Just about three months ago, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was shot dead by a white policeman on a street in Ferguson, Missouri. The witnesses said that the teenager was surrendering, his hands in the air to show he was unarmed, when the officer opened fire. The officer “shot again and once my friend felt that shot, he turned around and put his hands in the air,” said witness Johnson. “He started to get down and the officer still approached with his weapon drawn and fired several more shots.” Seemingly, Brown was accused of pilfering cigar from a store.
The incident shows certain discrimination between Black and White’s communities. Even though, being president in America was beyond the Blacks’ wildest dreams, however this dream became a reality. Despite all the achievements, racial discrimination still exists in some parts of the United States. Hence, yet Martin Luther’s dreams need time to be changed to reality.
Martin Luther King had a dream. As he state, “ I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
According to natural rights theory, as described by philosophers such as John Locke, everyone is born with an equality of certain rights, regardless of their nationality. Since they come from nature or from God, natural rights cannot be justly taken away without consent. As the Declaration of Independence asserts, natural rights include “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
A number of standard individual rights are especially important to ethnic and religious minorities, including rights to freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and freedom from discrimination. Human rights documents also include rights that refer to minorities explicitly and give them special protections. For example, the Civil and Political Covenant in Article 27 says that persons belonging to ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities “shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language.”
Hence, when a black man is murdered in America for his dark color, a six-year-old Hazara girl is kidnapped and killed in Pakistan for her race, and Shia minorities are gunned down for their sect, or Christian Church-goers are attacked for their beliefs, such incidents are a flagrant violation of human rights. It must be noted that a baby which is born in a village in South Africa has the same rights with a baby born in the heart of America or in Saudi Arabia. Human rights law is not legislated on the basis of religion, race, color or sect but on the basis of being a human. So, since the rights of humans are “inalienable” and “universal”, no one is supposed to violate or take one’s rights a way.
Considering such discriminations, Martin Luther expressed his dream, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Mr. Luther King stated it when according to him, “the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.... the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.”
This is not only the dream of Martin Luther, but the dream of the whole minority groups. Shias have this dream not to be judged by their beliefs but by their merit and content of their character. A Palestinian child also has a dream not to find itself an exile in his own land. A Christian has a dream to live peacefully in Islamic countries. A Muslim has a dream to live upon his/her religious value in France. So, we all have a dream. We have a dream not to be judged by our colors or beliefs and to live peacefully in this planet. We have a dream not to fall the victim of racial discriminations and religious intolerances. We have a dream that no one’s rights be violated in any corner of the world. We have a dream that all human beings be treated equal on the basis of being a human. We have a dream that all the political, social, cultural and religious groups respect and protect the people’s rights “without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or social status.” We have a dream today!