Minggu, 07 Oktober 2007
Towards intolerance and hatred -- the real danger of the attack at the Sultan Park
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| DATE: 2007-10-07 | HNS
By Ibrahim Athif
‘We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another’ Jonathan Swift
When you get hit, the tendency is to hit back. When your family is under attack you prepare to defend and beat the aggressors. When nations are under attack they go offensive; and a nation has more tools at its disposal to exact vengeance. And that of course is the real objective of those who use terror tactics.
In the modern day context of using terror, the objective is no longer just to terrify. Rather, the objective is more sinister. It is the calculated attempt to harness the righteous anger of a nation and force it to retaliate. To hit back.
Saturday the 29th was a day when the Maldivian nation was targeted. For it was the nation and its economy that were targeted and not just a dozen tourists. Though, while the unfortunate visitors bore the actual physical scars of the attack, make no mistake about it, it was the nation that was under attack.
Increasingly it is becoming obvious that this attack was undertaken by a group of radicals whose twisted definition of brotherly love and compassion precluded anybody who did not accept their hardcore, intolerant creed.
Theirs was a creed; for calling it faith is giving it more that is justified, that is based on intolerance. The correct path was theirs’ and theirs’ alone.
And so them, in their intolerance, schemed and committed a cowardly act against a nation. They would have known that their tiny little bomb would not kill. It was not designed to.
No, the attempt was to provoke the nation. To use the resources of the nation and the outrage of the people for more sinister purposes.
The attack on the World Trade Centre on September the 11th brought sympathy and compassion of the whole world to the people of America. Vigils and marches of solidarity were held throughout the world, supporting the Americans. Then of course, the Americans, with their mighty guns, their fast planes and stealth technology decided to hit back. ‘Shock and awe’ was the format. And they made their plans and fuelled their planes and they hit back. They invaded Afghanistan and created the conditions to invade Iraq. There they are now. Stuck in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan with the coalition unraveling by the minute. And nobody likes the Americans. Apparently not even the Americans.
For the people who designed and planned the twin tower attack, their success lay not only in the number of people who got killed, but in their ability to have maneuvered America into a position where American is actually reviled and hated by considerably more people than when it was attacked and was a victim.
This is a drama being played right in front of our eyes.
The blast of the 29th was also, I believe, designed to do more than scare off a few tourists. No, I believe that the act was designed to force the public and the government to react. To force the government to take intolerant and unjustified actions against all who live a different style of life and pray to God in a different costume and in a separate context.
But as a nation we must not fall into this trap. The only cure for intolerance is more care and compassion. The act of hatred shalt not beget hatred and disgust. For then, we would not be any better than those who committed this dastardly act. We would have fallen into the actual trap and there would be no way back.
Genetically we as individuals might be pre-disposed to hit back when attacked. But as a nation our actions should be measured and targeted. Our actions and reactions should not be targeted against all who wear a different garb. For if we do, they would have succeeded and we would have perpetuated a cycle of hatred and intolerance that would come back and destroy our nation, our way of life.
So in the name of the merciful and the compassionate, I hope and pray that we are blessed with enough forethought and intelligence that would not push us toward intolerant and senseless acts, but that our reaction, as a nation, would be measured and directed such that the objective of those who designed the attack would fail.
This post was written by: Franklin Manuel
Franklin Manuel is a professional blogger, web designer and front end web developer. Follow him on Twitter
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