Paris Bleeds

Indiscriminate killing of people (and even animals) is a heinous crime no matter who does it or where it happens. One can only sympathize with the unsuspecting Parisian who were going about their usual routines and suddenly found themselves in the middle of a mayhem in which many innocent citizens got killed and injured. Even more saddening is the fact that more indignities and curtailment of civil liberties of the French in general and Parisians in particular will follow in the wake of this tragedy.

Yesterday I made it a point to watch BBC and CNN’s coverage of the event as much as possible. BBC had a constant ticker saying that French president Hollande had accused the Islamic State of the attack although the gentleman himself had used the Arabic acronym ‘Daesh’ and the commentators made it a point to put emphasis on the word Islamic in all their comments. At one time there was also a report that the Pope had called the Paris carnage a prelude to World War 3. There are people in the world who might interpret the Pope’s alleged statement as a divine signal to start a new crusade against the Muslims. One wonders how much influence Zionists and Hindu extremists have in BBC; both of whom would love to see a religious war between Christians and Muslims. CNN’s coverage was considerable sane and sober; perhaps they have learnt from 9/11.

The irony of fate is that not only the Paris carnage but also a lot of death and destruction in Syria could easily have been prevented. For months we have been seeing the pictures of long columns of brand new latest model Toyota trucks carrying ISIS troops. Toyota trucks are not made in the deserts of Syria. They must have been imported from Japan. If any of the many intelligence agencies involved had taken the trouble of obtaining the chassis or engine number of any one of these trucks, the supply route and the financial support of ISIS could have been traced within hours. Very strange that nobody thought of it.

Let us use hindsight to analyze this situation. Al-Qaida, its jihadist network and Taliban were financed and trained for the specific purpose of confronting the Communists in Afghanistan and preventing them from advancing towards the ‘free world’. The ill educated Muslim mercenaries who believed that the pre-Islamic Arabian culture (jahlia) was the true Islamic way of life did a great job and not only liberated Afghanistan but in the process also dismantled the Soviet Union.  Quite naturally the Taliban & Co felt that they had a right to rule the conquered land as per their whims and refused to hand over the booty to the financiers. The result is before us.

Syria is the last stronghold of Communism in the Middle East and it seems that Abubakr Baghdadi was chosen as the new Osama bin Laden for Syria who managed to raise an army of ill-educated rustic Muslims similar to the Taliban. But as the gang started achieving military successes, it also declared the formation of ISIS (a mockery of an Islamic state) which angered its sponsors.  The Russians would naturally do everything to protect their only remaining ally.

Since most of the lands conquered or liberated by them are still under the effective control of the US military, I would appeal to them to stop this game of death and destruction and invest in the education and uplift of backward people of all religions and races. With signs of extra-terrestrial life becoming more positive, they would still have a role and importance in a peaceful and harmonious world of tomorrow.

Charlie Hebdo and I

“Charlie Hebdo first appeared in 1970 as a successor to the Hara-Kiri magazine, which was banned for mocking the death of former French President Charles de Gaulle.^[10] In 1981 publication ceased, but the magazine was resurrected in 1992.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo)

The planned act of violence of January 7, 2015 in which 12 people including 9 Charlie Hebdo staff members, one guest and two policemen were gunned down in Paris by two armed assailants was indeed a ghastly crime. It shook the world and some 40 heads of state flew into Paris to condole the incident.  But compared with the carnages that occur frequently in Peshawar and Karachi at the hands of religious fanatics of the same genre. it was a walk in the park. The December, 2014 terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar in which over 130 pupils and teachers were gunned down in cold blood did not seem to cause any stir in the world.

Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 CE in Makkah and Islam started when he was 40 lunar years old or about 609 CE. In the last 1406 years there has not been a single incident in which a Muslim has abused or ridiculed the Bible or the Torah or Jesus or Moses. Their names are taken with respect by all Muslims. In fact Muslims even treat Budha, Confucious and the Hindu avatars with a degree of deference. However the response of the followers of other religions has been disappointing to say the least. There is a whole history behind it.

The ridicule of Prophet Muhammad was started by the Christians, Jews and pagans of Makkah as soon as his message became known. The European compilers of the Bible didn’t shrink from putting in snide remarks about Ismail son of Abraham who is claimed by the Arabs of Makkah to be their forefather. In recent times such western intellectuals as Voltaire and Dante have exceeded all limits of decency in their criticism of Islam and Prophet Muhammad. The illustrations contained in Dante’s Inferno are simply outrageous from any standards.

It seems that Western civilization and decency have become conditioned to such vulgarities against Islam. How come that in a society where people get jailed for denying the Holocaust, mocking the king or queen or the death of a president are not questioned about their activities that clearly incite hatred on the basis of religion and race?

We accept that there is small number of people in the Muslim world who are intellectually locked in the 7^th Century and want to change the world to resemble the state of affairs of that time and efforts are being made to contain the effects of their errant thinking. The question is: are there similar people in the Western world who are intellectually locked in the “middle ages”?  If so, are they a small minority or an overwhelming majority?

The following picture shared on facebook seems to be a fair representation of the popular following of the leaders who assembled in Paris to demonstrate solidarity with vulgarity.