Licence to kill
Freedom fight is not about killing children in schools
September 7, 2004
iranian.com
Fighting the violence in Chechnya with lives of innocent children
is barbarism of the highest order. It depicts the ugly facade of
those who try to equate callous and merciless actions as legitimate
response to injustices committed. The blood orgy of 'Ossetians,'
mostly ideological cousins of Russian 19 million-strong Muslim
community,
by a group claiming to be an offshoot of Al-Qaeda portrays the
moral bankruptcy of their scheme. They are an Iranian-speaking
people, who are mainly Sunni Muslims and descend from the medieval
Alans. A group loyal to Ayman al-Zawahiri, second-in-command to Al-Qaeda
chief, Osama bin Laden, claimed responsibility for the assault
in a statement posted on an
Islamic Web site, Islamic Minbar. The authenticity of the statement cannot
be verified. To kill and maim their own 'ideological cousins,'
as other
hard targets globally become difficult to penetrate, is indicative of a new
phase in this war.
First, it pinpoints the success of 'war on terror'
as
the focus of terror groups now shifts from cleansing of 'infidels' to
their own Muslim brethren. From Iraq to Turkey to Russia is the innocent Muslim
populace who is subject of the wrath of terrorists now; may be they are being
punished for being silent majorities who are refusing to support the degeneracy
of militant extremism.
This new expanded war of militant extremists recognizes no ideological restrictions;
it places 'innocent people' of any belief on the one side and manic
extremists, out on a global spree of fanaticism, on the other. The suggestions
that these were 'black widows' of Chechnya exacting revenge over the
lost lives of their dear ones are complete fabrications.
The planners of global
war on terror need to execute broad scale operations; unable to penetrate
the hard targets, they have now moved on to soft targets. Putting
their hands on
1200 school-going children and their parents helps make global news with
a bang, it is not important if they believe in the same Allah!
It is naked terror
with
an all-out display of its poisonous fangs.
Who could be softer targets than their own cousins, the 'Ossetians,' whose
only crime is that they were the only Caucasian ethnic group that voluntarily
petitioned the tsar (in 1774) for their territory to be absorbed into the
Russian Empire. From the 18th century they came under strong Russian influence,
and
between 1801 and 1806, all of Ossetian territory was annexed to Russia.
We are now witnessing the making of a new low in depravity and wantonness.
Origins of the nineteen million Muslims, the second largest religious community
in Russia,
who have over 800 parishes and mosques, mostly in Bashkortostan, Daghestan,
Kabarda-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Tatarstan, Ingushetia, and Chechnya can
be traced directly to
the conversions of the Golden Horde from shamanism to Islam.
The course of
history would have been different if Mongol defeat at the Syrian town of
'Ayn Jalut' (where
the Mamluks of Egypt beat the Mongols) had not rolled back the Mongol invasion
of the heart of Islam. Reasons for the Mamluk victory included the superb
training of the Mamluk forces, the absence of forage for Mongol horses,
and most of
Hülegü Khan's
hordes departing Syria due to the need to elect a new Great Khan. (Since the
Great Khan controlled the distribution of booty, the question of who was in charge
was more important to the average Mongol than was the maintenance of a minor
campaign in Syria.) Within 60 years of this defeat, Özbeg Khan of the Golden
Horde converted to Sunni Islam.
The irony is that notwithstanding wide popularity of vodka in present
Muslim dominated regions of Daghestan, Tatarstan, Ingushetia, and Chechnya,
it was 'alcoholism' within Mongols warlords' siblings that swayed
their decision to become Muslims. Considering Christianity and Judaism,
the leaders of the Mongols decided for Islam and main motivation included
a desire
to reduce
drunkenness among their sons -- of all the great religions, only Islam
prohibited alcohol.
Freedom fight is not about killing children in schools. This is a flagrant
violation of basic contract of 'mutual human trust' that allows us to live
on
this planet as human beings. It is for this reason we don't have armed
guards on doors of our schools; it is for this reason that our daily life
goes on as usual since it is taken as granted that that our long-held dictum
of
'live and let others live' is respected.
Medievalism and ideological extremism
helps justify savagery and inhuman crimes against humanity, however,
today the
world should realize that the salient feature of this unwritten moral
commitment amongst us that 'life of other human being has to be
treasured' is
under peril..
This brand of extremist senseless killings has parallels in Islamic history. The
word 'assassins' owes its origins to an extremist cult. An imam named
Hasan ibn al-Sabbah established the occult branch of Sevener Shiism,
known as the Nizaris, in the mountains of Western Iran. The Seveners
believed in a doctrine
of seven sinless spiritual leaders who shared characteristics with God
Himself. Because of this heresy, Sunni Muslims reviled Seveners and persecuted
them accordingly. In response, Seveners frequently engaged in acts
of assassination. Due to hashish-laden
drinks that Nizari leaders supposedly gave their followers before
sending them out to commit assassinations, the Nizaris are better
known
by the Syrian name
of hashshashin, or hashish-takers.
 The Nizaris are also remembered
for providing Islamic literature with its stories about Aladdin,
the daring young thief who
could open magic caves (and women's legs) simply by crying, "Open,
sesame!" The times have changed; instead of hashish-laden drinks, the extremists' faithful
today are laden with 'ladenism' brand of ideological intoxicant. These
fringes are an aberration within history; they have remained so, and will meet
their innate end. But appeasing them in any way only helps to encourage their
atrocities.
We humankind at large, irrespective of our ideological moorings, have
to denounce this and fight this ever-increasing animalistic tendencies
with
collective
vitality. There can be no 'moral equivalence' drawn between hostage-taking
and
freedom-fights. From time immemorial, the principles of war excluded
innocent civilians as legitimate targets; the rewriting of this notion
today is
the bin-Ladenism brand of medieval extremism, which we need to stamp
out with collective effort.
Some people do not seem to progress, they are stuck in time and hence,
although breathing, they are brain dead. We are living in the era of
'fossilization of living entities.' Ideological zombies have acquired
the
capability to incapacitate human's most important virtue - that of
living and love.
We are witnessing the unraveling of the most disgusting
manifestation of man; however, I am very optimistic that this is
the beginning of the end
of this kind of mind-sets. Any reasonable person from any ideological
backdrop cannot
remain aloof to these developments. We have seen during the course
of history many a group with manic tendencies out to destroy mankind
with
extreme
lunatic
displays but they all have failed. With all their hatred, mankind's
natural goodness and ability to recuperate has won over these challenges.
The reason we see so much of venom of hatred is due to the fact people
worry too much about 'life after' than 'life here.' Look at the
genesis of all these hostilities and you will trace them to arguments
involving the realm of God on earth. The inclusion of the Divine
in affairs of the
world is at the root of many of these uprisings. The need to turn
to 'celestial' is a constructive, positive ingredient and should
only
be reverted in building
bridges
amongst people.
 The moment the 'license to kill' is sought in the
name of God the results become incredibly lethal. All what we are
seeing around
us is primed by people who think that in holy wars the basic social
contract that has helped humans to be what they are today is to
be significantly
altered.
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