Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan

 

Television screens and newspapers show a smiling couple. But the images were taken a while back. Now diplomat Annemarie Desloges of the Canadian High Commission in Kenya is dead while her husband Robert Munk is wounded. Both were shot, as was Canadian businessman Naguib Damji, when terrorists attacked a Nairobi shopping mall killing and wounding dozens of innocent people.



Even more chilling, the attackers asked the victims about their faith. Most Muslims were let go, the others were shot. This naked brutality violates in the most reprehensible manner the teachings of the Holy Qur’an and of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The other announcement - that the Somali youth group Al-Shabab was retaliating against Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia - is also bizarre. The Kenyan force is part of an African effort to restore normalcy to that failed state.



This barbarism manifests man’s continuing descent into savagery. Not far from Somalia, a brutal conflict in Syria is killing innocent men, women and children every day. In Pakistan, suicide bombers blew themselves up at a church, killing 78 worshippers. In Iraq, someone detonated explosives at a funeral killing himself and others. In Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Muslims regularly kill innocent Muslims at shops, mosques and schools. In Nigeria suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacked a hostel and shot 40 students.



Such ghastly crimes are committed by people of other nationalities and religions. Atheists (Communists) and Western powers are leaders in invading other countries and exploiting their resources, in manufacturing and using weapons of mass destruction and selling them.



Criminals today are following the example set by big and smaller powers. Muslims were slaughtered and raped in Serbia and Bosnia. Russia crushed the Chechens who had sought freedom. The US attacked Iraq, devastating the country and killing countless innocent people. US drones attack sovereign countries and kill those suspected of being against American policies and innocent people. Western sanctions are crushing Iran, as they did Iraq not long ago, for developing nuclear power. The US and Israel already have nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Israel has dropped US-supplied napalm, phosphorus and cluster bombs on civilians.



There are countless other examples - the genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda, the Lord’s Army in Uganda, brutal civil wars in Sri Lanka and in Pakistan, the long war in Vietnam, the French assault on Algeria which killed a million Algerians, the murders in Darfur, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, the killing of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs in the subcontinent, the Holocaust, the butchery of the Aboriginal people, Iraq’s attack on Iran, the savagery against the Rohingyas. These are only some examples of man’s brutality. And man’s savagery against animals is so pervasive that it does not even register in the human mind.



History has witnessed such violence throughout the ages. The United Nations was created to safeguard human rights and to enable countries to interact with others on the basis of law rather than might. But the UN is thwarted by the permanent members of the Security Council and others. Violence and injustices remain widespread.



New technology flashes such brutalities before our eyes and humans become immune to the pain of others. We learn of the rapes of Indian women and now in public in Tahrir Square in Cairo. Technology enables common folks to assemble and detonate deadly explosives. The new generations learn violent behavior from their elders, video games and brutal sports. Hurting others becomes a game. We lose our humanity and sensitivity to human suffering. Disturbed people in our stressful times direct their rage at innocent strangers. About 85 Americans are killed by guns every day, including suicides.



Somalis offer a tragic example of Western greed and the self-destructive behavior of the victims. For decades the British tried to subdue the Somalis, succeeding only in 1920 when their air power pulverized their victims. Italy then grabbed Somalian territory as well. The British gave some Somali territory to Kenya and to Ethiopia.



Somalia won independence in 1960. Most Somalis are Sunni, speak Somali and share the same race. But clan rivalry hobbled the government and military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre ousted it in 1969. He was toppled in 1991. Somalia then was torn apart by clan violence. Only Somaliland functions effectively.



During my ten years as a Member of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, I heard numerous cases of Somalis seeking asylum. Most claims were based on fear of persecution, torture or severe and unusual treatment or punishment for belonging to the wrong clan.



Canada is among countries generously offering such people asylum, irrespective of their race, religion, nationality or gender. It’s a pity that two Canadians and nationals of other countries were killed by people who call themselves Muslim but who trample on Islamic principles, and on those of other faiths, as well as on justice, compassion, human rights, honesty and forgiveness. It’s the duty of Muslims and followers of other religions, in these dark times, to work together for peace, justice, compassion and human rights everywhere.

 

– Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge.