This has been a particularly depressing past couple of weeks as far as international affairs is concerned, again focused on Muslims. First, we had the long-awaited released of the US Senate report on CIA torture of detainees, which while unsurprising in its content (most of which has been leaked for some time now) makes for grisly reading. That was followed by the Sydney cafe siege and the exaggerated media response to a seemingly lone deranged nutcase. If his intention was to score some quick media fame, then mission accomplished. All this of course happened midst the backdrop of the continuing battle between ISIS and a host of international forces with competing agendas in Syria and Iraq (of which China of all countries may soon be a part). The above for most conscientious souls would be the media equivalent of sensory overload, numbing well-worn instincts for shock value, dulling our feeling of impact. Yet, as if that wasn't enough, we are confronted with the horrific news of a massacre of schoolchildren by militant thugs in Peshawar, and somehow even in this deafening chamber of our world of chaos, this one leaves us stunned.
The cold blooded killing of children, and particularly children, and in such a deliberative fashion, is beyond the pale. It leaves one speechless, empty, grasping for words that will attempt to but cannot adequately capture the gravity of what has occurred. One naturally questions the humanity of the perpetrators, but I find myself questioning humanity itself. Perhaps if I were not a Muslim, believing in Divine Purpose and Order, I would cynically conclude that humanity is a failed experiment of Nature, our intelligence being a genetic mutation liability, adduced from the fact that that we have such capacity for self-destruction.
The actions of the TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) who claimed responsibility for the attack, were clearly intended to demoralise the Army which has been carrying out military operations in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan since July. Yet they have come across as desperate and deranged. A rallying effect has been created in Pakistan to unite those disparate forces in opposition, for the time being. Public sentiment is unanimously angry. Even other militant groups has disowned this attack, so heinous it was. The big question is what will happen now. Will a new strategy be crafted? And can, for once, an inquiry be properly done into the security failures that led to this tragedy?
Our prayers go to the families who lost their loved ones. Their grief must be unimaginable. The hope, naive though it may be, is that this incident is a tipping point to allow measures to bring to an end years of conflict insha Allah, rather than a harbinger of further bloodshed.
The cold blooded killing of children, and particularly children, and in such a deliberative fashion, is beyond the pale. It leaves one speechless, empty, grasping for words that will attempt to but cannot adequately capture the gravity of what has occurred. One naturally questions the humanity of the perpetrators, but I find myself questioning humanity itself. Perhaps if I were not a Muslim, believing in Divine Purpose and Order, I would cynically conclude that humanity is a failed experiment of Nature, our intelligence being a genetic mutation liability, adduced from the fact that that we have such capacity for self-destruction.
The actions of the TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) who claimed responsibility for the attack, were clearly intended to demoralise the Army which has been carrying out military operations in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan since July. Yet they have come across as desperate and deranged. A rallying effect has been created in Pakistan to unite those disparate forces in opposition, for the time being. Public sentiment is unanimously angry. Even other militant groups has disowned this attack, so heinous it was. The big question is what will happen now. Will a new strategy be crafted? And can, for once, an inquiry be properly done into the security failures that led to this tragedy?
Our prayers go to the families who lost their loved ones. Their grief must be unimaginable. The hope, naive though it may be, is that this incident is a tipping point to allow measures to bring to an end years of conflict insha Allah, rather than a harbinger of further bloodshed.
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