Terrorism continues to be increasingly contumacious in its determination to expand the divide between Muslims and Christians and the East and the West. The term “terrorism” is often used loosely and most times to refer to the catalogue of crimes carried out by Islamic extremists against humanity. History reveals that terrorism has been in existence for over one thousand years and its dregs still rattle humanity’s collective existence. It is a lack of, a total disregard of, a misplacement of, morals and love for humanity that can, therefore, make one man behead another man and not his religious beliefs.
On the last day of January 2015, Kenji Goto, a freelance Japanese journalist, was brutally murdered in Syria by a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). His crime? He left his country for Syria in October to capture the “tragedies of war”. Unfortunately for Goto, he fell into the hands of enemies of humanity and like a goat, he was slaughtered. To cap it up, they had the chutzpah to record their bloody act and show it to the world.
These serpents of hate have successfully overcome, in their hearts, the moral proclivity for human synchronizations, and continue to relegate their victims to sub-human status, and invariably, expanding their fields of slaughter. In their register of known murders you would find the following: Steven Soloff, David Haines, Abbas Medle, James Foley and so many unknowns. Their stock-in-trade is deletion of souls. For how long will these treacherous beasts in human skin carry out their orgiastic murders? How can the world deal with terrorism in all forms?
The strategies of transformation of society demand a measure of pragmatism. But, when humans like members of the ISIS constitute an outrage to the moral sense and overstep the limits of our humanity, then humans must outrageously and collectively shake the earth till they are buried with a united battle. It is not a Muslim thing. It is not a Christian thing. It is a humanistic thing. Must the psychopathic opportunists of a senseless revolutionary struggle also become beneficiaries of the balm of victory? Would we sit mute and watch as they entertain the world with their negativity? It is not a national issue, but a global one. Their residual sensibility is shared in Nigeria, Somalia, Niger, Yemen, Afghanistan, France, USA and the list goes on.
The killers of Goto do not represent any religion. Or, what is Islamic about religious intolerance and deadly fanaticism? What is at play is just a sadistic, selfish and senseless display of a psychosomatic disorder mixed with a devilish intent to play God over other men. No religion, I believe, commands the decapitation of men, kidnapping of young girls and the killing of a being in general. Yet, barbaric acts are carried out in the name of religion. Jurgen Todenhofer, the German reporter who spent 10 days with ISIS, concluded that “ISIS is much stronger than [he] thought”, “aimed to kill hundreds of millions of people”. He further said he does “not see anybody who has a real chance of stopping them” apart from Arabs. Todenhofer’s claim that only Arabs can save them echoes a certain kind of strangeness. Strangeness to how we see ourselves in the world now. It echoes that “us” and “them” dichotomy. The world needs to save the world.
The US Major General James Marks, talking about the recent Baga incident in Nigeria on CNN, argued that the fight against Boko Haram is “not an [American] priority”. He went further in a blunt way to state, “Black West Africa is not a priority.” These kinds of contentious statements also contribute unconsciously to widening of human coexistence. Undoubtedly, it happened in Nigeria but humans were involved. Unless, of course, “black” in the context which Marks used in his statement refers to the colonial blacks that meant nothing to the western world. Perhaps that’s what he meant because he went further to say, “If those deaths happened in white Africa which is North Africa […] we would be alarmed.” The Major General who is supposedly representing the country of the free sees importance in the colour of the dead and not the fact that we all bleed red, whether white or black.
Without awareness of the fact that the world needs to save the world, the task of fighting against groups like Al Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram, etc would remain tough. When Goto’s daughters grow up, what would they ask about and of the world?
There is a clamour for world peace, yet we use labels to define humans. There is a hypocritical existence that needs to be nipped in the bud. Goto’s wife described her husband as someone whose passion was to report the evils of war. He died while fighting to give humanity a better face. Ours, then, should be to stand for what is right. Ours is to shout terrorism down, in all its forms, by every means necessary.
Michael Irene
