www.shiakilling.com http www.facebook.comshiakilling3 http twitter.com
views: 4428
Desperate times call for desperate measures. In the case regarding Pakistani Shias, a minority population in Pakistan, some are refusing to bury their dead until the government deepens its commitment to protect them and the army provides better security. This comes on the heels of another suicide terrorist attack that killed 92 people and wounded more than 100. Such deadly attacks in Quetta against the Shia Hazara community continues to reveal a failure in government security and protection.
Peaceful direct actions intended to challenge opponents without threatening or inflicting physical injury are extremely powerful and symbolic. However, more common methods of nonviolent actions usually consists of demonstrations and protest marches, strikes and lockouts, consumer boycotts and hunger strikes, or human cordons surrounding a building or public spaces to block government officials. Refusing to bury the dead until demands are met is definitely a new kind of psychological and sociological pacifism.
Hundreds of Shias not only demonstrated in Quetta demanding that the army take control of security from paramilitary police forces, forces that they believe are unable to protect them. Sitting among dozens of coffins draped with religious and patriotic symbols, they said they would not bury the dead until their demands were met. They are hoping their nonviolent campaign will force the government to act, mainly in providing better security and to ensure that future terrorist attacks and killings do not occur.
A banned Sunni terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, claimed responsibility. Still, and since 2001, United States armed forces have militarily invaded and occupied parts of Afghanistan while also conducting cross-border raids into Pakistan. Claiming to be fighting a global war on terror, the U.S. has initiated a number of aerial campaigns too, mainly consisting of drone warfare. Since a number of "suspected" terrorists have been killed along with dozens of innocent Pakistanis, this has deepened unrest in the region.
While nonviolent funeral processions consisting of martyrs have been used to create a changed situation the other side cannot ignore, refusing to bury the dead until demands have been met has not. For Muslims, death is the most important stage in the soul's progress toward God. Although the Qur'an provides no guidance on funeral rites, Muslims have developed customs concerning proper procedures during and after death. Also, the funeral service can occur in any appropriate, dignified location.
Since Muslims are required to bury their dead as soon as they are able, preferably before sundown on the day of death, the Shias in Quetta are disrupting established traditions and behavioral patterns to achieve their goals of a more peaceful and tolerant society. They are practicing a kind of psychological and emotional disobedience in trying to pressure others to stop the needless killings. It remains to be seen and lived if the Pakistani government and army, the U.S., and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi will respond appropriately.
For Muslims, death is a certainty. Let us hope that such senseless slaughter will also meet a certain death, and that Pakistan's deathly protest will cause an improvement in security. Recall too that in Islam suicide is considered a grave sin.
Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)
(Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John's Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas' writings at www.beverlydarling.com and wn.com//dallasdarling.)
(1) Crilly, Rob. "In the worst of the attacks, suicide bombers killed 92 people."
The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters.
We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. For example, if you submit an inquiry to us or sign up for our newsletter, you may be asked to provide certain information such as your contact details (name, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.).
When you submit your personally identifiable information through wn.com, you are giving your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you would prefer that we not collect any personally identifiable information from you, please do not provide us with any such information. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we will use the information you provide us only for the purpose of responding to your inquiry or in connection with the service for which you provided such information. We may forward your contact information and inquiry to our affiliates and other divisions of our company that we feel can best address your inquiry or provide you with the requested service. We may also use the information you provide in aggregate form for internal business purposes, such as generating statistics and developing marketing plans. We may share or transfer such non-personally identifiable information with or to our affiliates, licensees, agents and partners.
We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to personally identifiable information needed to perform their functions, but may not use such information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose any information, including personally identifiable information, we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request.
We do not want you to receive unwanted e-mail from us. We try to make it easy to opt-out of any service you have asked to receive. If you sign-up to our e-mail newsletters we do not sell, exchange or give your e-mail address to a third party.
E-mail addresses are collected via the wn.com web site. Users have to physically opt-in to receive the wn.com newsletter and a verification e-mail is sent. wn.com is clearly and conspicuously named at the point of
collection.If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at michaelw(at)wn.com
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during registration and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure, however. Therefore, though we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If we decide to change our e-mail practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we think appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If we make material changes to our e-mail practices, we will notify you here, by e-mail, and by means of a notice on our home page.
The advertising banners and other forms of advertising appearing on this Web site are sometimes delivered to you, on our behalf, by a third party. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, the third party may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. For more information on cookies, you can visit www.cookiecentral.com.
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain aspects of our entities or assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on Wn.com you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.
