Today was a sad day for all Pakistanis. More than four decades ago, Pakistan lost half of its population to a new country. Today we were struck by a different kind of calamity. An army school in Peshawar echoed with deafening roar of AK-47 firing. The targets were children. The killers were barbarians.
More than anything else, the news made me think about how even such an act can be humanly possible. True, wars have brought the worst in people across cultures -armies have countless times in the past decimated populations, torched food supplies and crops, raped women and children and plundered and razed entire cities. History of us humans is no stranger to savagery. But then, humanity moved ahead. We learnt to value peace and civilized living. The fruits of peaceful coexistence were for all to see and enjoy. A part of me wants to think that we gave up our vicious instincts to inflict senseless pain to our enemies.
The force in our hands have been becoming deadlier. I imagine holding an AK-47 -havingan infinite power to bring death around myself; being the sole judge of who deserves to live; sparing a few lives when my heart feels soft.
But then I also think about having a 14 year old target locked. How can any part of my entire existence let me proceed with it? How can even dare move my finger on the trigger? A helpless, scared, fourteen year old. A boy I do not even know.
And yet 132 times the trigger was pressed. Classmates watched each other falling; silence replaced their shrills; and mutilated caricatures stared back at their former friends.
I also think about what would be going on in the children's minds as they left us for a better world. Was it about how to tuck his best friend in so the terrorist take him for the dead? Or was he weaving a safe story to give his mom when she asks what he has been up to? May be he just took comfort in the thought that it is all a bad dream. After all, why would fully armed terrorists ever get into his classroom and shoot at all his friends?
To know that people this perverse, sick and dastard share this land with us is disturbing. As unfathomable as this is, we cannot go back from here in denial. Yes, humans walk this Earth who are capable of shedding blood of 132 innocent children in vain in front of their best friends. Yes, they live among us, either in our own very country, or somehow connected to our people. They communicate with us through tweets, Facebook and TV. These are real human beings, who are born to mothers and may be even loved by some. Somehow, somewhere, somthing has gone awefully wrong, for humanity cannot have allowed it.
Denial in the face of severe grief and shock is understandable. We may find people among ourselves saying that such people are not humans. As inhumane as the acts are, they were committed by humans. Even animals would shy from such henious atrocities.
We also get to hear that such acts cannot be committed by Muslims. It is impossible to find out the faiths of the attackers. To me, the fact that such inhumane acts can even be carried out makes their actual faith completely meaningless. Nevertheless, these attacks were later claimed by an organization that professes not just to be Muslims, but in fact champions of Islam.
'Being a Muslim' is distinct from 'Acting in accordance with Islam'. Being a Muslim is an identity that connects one to the greater community of people of Islamic faith. In Pakistan, we also have a legal definition for a Muslim. So are Taliban Muslims? I opine that, yes, very much so. Have they been acting in accordance with Islam? Clearly and outrightly, No!
It is understandable to distance oneself from people who have committed henious crimes of unthinkable scale. We all do it to reiterate our own commitment to staying civilized. That is perhaps what leads us to conclude that such people cannot be Muslims.
But beyond such denial should follow realization. That yes, people like us -Muslims, Pakistanis and sons of this soil, have committed such grave crimes against humanity. We should do so not because the blood is on our hands, but because the solution is. This realization would most definitely follow an introspection, which would lead to rethink the way we interpret our religion and the way we educate our coming generation. The menace of terror that we face arises from a thought discourse that is very much ours. We need to rethink it so that extremist views are not encouraged.. These people are no aliens. Courage requires that we are able see the monsters in our own selves.
