The escalating propensity of radical ideologues for violence and bloodshed has triggered fear and worry across the world. The gruesome acts of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have aroused national and international concerns. The Islamic militants butcher their hapless quarry without an iota of mercy or sense of guilt. This nondescript bedlam has filled the world with a fit of pique and aversion. The current conflagration, which roots in eruption of extreme ideologies, threatens not only the Middle East but the entire world.
The inherent and inviolable rights of mankind are violated egotistically. Women suffer from honor-killing acts and their rights and dignity are trampled upon, men are burned alive and children are abused in one way or another. Moreover, domiciles are razed to the ground and male and female youth are abducted to satiate their satanic carnal desires or to use for lucrative deals. Their megalomania and narcissistic feelings and appetite for evil have left them devoid of religious values and moral norms. It is believed that a large number of the IS’s members scurry from one battle to another not for nurturing a certain ideology but to satisfy their insatiable thirst for evils. Jihad-e Nikah reveals this fact in the worst possible way. As a result, it was reported last year that ISIS fighters were going door-to-door, entering houses, killing the men and raping the women. It was further said that four women in Mosul had committed suicide after being raped or forced into marriages with the militants.
The world, particularly the fundamentalists’ quarries, has to establish a bulwark, for the immunity of their rights, and moral inhibition. Since man is born with inherent natural rights – the rights to life, liberty, estate, etc. – no omnipotent power is allowed to take his rights – without a process of law. Shedding one’s blood and tarnishing one’s reputation is a great religious and moral taboo. To discuss secularly, it is stated in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which is based on moral principle, as, “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law….”
Egypt plays an integral role in the ideological side of the battle against extremism. Mr. Sissi last month proposed a “religious revolution” to save an Islamic world that “is being lost by our own hands.” Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University and a leader of Sunni Islam, called last week in Mecca for reform of Muslim religious education to correct “corrupt interpretations” that had allowed extremism to grow.
Nader Mousavizadeh, who co-leads the global consulting firm Macro Advisory Partners, says, “Both religion and politics have been hijacked” in the Arab world creating a “toxic mix”.
In the beginning of his first round of presidency, U.S President Barack Obama gave a highly significant speech in Cairo under the title of “A New Beginning” saying, “…I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground. As the Holy Koran tells us, ‘Be conscious of God and speak always the truth.’ That is what I will try to do - to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.”
Obama urged Islam and West to seek common ground and to share interest as “human beings” irrespective of our religion, color, sex, race, etc. Moreover, he rightly pointed out that a sense of mistrust grew between Islam and West within long centuries and has to be eradicated.
To root out ISIS from the Middle East and to curb terrorism, it would be highly effective to expunge mistrusts and to seek common grounds with all honesty. The world has to join forces to counter the common enemy – who propagates horror and terror on the planet and outrages the conscience of mankind around the world. In the age of eruption of secularism and democracy, imposing a certain ideology at the point of gun is beyond public tolerance and a bona fide peace is accessible through secular anthropology.