Saturday 9 July 2005

Pic of the day: Stop it!

Terror in London

Yes, I am aware that there was a terror attack on London this Thursday. It bears the profile of the al-Qaeda. Which, incidentally, is more like a franchise than a secret army. The "main branch" of al-Qaeda is pretty much routed, with the leaders dead or captured or on the run. However, the ideology is spreading wider and wider, and there are "cells" in much any part of the world where there is a reasonably large Muslim community. Contact between these groups depends much on luck and skill, and it is not at all certain that Osama bin Laden (if he is even alive) knew about the London attacks before they happened.

It looks like the actual bombings were suicide attacks, performed by four ordinary young men. It makes sense, because you would not want them to be caught alive afterwards and tell who organized it. Good organizers are probably in short supply. People who are willing to die to kill a lot of civilians are not. No, seriously! I mean it. Yes, at least some of them studied Islamic theology in Pakistan. And? The American high school boys who shoot as many classmates as they can before thy kill themselves, are they perhaps Muslims too? We can only hope that other extremist groups like the Animal Liberation Front don't get the resources to sniff out and equip "quiet" young people too. There are certainly plenty of them who would need only a little shove (like free explosives) to do the same.

To be honest, I can understand those guys. There has not been a time in my life when I would go to Hell for the joy of killing just a dozen people. I have always considered myself far more worth. But somewhere between 1000 and 10 000 I would certainly have thought it over carefully. Being able to remove thousands of the disgusting two-legged rodents ... oh yes. That would really have given my life meaning. Since that would take a small nuke, it has never been a real temptation, but that doesn't mean I haven't daydreamed about it from time to time when I was younger.

There are probably thousands of young people, boys mostly, who feel that much estranged from humanity. Mostly they are, like these four and like me, "quiet" people who have no interest in petty crime. I don't see any connection between suicide bombings and ordinary crime at all. Crime is for people who want to gain status in the primate pack. That kind of people would never consider a suicide bomb or a school shooting. Only those who have learned through experience that common people are despicable vermin, would do that.

Oh, don't worry, you can be safe from me. Yes, I hold ordinary people in very low esteem. But I also know that there are extraordinary people hidden like pearls in an acre of soil, people who have the potential to wake up to a higher level of consciousness. Perhaps we all hold that potential, but most never reach it or even move in the wrong direction. If humanity was to be reduced to its present average, a species wipe would be merciful. We are so going to mess up the planet unless we get our act together! The current culture cannot do that. A new brand of humanity is needed. Ordinary people are probably not part of that future. And even less so are those who become hollow inside and give in to despair. As the Quran says, there is no way they who kill women or children could escape the fire.

Yes, the Quran (Koran) holds up the same promise as the Bible and other old texts: That there will be an end to the rat race and the rats that take part in it, and a new time when those who paid attention to Allah the Merciful, the Compassionate, will live in glory forever. It is a horrible irony that anyone would be killing innocents in that name, hurling themselves hungrily into the eternal oblivion. But then again, how many people have not killed in the name of Jesus Christ, he who would rather die innocent than seek a kingdom in this world? This is not about Islam or Christianity, it is about people who are able to see the darkness but unable to see the light. Most are too blind to see either, living petty lives and dying petty deaths. But every now and then someone wakes up: Some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

Don't I wish those who did good could get this much publicity, though.