How to heal the wounds of Mumbai and Oslo killings

SYED ALI MUJTABA SYED for The Ground Report India July 24, 2011

We live in a strange world, a world that harps on make believe assumptions. Its not even week when Mumbai was rocked by another series of bomb blasts, a condemnable act in every term of words, equally wired was the quick conclusion to blame Indian Mujhadeen, Lasker -e -Toiba and Jaish- e- Mohammad for the act.

There was not even a shred of evidence pertaining to that but the entire country was fed on the staple diet of the usual Muslim suspects. i was trying for balanced reportage but no TV channel had the audacity to report that the security forces can not correctly place the needle of suspicion on any exact group or groups and every one is innocent in the eyes of the law.

Contrary each channel was going gung-ho hate mongering when it was moment of restraint. The vernacular television screens were louder in stoking the tempers against a particular community.

Now when the heat and the dust of the blast has settled down, all the theories that were earlier circulated has come cropper and there is lull about all that has happened a while ago.

Is it not all this sound strange? Anyway I leave this as food for thought and try to pick up the thread at the killings in Oslo.

The moment this tragedy struck Norway, the first suspect was Al Qida. One report tried to make believe that it was Osama Bin Laden’s men who had gone on rampage to avenge the killing of its leader.

Another said that some Islamic radical in dressed in mufti created the mayhem. It was to protest Norway’s participation with NTO operations in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan.

How simplest were the deductions, one wonders. Now, as the clouds have cleared, there is no Islamic angle to the killings. The truth is very different from all the assumptions being made.

This brings to the fundamental point, why the media is in a hurry to do the postmortem of such events. They seem to blame on what ever comes handy and are easy targets.

It’s a dangerous trend and not good for the consumption of civilized societies. In all humbleness there should be a protest to stop the muck that’s thrown around in the name responsible journalism.

Here, I may also like to add another fact that is that some Islamic radicals have rejoiced at the pain caused in Norway, calling it divine justice for the pains suffered in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

This again is a dangerous trend and has to be condemned in very harsh words. Such thinking can not be called as an act of civilization. It is sheer barbarism.

Both Mumbai and Norway killings has brought huge pain and sufferings to the people who are victims of such terror. It’s a time where each of us should unite to fight such dastardly acts. This is done without any prejudices.

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is an eternal rule. Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule, said one of India’s iconic saint, Lord Buddha.

Equally important is quote of another saint of India Hazrat Nizamuddin who says do not give me scissor as I do not like to cut, give me needle, as I like to stitch.

At this point of time, the pain and sufferings of the victims cannot be healed by blaming someone; it can only be overcome through the resolve of acting as a needle to stitch the wounds of hate.

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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com

Tags: Mumbai Oslo Killing