The Quran tells us that when God revealed His plan of the creation of man, with a measure of free-will, to the angels, they exclaimed: “Will you create therein (on the earth) a being who will cause mischief and disorder and shed blood” (2:30) Today as one looks at the earth, it seems that the worst fears of the angels have come true. From one end of the globe to the other, there are very few places now which are not red with human blood – and innocent human blood at that. Blood-red is our hapless Kashmir, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, Iraq, Palestine and now also Iran. What is most shocking about this situation is that the whole gory phenomenon is treated by men with lunatic callousness today. Two features of this callous attitude stand out most prominently.

First, nobody seems to look at it as a frightening human tragedy which it actually is. If pelicans and seagulls are endangered because of an oil-spill, there is a lot of hue and cry followed by practical remedial measures. If a particular species of the hyena or the tiger is in danger of extinction, wildlife preservation organisations all over the world come immediately into action and take solid steps to save these beasts of prey. Magnanimous and noble action indeed, but when innocent human beings – old men, women and budding young children – are decimated, nobody cares except the media for whom this human tragedy has a tremendous news value. Just watch the lively debates that follow every bloody installment of the ubiquitous and unending human tragedy: the anchor’s face glowing with excitement and taking care that the discussants should raise every question on the earth except the right reason for the recurring human tragedy. In Kashmiri there is a proverb which aptly describes such farcically-tragic situations: one man’s beard is burning and another man warms up his hands, lest the opportunity is lost.

Secondly no one, particularly the governments and powers concerned and international organisations and superpowers – the self-appointed policemen and Khudaie foujdars of the world – seems to care about the root causes of the violence and bloodshed that is ravaging the globe. Indeed they are well aware about these root causes and yet they deliberately neglect them. The well-thought-out policy is this: attend to the symptoms of the disease and concentrate all energy in eradicating them but leave the root cause of the disease intact. If terrorist violence is a symptom then pool all resources to destroy it but do not touch the root. Granted that no cause under the sun justifies violence and taking of innocent lives but does this warrant the callous neglect of the root causes – injustice,, exploitation – of a global violence that seems to gradually engulf the whole world and may swallow even those who are primarily responsible for the mess. Today their actions proclaim that if occupation is the cause of global violence, then treat it by reinforcing it and occupying more lands of the oppressed; treat disease with a medicine that strengthens the disease further. This is the heart-rending scene that confronts the eye today wherever it turns. In the beginning of the last century T.S Eliot had described a value-less world as a Waste Land. Certainly the world which Eliot was describing was not as absurd and valueless as the world today in spite of the fact that one World War had preceded Eliot’s great poem and another followed it. Face to face with the world today T.S Eliot would have described it as a lunatic asylum.  

Lastupdate on : Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST