An attack on the world
DEAR SIR — At surreal moments like these, all I want is to soak myself on the sounds of Maze featuring Frankie Beverly performing live “Happy feelings”. I want to drown out all the pain and hatred strangulating humanity. The world needs more happy feelings.
As the tsunami of hatred continues from Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and Kenya, I keep reminding myself that humans are also capable of beauty. At our best we are god, creating miracles. Picasso, Gibson Kente, Rumi, Malala Yousafzai, Kabombo, Karen Zoid, Khaleid Hosseini and Daft Punk come to mind.
At their worst humans are Boko Haram in Nigeria, al-Shabaab in Somalia, President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in SA.
The NPA thinks it is god and can do whatever it wants to do to undermine the constitution of this country and the citizens. The Richard Mdluli saga speaks volumes. But that is for another day. Right now, it is the massacre in Nairobi, Kenya that is worrying me. How did we come to this? As I watch the death tolls mounting in Kenya and Pakistan, I revisit Bertrand Russell’s question: has a man a future? Let me rephrase it: has humanity a future in the face of hatred?
David Bohm in his book On Dialogue goes a long way in drafting a map for peaceful coexistence. He writes: “If we are to live in harmony with ourselves and nature, we need to be able to communicate freely in a creative movement in which no one permanently holds to or otherwise defends his own ideas.... I am saying society is based on shared meanings.”
Tolerance is the glue that binds us. Religion cannot be a vehicle of hatred but should foster social cohesion. Who gave Boko Haram and al-Shabaab a right to hide behind religion as they murder innocent people? It all started with Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses, and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Then there was an issue of the Danish cartoons. How would we feel if the Pope issued a death sentence against me for criticising God? Does the omnipotent God needs defending from us? Do humans have the ability to insult God? Only the deluded think so.
The abuse of religion for selfish gains set a dangerous precedent for groups such as al-Shabaab. They think religion is a passport to kill. What Mr Rushdie did was wrong. But is killing him an answer? Why has no single Islamic scholar stood up to correct the Ayatollah? Today we have to live with the consequences as played out in the Kenyan mall attack.
The answer to terrorism is not the American way, relying on force. Groups like al-Shabaab should be exposed for what they are: murderers. They live on blood of the innocent. They are enemies of Africa and are worse than former colonisers. In attacking Kenya, they attacked all of us.
Humanity has a future if we stand up against antisemitism, Islamophobia and any form of intolerance.