unworthymuslim.com - International Issues

Religious Violence In Nigeria

1/22/2010 9:43:14 AM

The political situation in Nigeria concerning the health of President Yar’ Ardua, has forced the government to pass executive authority to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan who along with other members of the cabinet have been ordered by the federal court to determine if Yar’ Ardua is fit to remain president within 14 days amid his recent undisclosed health condition that necessitated him to seek medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. Accompanying this crisis, comes the placement of Nigeria on the US State Department’s list of countries of interest when talking of terrorism, now the African nation has to deal with its most recent outbreak of religious violence in Jos which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people forcing Vice President Goodluck to deploy the military to the region to squelch the violence.

It is no secret that Nigeria has been religiously divided for quite some time, with Christians and Muslims attempting to exercise political autonomy in different regions of the country. This has lead to unfortunate clashes, the latest being in Jos, where it is believed a Christian youth tried to stop a Muslim from renovating his house which was destroyed in a clash that took place in November 2008. An eyewitness named Alhaji Kabir said the youth told him that no Muslim was allowed to return to that particular part of Jos, and that when people tried to intervene and resolve the situation, other men came running to the scene with bloody clothes saying they had been attacked by thugs not far from the scene ultimately causing the military to be sent in and adopt “security strategies” to prevent further eruptions.

This has not made international news as it should have given the current state of affairs between the perception many non Muslims have about Muslims in America and certain parts of Europe. Given the reports of alleged underwear bombers and psychologically unstable soldiers who happen to be Muslim, many propagandists have not failed to use these occasions to generate mass hysteria and panic regarding anyone who calls themselves Muslim. Regardless of whatever reason this most recent outbreak occurred, it remains certain that fear of the other served as a strong prerequisite that quite possibly could have been decades and possibly centuries in the making. While this level of religious violence has not occurred in America, the operation of mass panic occurring today is serving as an identical prerequisite. From national call of outright discrimination called for by Newt Gingrich to hate speech masquerading as talk radio, the marketing of fear being disseminated upon a public that is increasingly willing to give up their personal privacy out of fear from a Muslim enemy can raise the level of those wanting to commit acts of violence from a religious discriminatory perspective to the events currently playing out in Nigeria on America’s shores. This current crisis in Nigeria must be discussed along this line in an international discussion to prevent these events from outsourcing to different shores. The transatlantic slave trade was justified by wicked people, because they stated and believed Black people were not only inferior, but savage in nature and therefore needed to be subjugated in the most inhumane of ways in order for their oppressors to have their humanity. Before violence on this level can exist, a justification for it must be circulated en masse. Anyone seeking to understand human events in the shaping of the world can benefit from this. Those who seek to shape the world in order to control human events do not want this analyzed, or understood by the people. Sadly, those who have refused to report these unfortunate events only see it as an African problem, not a human one.

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Immigrants in Italy

1/12/2010 9:57:30 PM

Over the weekend of January 8, 2010 the Italian town of Rosarno has emphasized what can happen when anytime “immigrants” are used as scapegoats. Very few news reports have addressed the unrest there. It seems to have begun when a car pulled up near an abandoned factory, letting a man out who then shot a 26 year old African immigrant named Ayviva Saibou who lived there. After the shooting, hundreds of immigrants marched into the streets where the incident took place attempting to march to Rosarno’s city hall in order to protest the shooting they claim was unprovoked. The Italian media speculated that the shooting was a mafia hit and that the immigrants were committing random acts of vandalism and violence, which they claim caused the police to respond violently in order to force the demonstrators to turn back.

The next morning the immigrants tried to march to city hall again from the factory, when an information van with speakers carrying a bone chilling message changed the significance of their protest: “Any Black person in Rosarno should get out. If we catch anyone, we will kill them.” The situation was so hostile Pope Benedict XVI in his weekly address tried to remind the Italian people, “An immigrant is a human being, different by background, culture and tradition, but a person to be respected.” In all of melee, the following questions need to be answered, Why were so many African immigrants living in an abandoned factory where the shooting took place? How many of the immigrants in Italy were undocumented? What brought them to Italy?

A spokesman for the International Organization for Migration said that the immigrants come to Italy, usually from Africa and are forced to live in conditions close to enslavement. They claim the immigrants are paid roughly $29/day, which regulates them to living in abandoned buildings, and that when they can no longer find work, the Italian government considers them illegal. Legal immigrants make up 6 percent of the total population, but because there are no standard mechanisms in place to prevent exploitation, there is no true way to know how many are there illegally.

As the information van blared the “get out or die” message, Italian police arranged for a bus to transport the immigrants to another town, who when learning about the displaced Africans told them to find some other town.

The questions posed above are a key to understanding how this problem can be correctly addressed. If the immigrants are sought after by Italian businesses that purposely under pay them in order to maximize their profits for capitalism’s sake, then the immigrants are being exploited. If they are being exploited and the Italian government does nothing to prevent this, then it is because at some level those in authority feel superior to those in need, thus justifying the need to move them from one town to another instead of addressing the realities of under pay, squalor and filth they are being forced to live in. Those in authority may simply feel, “we don’t need to address your concerns, because we allow you in this country to help our businesses grow. So we need your work, but don’t want you.”

If the Italian government were serious about this issue, it could crack down on businesses that profit from the misery of others. It could offer on the job training in exchange for government enforced better living conditions, thereby allowing the work to be done, profits to flow and human decency to be respected. For a man to kill another in a public display of intentional cold blood in a place where he and others are living, can only be accomplished when the political climate of the place in question has helped to create a society based on race, class, and status.

By the Italian media declaring this a mafia hit, trivializes this act by implying that Ayvia Saibou was killed as a result of some poor choice he made. This coupled with the knowledge that he was an immigrant in Italy is meant to convey that his worth as a human being was and is not worth searching for the answers to these and other worthwhile questions, nor an investigation into allegations of immigrant exploitation. Such an examination may force some to reckon with their own complicit behavior in supporting such a society by denying others their own humanity. This sounds too much like blaming the victim for a system they had no hand in creating, nor any power to change or improve.

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Truth & Reconciliation

1/3/2010 1:49:58 PM

The latest events in South Africa have proven to be not only historical but extremely educational as well. Ever since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created immediately after the fall of apartheid, South Africans have demonstrated their willingness to truly learn from the past and understand its significance on all affected. This is still the case today.

Recently President Jacob Zuma met with a convicted former apartheid commander named Eugene De Kock who is serving up to 212 years for 89 different criminal charges including murder. This meeting in which De Kock is hoping for a pardon was instrumental because he is cooperating with the still ongoing investigations into atrocities committed under the apartheid regime. President Zuma has given no assurances that he will consider a full pardon, and yet De Kock remains cooperative in providing details bringing to justice other criminals that he says have escaped accountability.

Ever since apartheid officially ended the oppressed and their oppressors have been at a crossroads. In one direction the oppressed could have chosen to seek an eye for an eye, and a life for a life, in the other direction the oppressors could have chosen to pretend as if the impact of their injustices and human atrocities were minimal. However, both groups chose a path that would encourage criminal admission of guilt, accountability, repentance thus clearing the way that once these prerequisites had been fulfilled, forgiveness might become possible on the part of the oppressed. In doing so all individuals can begin to understand the direct part they play in not only ensuring the future of South Africa but preserving its history some good, some bad, thus preventing its revision.

The process of reconciliation, repentance, and accountability in order to get to the stage of forgiveness actually helps bring out higher virtues of humanity. Through this process people can learn the difference between seeking justice and seeking retribution, the difference between assigning blame and acknowledging one is worthy of that blame, the difference between telling someone to forget about the past and asking someone to forgive you of your past injustices done to them. In doing such, the oppressed are forced to acknowledge the one aspect of the oppressed they were previously unwilling to address: their humanity and self respect.

In the run up to the 2003 Iraq War, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that Iraq should follow South Africa’s lead as a role model in declaring their nuclear arsenal in order to avert what he termed a necessary war. I wonder what countries that have and still formulate their policies from racism, imperialism, or colonialism could learn from South Africa. What do you think?

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