Ever since the Osama raid took place I have been reading mixed views about the man who killed thousands and terrorized the whole world. Peace prayers were being held at places across India, Pakistan and god knows where all! This completely beats me. Praying for peace for the man who probably didn’t understand ABC of peace, humanity, love, human rights??? I thought it’s disgusting.
Yesterday I read (here) that his battalion of sons is lashing out against the killing of their father telling ‘it’s unethical to kill an unarmed man’! As I read it I thought what a joke! But I want to ask all these people who said it was unethical to kill Osama who was unarmed when shot dead, where were you when this very Osama killed thousands of unarmed innocent men women and children? Was it very ethical on his part to kill civilians? If you couldn’t raise the question of ethics to OBL then why raise now?
I get very inquisitive each time, I come across such things, to find out the history behind all this, so I started reading a lot on it recently. Some of the ideologies I came across made me think in which century these guys are living in? I have quoted some examples below, read them and you can decide for yourself if they are ethical, unethical or absurd.
Example 1
OBL’s first bombing attack was on December 29, 1992 at Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden where civilians were killed. It is after this incident that they came up with a justification for killing innocent civilians.
“According to a fatwa issued by Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, the killing of someone standing near the enemy is justified because any innocent bystander will find their proper reward in death, going to Jannah (Paradise) if they were good Muslims and to Jahannam (hell) if they were bad or non-believers.” – testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden#cite_note-84
Now what sense does this make? If I am standing near my enemy my murder by someone else is justified?? How?? If one is not a believer or a follower of a particular religion that person becomes bad? Why?? Wasn’t this unethical??
Example 2
OBL and his groups had dynamited 6th century standing Buddha statues carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan. This was widely covered in the media. Some quotes on this incident.
“It was the spring of 2001. I was in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley, together with my brother Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the Afghan resistance against the Taliban, and Bismillah Khan, who currently serves as Afghanistan’s interior minister. One of our commanders, Commandant Momin, wanted us to see 30 Taliban fighters who had been taken hostage after a gun battle. My brother agreed to meet them.
I remember that his first question concerned the centuries-old Buddha statues that were dynamited by the Taliban in March of that year, shortly before our encounter. Two Taliban combatants from Kandahar confidently responded that worshiping anything outside of Islam was unacceptable and that therefore these statues had to be destroyed. My brother looked at them and said, this time in Pashto, ‘There are still many sun- worshippers in this country. Will you also try to get rid of the sun and drop darkness over the Earth?'”” – Yahya Massoud (July 2010). [Afghans can win this war, Foreign Policy].
I swear by the sentence Will you also try to get rid of the sun and drop darkness over the Earth? They have already brought enough darkness in people’s minds… darkness of illiteracy, darkness of inhumanism, darkness of violation of human rights, darkness of extremism, darkness of terror. Wasn’t it unethical to destroy a world heritage? Will they do the same to the pyramids in Egypt because the pharaohs worshiped Ra (the ancient Egyptian Sun God)?
Example 3
Under Taliban rule rights of women were nonexistent in Afghanistan. God only knows how much they must have suffered under these extremists.
From the age of eight, women were not allowed to be in direct contact with men, other than a close blood relative, husband, or in-law ,they were not allowed to appear in the streets without a blood relative and without wearing a Burqa. Women were not allowed education, right to work, and even right to medical attention as male doctors were not allowed to treat women and females couldn’t practice. Ban was imposed on wearing high-heeled shoes as no man should hear a woman’s footsteps lest it excite him! [How disgusting, put cotton balls in your ears if you don’t want to get excited, pervert]. Women could not speak loudly in public as no stranger should hear a woman’s voice. All ground and first floor residential windows had to be painted over or screened to prevent women being visible from the street. And when any one violated any of the above they were flogged, whipped, tortured, gang raped or killed. You can read more on http://www.rawa.org/rules.htm
The extremists stated their aim was to create
“Secure environments where the chasteness and dignity of women may once again be sacrosanct” – Nancy Hatch Dupree. ‘Afghan Women under the Taliban’ in William Maley (2001)
Dignity of woman? Do they even understand the meaning of the word dignity? Abusing a woman, taking away all her rights, denying her medical help forget about anything else.. Does this count as making the dignity of women sacrosanct? [http://www.rawa.org/women.php]
In one of the most horrifying incidents, the Talibans publically executed a woman ( a mother of seven children) in a soccer field where they invited common people in masses. Zarmeena’s story is not unknown today because of youtube and different other websites. But it’s due to a brave move by some brave women workers of RAWA that today the world know and has seen images of this barbaric act. Zarmeena had beaten her husband to death after being unable to bear any more torture and abuse by him. She was arrested and kept in prison for 11/2 years. But the extremists wanted to keep people terrorized so they decided for a public execution of a helpless woman.
In one of the most horrifying incidents, the Talibans publically executed a woman ( a mother of seven children) in a soccer field where they invited common people in masses. Zarmeena’s story is not unknown today because of youtube and different other websites. But it’s due to a brave move by some brave women workers of RAWA that today the world know and has seen images of this barbaric act. Zarmeena had beaten her husband to death after being unable to bear any more torture and abuse by him. She was arrested and kept in prison for 11/2 years. But the extremists wanted to keep people terrorized so they decided for a public execution of a helpless woman.
“Several minutes before the execution, her husband’s family announced to the Taliban that they forgave Zarmeena. But the Taliban said that it was impossible to stop the execution because they had already announced it to thousands of people. Islamic law allows the family to forgive the killer but the Taliban did not pay any attention to the law.” RAWA reporter, With All Our Strength by Anne E Brodsky 2003
This is the book which I am currently reading and getting to know more and more how women in Afghanistan have been denied all rights and left in a condition where survival is next to impossible. It’s sickening to read that a girl’s thumb was amputated for wearing nail polish! Someone’s leg broken because her heel was accidentally visible under the long burqua! Isn’t it unethical, inhuman??
Coming back to my initial question, if these people (OBL’s family) didn’t raise questions of ethics at those times why are they raising the question now? What did they want, US to arrest him and give him a fair trial! And again some other planes would have been hijacked, thousands would have been killed to release that man before that trial. I believe what you have done to others you will get it back and he too got it back.
There’s some problem happening in the blog today, formatting is changing on its own.. can’t do much about it…regret about the weird formatting 🙁
