Fundamentalism Tears At Soul; Humanity Stands Tall

Barely a week goes by without some radical elements claiming lives of innocent people. While those who are involved in the crime are high on propaganda and are highly mislead, the lives of people who are going about their own lives is put on the line of fire. What do you call them? Unlucky? Unfortunate? Or simply wonder if their time on earth was up, and this was the pretext under which they had to exit?

The recent chilling incidents have coincidentally involved Islam for reasons that the men who orchestrated those were fighting for the cause of their faith.

The world had just sighed in relief at the news that Australian café incident had drawn to an end. Out of 17 who were taken as hostages at an up market Lindt café in Sydney, two innocent people had lost their lives. And the man in question, Haron Monis was dead in the ordeal that ended after 16 hours after he took siege of the café.

His support to ISIS got him away from reality and the fundamentalism consumed him from within. When his journey ended, it also sounded the end of road for two more people who just happened to be present at the café around the time when he took siege of it.

But, what about those 132 (and still counting) children who were engrossed in their subjects around the time when Talibanis entered their school in the beautiful town of Peshawar in Pakistan? What was their fault? Just being present at a place where they were supposed to be present? Though the Pak police says all the gunmen have been killed, how will it ever free the survivors from the memory that is going to haunt them forever?

What about those innocent lives that breathed their last even before they began to have an opinion on Taliban? Or any fundamentalist organization for that matter? Where did the world go wrong?

It’s inevitable that we compare both incidents for more reasons than one. Firstly, they happened back to back that you couldn’t ignore. There was absolutely no time gap between the one ending and the other one beginning.

Second, both have religious ring to them. Remember, we aren’t speaking of Islam alone. We are referring to any fundamentalist propaganda that is sure to end up being detrimental to the society and also to the individual involved. Unfortunately, the ordeal is never about the individual alone. Because when he strikes, he is sure to cause a bigger gash than just having his gun blaze at some random target.

In more ways than one, both attacks have a similar storyline. At the risk of sounding ‘blasé’ it is imperative to say when religion becomes the core of a war, it loses the base. It falls into a bottomless pit and then into zero gravity. It sails, but carries no weight because it does not have matter. Some would think the whole thing is flying, and it would just be their perspective.

In case of Sydney incident, it was the trust that was shattered, and replaced with fear. The Aussies allowed Haron Monis to thrive by granting him asylum, by ignoring his umpteen crimes and still allowing him the benefit of doubt. The otherwise stringent Australian judiciary and migration laws somehow couldn’t see the streak of a maniac in Monis for various reasons.

But, in case of Pakistan, the incident came like a bolt from the blue. When it occurred, the devastation was complete. Two related generations wiped out. One of the students who were killed and second is that of the parents who lost their children in the incident. Faith now is a question of feasibility. Because, trust isn’t a virtue when you lay small coffins into the earth and bury them. Their tiny souls may find peace somehow, if the heaven’s gates are open. What about those souls who are left behind? Those of the parents’ who will grieve forever for their children who did nothing wrong to deserve such a gruesome exit?

In a way, this was the land’s own doing. This is the opinion that’s gaining ground on social forums. The same social forum aided by technology that is also helping the fundamentalism gain stronger ground in various parts of the world, just as it is causing revolutions as well.

Whichever way you look at it, there are definite signs of humanity too. Soon as the news of an Iranian holding 17 people under siege broke out, Aussies reacted with amazing grace and offered to escort any Muslim with visible signs of religion such as a headgear, safely to their destination. Twitter trended with hashtag that spoke of humanity. #Illridewithyou simply held the promise of humanity much above a fundamentalist’s brutal act.

The conventional opponents India and Pakistan grieved equally at the incident of children being blindly murdered by Talibanis.

#IndiawithPakistan has been trending on twitter, in a heartening sign of a relationship that's joined by the same chord.

Image: indiatimes