are victims because these "senseless acts" simply evolve to surface a disgust. According to the US National Counter Terrorism Center, over the past five years where the religious affiliation was known, Muslims were victims 82% - 97% of the time. This is why as much as stereotypes and a macro - reflection may intimidate, remember that you are you, this is for all, for everyone regardless of religious affiliation or not.
Thoughts to ponder:
A Historical Connection After taking the time to think and reflect upon the above writing, I was thinking about the concept of Positivism, or what we can also call Scientific racism. This was a concept that was derived from the French Philosopher Auguste Comte, who was considered the father of Positivism. This concept was used in Southern America, Mexico, and regions where there were trades of imports and exports for Gold, Rubber, Mahogany, Bananas, Coffee as a control mechanism during the colonial periods. These concepts were used as a tool, the darkest side of this tool was Scientific Racism, which means favoring one "race" over another because of the selective differences within the races, postulating that the European, Caucasian race to be more superior than others. This indeed did take place as the indigenous peoples of these lands were treated worse than slaves. If we take a moment to think about the above concept. How can we connect this to what is happening in the world today through acts of terror? As much as concepts of human rights and equality have progressed, can we say that concepts as these do not exist today? Dedication: These thoughts are dedicated to all the lives that have been lost. We see, we watch, we learn. At this time all I can offer you are my words to create an awareness. My thoughts to share with love and kindness. Notes: These thoughts were originally hand - written on July 1st 2016 and amended on July 2nd 2016. Since the time of writing there has also been and attack in Bangladesh with 20 hostages dead and 13 rescued.
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