By Raffique Shah
Sunday, December 9th 2007
Imagine, if you will, the execution last week of a 20-year-old Iranian whose family was told to “collect the body”, the first they would learn of their son’s sharia-decreed death.
The young man’s crime? At age 13 he is alleged to have buggered three boys, an offence that draws the death penalty in most Islamic states. Now, many Trinis, would probably shout by way of approval: Way to go! After all, the savages who stalk our once-peaceful paradise have driven us to the point of exasperation. Their gruesome crimes compel even those among us who are against capital punishment to turn a blind eye to their summary execution, be it at the hands of the police or their foes.
But wait. In this case the young man was charged only last year after the alleged victims complained, and a confession was extracted from him. The accusers subsequently withdrew their allegations, the country’s high court ordered a retrial, but the almighty mullahs would have none of these interventions. Hang him high, they ordered. And so another likely-innocent victim was strung up in the name of Allah.
Two weeks ago, a young woman in Saudi Arabia who had complained of being gang-raped by some men in whose vehicle she accepted a ride, was ordered by another sharia court to be dealt 200 lashes! That after she had appealed a 70-lash sentence! I think the perpetrators were given light jail sentences. And in Dubai, a European boy who claimed to have been buggered by some Arab boys who offered him a lift, fled the country with his family before he, too, was subjected to lashes for being buggered.
Shift the macabre stage now to a very Christian, very prosperous Germany. Last week, in a village of about 450 residents, a mother was taken into custody after it was discovered she had killed her six sons, aged between three and nine, by suffocating them. Suspected reason? Poverty. She could not afford to care for them. That incident came on the heels of another in eastern Germany where a woman had stashed the bodies of her three infants in travelling bags, claiming they had died at birth.
And this latter followed a gruesome case in which a mother had buried her nine infants’ corpses in flower pots. According to the authorities, all these cases are linked to poverty, to children being seen as hindrances to the mothers’ social lives. So critical is the infanticide situation, Germany has instituted a policy whereby mothers with unwanted babies can discreetly dump them at “drop-off” points at hospitals from where the state would care for them.
Move to India, which is gaining ground as one of the strongest economies of the world. There, it is estimated that thousands of girl children are put to death every year, no questions asked, no charges laid, because boy children are the preferred choice.
This ritual has resulted in an insufficient number of brides for boys of marriageable age. A hot issue in Gujarat state where elections are due to be held this week is the 2002 massacre of an estimated 2,000 Muslims. This occurred after an incident in which Hindu pilgrims returning from a ritual had their train set on fire, killing around 50 people.
One probe into the blaze said it may have been caused by a cooking fire lit in one carriage, not unusual in India. The state’s Chief Minister, the BJP’s Narendra Modi, stands accused of fomenting the massacre by refusing to deploy the police to protect the Muslim minority. In this pogrom a Congress party MP, Ehsan Jafri, who, with others, took refuge in his house, was hacked to death, his body chopped up like pork at Christmas by a merciless Hindu mob that Modi failed to stop. While civil society in India has called for a full probe and action on the charges, Modi now enjoys increased support from Hindu fundamentalists.
I turn now to another simmering conflict in Kosovo, where the mainly Muslim Albanians want to declare the one-time province of Yugoslavia an autonomous state. During the barbaric conflict in the 1990s, Slobodan Milosovic and his Serbian forces killed millions of Albanian males in the worst mass killings since World War II. As Kosovo prepares to declare itself an independent state, the Serbs across the border are threatening to once more invade the tiny country “to save Europe from fundamentalist Islam”.
In the face of the few incidents and conflicts I have outlined here, I hope that Trinidadians realise that for all our problems, the race polarisation at elections, the rampage of murderers, the excuses that pass for politicians, we are far better off than many countries elsewhere.
For me, given that so many of these massacres are committed in the name of one God or another, why must I believe in His omnipotence, His compassion? Indeed, why must I believe that He exists? If He did, would He not use His infinite powers to steer stupid people away from their murderous folly? Would He not want mankind to live in peace, in harmony? Convince me, please, someone, anyone, that I am wrong.
you dont seem to be looking for any guidance, thus you should not ask anyone to convince you – it appears kinda hypocritical. you just as many other westerners keep blind following the europeans in their pursuit to worship their own selves and money.
what do you think is Judgement day? is that not for ultimate justice, where the wrongdoers are punished?
are you therefore suggesting the over 90 percent of the worlds population who beleive in the presence of a Being of omnipotence who controls the very air you breathe, are just a bunch of nut heads? you must be very full of yourself. the truth doesnt rest in your hands rafique.
seek repentance for this grave blunder of yours. how about if your kids all rejected you and your favors?
maybe it should happen so you then become ‘convinced’
unbelievable ‘intellects’
HE lives in the hearts of right thinking, right acting people. While RAffique’s cry of pain was being composed. two billion people(approx) went to work, did a good job to provide for their families, paid their bills and were supportive of others in their communities. That is not news. A lone gunman shoots up a mall while people shop. That is news. Two shootings in churches in USA this weekend, that is news. Murder-suicide by husband of self and wife, is news;meanwhile, my friend the Saudi poet Ni’mah Nawwab is putting herself on the line to expose the double standard and hipocricy of the Saudi court sentence of 200 lashes for being gangraped. God is in her heart. She does not have to do this. She is quite well off. The Government of India gave sanctuary to the Dalai Lama more than fifty years ago, he still lives in Dharmsala, where the non-believing Communist government of China cannot touch him. Mandela forgave Botha and company for all the wrongs of Aparthied and its consequences, and out lived Botha and many of his henchmen.
God is everywhere, but spectacular acts of evil cover the goodness that many do.
On the local scene, God spoke to the heart of that caller that led to the rescue of Baby Jeremiah, HE intervened when someone saw a doctor being kidnapped, and called it in.The phone battery could have died, the line could have been busy, or the police chase car could have been in an accident.Life wasaround, and made more hopeful.
Someone in a TV commercial said, “GREED IS GOOD”. It is not. Every major belief system, condemns covetousness, and wanting more that one is entitledto. The heart of all evil is greed. As Dante said in the “Divine Comedy” Canto 3 the introduction, in the vestibule of hell this inscription is carved;
“I am the way into the city of woe
I am the way to a forsaken people
I am the way into eternal sorrow …
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
We cannot abandon hope. Each little gesture of kindness and love, helps defeat evil. Despair leads to an abandonment of hope.
If I were Rafique’s therapist, I would suggest ten days in a monastery, reading, thinking, walking with God. The religion of the monastery really does not matter, just the peace,the quiet, the temporary respite from the anguish that trying to make a difference could cause, the deep resonant return to the natural rhythm of life.
Then, refreshed,renewed, return to the struggle.
Raffique – you touched on a very controversial topic as can be seen by the responses. People are REALLY passionate about their beliefs, so much so that one person commented: “seek repentance for this grave blunder of yours…” while another stated: “I would suggest ten days in a monastery, reading, thinking, walking with God.” When you contradict a person’s core reality, that is when you start playing with fire – because as we all know … many are willing to kill to defend a theory.
Even though I agree with your general concept (not so much the specifics), you came across a little harsh in your writing, especially for someone who is in the minority. That being said, it doesn’t take much to rile some people up these days.
I’m still taking in data to come to my conclusion on life, but so far I’m convinced that humans are animals first, and civilized beings second. Our processes of thought, emotion and logic is something that is unique throughout the animal kingdom, but that doesn’t convince me that there is a god. Neither does one in a billion chances that work in my favor or books that speak of a god which are thousands of years old.
I often wonder why people find the need to place a higher being in charge of our destiny. Maybe it’s that feeling of insignificance you get when you watch out into the universe at night – being so helpless to the forces of nature is definitely more tolerable if you think there is a god to keep you safe which you can keep happy with good deeds/sacrifices etc.
When studying the Inca and the Mayan civilizations, there are reports of human sacrifices to the gods. Looking at their actions through a 21st century lens, most would probably brand them as savages who knew no better. I’m not exactly sure we’re much different today with our beliefs being the cause for so much death and destruction.
I think that morality and ethics are simply poetic interpretations of life as we see it. They also morph with time – compare our sense of ethics with those just 50 years ago and you might agree. What makes right, right and wrong, wrong? I think it is a majority rule. Slavery was OK 150 years ago because the majority of people thought it was .. even most religious persons didn’t question it. Why question what is already accepted and has been working for generations?
I can see why it would be scary for a person who believes in a god to even question his existence. Life is hard and the world seems to be going to down the toilet – now would not be a good time question if there really is a god … he might get pissed off. Understandable.
I don’t expect most readers to jump on the atheist bandwagon; after all the word itself sounds cold and hellish doesn’t it? Who can blame them? But it would be good if we’re all able to communicate our ideas in a civil way without getting too aggressive or defensive. It’s hard to remain open-minded sometimes, especially with things we’re passionate about. It’s important to keep in mind that anything is possible, including our most protected beliefs being incorrect.
-S.D.
Raffique you have to make a distinction between people who use their cultural spiritual belief systems as moral and ethical templates for their conduct and interaction with their fellow human beings, and the countless vagabonds and charlattans who use it as an excuse to comaflage their charred dispositions. God, Allah, Ram Krishna, Jah, however we culturally refer to them, are not the instigators behind these atrocities. These are the works of men, flawed creatures that we are. That is why there always has to be checks on our power. That is why we cannot be allowed to take the law into our own hands. That is why democracy in any human nestings need pillars and foundations that are above and beyond majority selection of political leadership.
Raffique in a piece a while back you intimated that the level of crime in Trinidad might make vigilanteism justifiable. Well see what can happen when the rule of law is interpreted haphazardly. See what can happen if we are left to our own devices to decide punishment or sanction for wrong doing, rather than adhereing to a common rule applicable to everyone.
ha ha ha….Ruel…you got Rafique there! Exactly my thoughts in your second paragraph.
I haven’t commented on Rafique’s pieces recently but I’m glad to see some people are also noticing that he writes without thinking and with a myopic view. Too bad this only happened after he touched a nerve in his last few articles – which proved my point that some people only have a problem with something when it is drected at or affects them.
Riaz my nurturing and upbringing predisposes me to see the problems of the world’s poor as my personal problems regardless of politics, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity and regardless of religion. I do not waste time and effort in trying to convince anyone of this because at this point in my life I really do not care what my detractors think of me. If one cares to look deeply into the outpourings of all of us, he or she will discover evidence to support the idea that, not merely some of us, but all of us seem to, quote, “only have a problem with something when it is directed at or affects them”, end quote. I mean come on! The comment that, quote, “don’t worry with them India will become a world power”, end quote does not exactly suggest a view unburdened and uninfluenced by a particular connection.
My father cautioned me that hating some of the things that people do was very different from hating people for some of the things that they do. And I cling to the doctrine of Christianity as a foundation for my spiritual belief system because its teachings embodies these kinds of principles. And note that I did not claim to be Christian. At the same time, I will unapologetically call a shovel a shovel if that is how it appears to me. Yes, I might be wrong sometimes as we all are. But who in here has displayed the objectivity, the sense of fairness and balance sufficient to qualify as the final judge and jury of the character of others. I know many presumptiously assume that halo, but that’s just a function of vanity.
A Problem “that affects them”; let’s give Raffique his due. He has a global perspective in his writings, and in the piece that started the current discussion, he looked at proponents of all major religions, except Judaism and Buddhism, who had departed from an alleged spiritural moral high road, to act with baseless inhumanity.He ignored, in his recounting of carnage in the name of God, all the killings done by those who denied God, the communists, in Russia, China, and cambodia to name a few, millions were killed, to support Communist beliefs. It is the warping of belief systems that causes the trouble.The belief system itself, is not the problem. This is a world-wide issue, and some of us might try just a tad harder I think,to keep it on a higher plane.
Ruel, your second quote confuses me. Where did you get it from? I hope it wasn’t from one of the many Riaz Ali’s on this blog. If those words do appear under my name, please post the link so that myself or the moderators can look at it.
Those words were posted under your name in a thread where one Beharry was lambasting me and Linda Edwards. The comment was essential, quote, “”don’t worry with them India is going to become a world power”, or words very close to those. It is fact that India is going to become a world power and that is a positive for all developing countries. The fact that the discussion was not about India as a nation per se left no doubt about the intent in the message.
I am sure that the moderators can find the comment with the lead I provided, and if it was made by one of the imposters misusing your handle, then a pox on their house. The moderators should deal firmly with those who deliberately do these kinds of things.
Actually, I think that post was removed a while ago after I pointed it out to the moderator (who I assume checked the e-mail address and compared it to that of previous posts by myself)…perhaps that is why you can’t find it anymore.
I honestly don’t know if there is more than one “Riaz Ali’s” or if it’s just someone posting ignorant and racist sounding comments under my name because they feel the need to make someone they have never met in person seem stupid to compensate for their shortcomings.