Afghanistan Tragedy Touches Us All
Turning one's face away from the grim reality is merely to hide in shame.
One voice among millions wouldn’t seem to be very impactful, so what’s the point, right? Maybe I’m doing this for myself, but is that so bad? We all intellectually know that life is not fair and tragedy abounds, but turning one’s face away from such a grim reality is merely to hide in shame.
I’m thinking of the Afghans who will be left behind to be slaughtered like wild animals. I know the logic and justification that will be used by the murderers, too. I was taught how true Jihadists think when I was in graduate school at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale many years ago and registered for an international relations class. Several of the students were from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and Palestine, the latter more commonly referred to as the Occupied West Bank at the time. None of my fellow students appeared to be a Jihadist, though one was a strict fundamentalist and it was he who explained things well.
Those human beings not entitled to experience Paradise are the ones who may be killed, he explained. Do not cry for them as they are nothing more than carrion, corpses without any life, soul or future. Whether they die now, at birth, or live to an old age, they will cease to exist in any form after death and that forever fate effaces any length of time they may have had on Earth, i.e., they’re equally non-existent. Only those entitled to experience Paradise will survive; as for the others, whether you die sooner or later is of no consequence. Is anyone blamed for swatting a fly out of existence? Is anyone blamed for capturing and killing a rabid dog? It’s no different when killing an unworthy person.
The student-lecturer issued only one caveat: Determining who qualifies for Paradise is entirely up to Allah, not any man on Earth, and any human who thinks he can decide someone’s fate like this is a heretic. My fellow student was Sunni and was overtly hostile to Shi’ites (this all transpired during the Iraq-Iran War), but you’ll have to read up on the alleged heresy of the Shi’ites on your own. Nonetheless, he added, we can have a pretty good idea of what will happen to any and all of us after death. Martyrs and the truly faithful are the most likely to experience Paradise, along with select virtuous members the Protected Classes (Jews and Christians) but infidels and even Muslims who violate the faith are the walking dead.
This little discourse may seem tangential to the ongoing tragedy in Afghanistan, which is where I began, but it is not. The murder of innocents (I say they’re innocent, and most of you reading this will accept that innocents are being slaughtered) but to the true Jihadists they are doing nothing more than God’s work, clearing out those who have betrayed the faith, turning them into carrion, things not to be mourned or even remembered, no more than that leg of lamb you had for dinner a few nights ago.
Political scientists often don’t accept that people really are motivated by religious belief. I think such political scientists are quite naïve but also taken with their own understanding of human behavior. The Taliban is just “consolidating” power now and executing the “counter-revolutionaries,” the political scientists will say, and they can point to examples. The Bolsheviks certainly killed counter-revolutionaries and reactionaries and foreign agents and the lot after 1917, and even the American colonists sometimes did this to British loyalists during our War of Independence. I’ll leave it you to decide which analysis is correct – religious fanaticism or standard revolutionary behavior in whatever guise it manifests itself.
I recently singed up for my local energy company’s “power saver” program and just received a $75 e-Certificate as a reward to spend as I like. Yesterday I split those proceeds between Human Rights Watch, the International Rescue Committee and another charity. There’s a small gesture for you! I also signed up for an extra shift at the Indianapolis Airport USO, one of my main volunteer efforts since retiring from The Indianapolis Star.
And I write this. I don’t know what else to do that might be in any way be more impactful.