(370) My quoted Quotes in my Posts (7)

(92) “A nation is not lost as long as the women’s hearts are still high. Only when the women’s hearts are on the ground then all is finished, and the nation dies”. (An old Native American proverb)

(93) “In most of the countries of the world, ‘Honor killing’ is the burning issue. It is true that we may not be able to stop honor killings overnight, but it must be tried at all levels and we are sure to have the results to reduce them at least. People who are sincere, religious minded and believing in humanity may be good for them, but it is not enough. They should also think for others and not to turn blind eyes to such cruel practices in the society.” (Valibhai Musa)

(94) “Killing one person is the same as killing all humanity and saving one person is the same as saving all humanity.” (The Holy Qur’an)

# No honor in Honor-killing!

(95) “Torture is banned; but in two-thirds of the world’s countries, it is still being committed in secret. Too many Governments still allow wrongful imprisonment, murderunder the title of encounter or ‘disappearance” to be carried out by their officials with impunity”. (Peter Beneson)

(96) No doubt, everybody has to face the Day of Judgment as per most of the religions; but there will be punished only those confirmed sinners who might have committed unforgivable sins which may also be out of the God’s discretion for the sake of His promises for reward for good deeds and warning of punishment for evil deeds though He is Kind and Merciful.(Valibhai Musa)

(97) “What is in name?’ (A dialogue of Shakespeare’s Play)

(98) “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

(99) “Open your newspaper – any of the week – and you will find a reportfrom somewhere in the world of someone imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions are unacceptable to his government.” (Peter Beneson)

(100) “You canchain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body; but you will never imprison my mind” (Mahatma Gandhi)

(101) “Nobody in the history of the human kind has seen such atrocities as tragedy of Kerbala, the Martyrdom of Imam Hussein (a.s.) and post Ashura sufferings of women and children. (The renowned historian al-Biruni)

(102) “May God prevent our hands from committing oppressions; May He bestow on people with dignity and peace of mind; May He confer on prisoners throughout the world with repentance, understanding of turning away from sins, freedom and peace; May He bestow upon those who are ruling with justice and kindness; and May He favor those who are ruled with just treatment and good character. (A supplication that has been reported from The Twelfth Imam, Al-Qa’im Al-Mahdi -peace be upon him-, the renowned descendent of the Ahl al-bayt (a.s.), The Just Leader of Humanity, The Alive but Hidden – The Imam of the Age, according to the faith of the Shi’ite Muslims.)

# The Square World – I – II – III – IV

(103) “Our life is a long and strenuous quest of truth.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

# Mercy Killing or Merciful Death – A Debate

-Valibhai Musa

 

ચોરસ દુનિયા – ૧

Click here to read in English
મારા આજના લેખનું શીર્ષક મારા વાંચકોને નવાઈ પમાડનારું અને ક્દાચ ગેરસમજ ઊભી કરનારું લાગશે. ભૌગોલિક અને ખગોળશાસ્ત્રીય સંશોધનોએ સાબિત અને પ્રસ્થાપિત કરી દીધું છે કે પૃથ્વી ગોળ છે,પણ અહીં તેને ‘ચોરસ’ તરીકે ઓળખાવી છે. તમને લાંબો સમય સુધી દ્વિધાભરી સ્થિતિમાં રાખવાના બદલે સીધેસીધું જ કહી દઈશ કે અહીં હું કેદખાનાં અને તેમની કોટડીઓ એટલે કે એ ‘ચોરસ દુનિયા’ વિષે જ વાત કરવાનો છું.

આ લેખ થોડોક વિસ્તૃત હોવાના કારણે, તેને અનુકૂળતાએ હપ્તાવાર પ્રસિદ્ધ કરવામાં આવશે. મારા લેખને સાર્વત્રિક અને સર્વભોગ્ય બનાવવા માટે ઘટનાઓની કેટલીક આંતરિક સ્પષ્ટતાઓને અવગણી છે. આમ કરવા પાછળનો મારો હેતુ અને પ્રયત્ન એ છે કે હું માત્ર મારા વાંચકોની દિલની લાગણીઓને ઢંઢોળવા માગું છું કે જેથી તેઓ આવાં માનવતા વિરોધી કૃત્યોને વખોડી કાઢે અને પોતાના મનોવ્યાપારોને વિશ્વબંધુત્વની ભાવના તરફ વાળે.

 

ચોરસ દુનિયા – ૩

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હવે, મારા વાંચકો, જો તમે રોકી શકતા હો તો ઘડીભર તમારા શ્વાસને રોકી લો; કેમ કે હવે પછી રજૂ થનાર માનવતાના ઘોર અપરાધને સાંભળવા પહેલાં તમારી જાતને તમે સંભાળી શકો. અહીં તમે સ્ત્રીઓને કેદીની હાલતમાં બેઠેલી જોઈ શકો છો. અહીં તમે પોતાની માતાઓને ચીપકી ગએલાં નાનાં ભયભીત બાળકોને જોઈ શકો છો. અહીં તમે સહેજ મોટી ઉંમરનાં બાળકોને પણ જોઈ શકો છો કે જે જેલની પરસાળમાં ફૂટબોલને હવામાં લાત મારવાનો અભિનય કરી રહ્યાં છે કેમ કે વાસ્તવમાં ત્યાં ફૂટબોલ છે જ નહિ! આવા માનવતાવિહોણા સ્ત્રીઓ અને બાળકો સાથેના વ્યવહાર અંગે સાવ ટૂંકાણમાં જ ફિયોદોર દોસ્તોયવીસ્કી (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) ટીકા કરતાં લખે છે, ‘સમાજની સાંસ્કૃતિક માત્રાનું માપ કાઢવું હોય તો તેની જેલોની મુલાકાત લેવી જોઈએ.’ હું ફરી એક વાર પીટર બેનિસન (Peter Beneson) ના શબ્દો ટાંકીશ જે છે, ‘અઠવાડિયાના કોઈપણ દિવસનું સમાચારપત્ર ખોલો, જેમાં તમને એવો અહેવાલ જોવા મળશે જ કે દુનિયામાં ક્યાંક ને ક્યાંક કોઈને જેલભેગો કરવામાં આવ્યો છે અથવા તો તેના ઉપર જુલ્મ કરવામાં આવ્યો છે કે પછી ફાંસીએ લટકાવવામાં આવ્યો છે; એનું કારણ એ હોય છે કે જે તે વ્યક્તિનાં મંતવ્ય તેની સરકારને સ્વીકાર્ય નથી હોતાં.’

 

The Square World – I

Click here to read in Gujarati
The title of my post, today, may seem to be surprising and perhaps misleading to my Readers. It has been proved and established, geographically and astronomically, that the earth is round; but, here it is said ‘square’. I won’t keep you any long in hankering state, but clarify straightway that I am going to talk about the jails, their cells – The Square World.

This Article, being somewhat lengthy, will be published in parts conveniently. To make my Article universal, I have ignored some specifications. My purpose and attempt behind this blog post is only to awake the feelings of my Readers to condemn such acts against humanity and maintain the mind to think over universal brotherhood.

All these chapters narrate the variety of harassments and tortures to the detainees by the cruel jail authorities. These jails are from a dictatorial rule of Government and one cannot hope even in a dream that any one or moreguidelines or rules of human rightsfor prisoners may beobserved or honored by them which have been internationally approved by Human Rights Commissions. Peter Beneson says, “Torture is banned; but in two-thirds of the world’s countries, it is still being committed in secret. Too many Governments still allow wrongful imprisonment, murderunder the title of encounter or ‘disappearance” to be carried out by their officials with impunity”. The most of democratic countries, no doubt, observe these norms, but they cannot upgrade the jails as some western countries do.

The inmates of prisons canbe categorized as convicts, under-trial and detainees. They may be in any category, but we should not forget that, after all, they are human beings. They have some basic rights such as enough space for lying and sleeping, proper sanitation, standard and sufficient food, purified water, seasonal clothing, medical facilities, reasonable wages of their work for their families at home etc..

Now, I’ll quote you some examples which I have collected from various sources to describe such hells on earth that will shake you from the inner of your heart and you will immediately pray to the God, if you are a Believer, that He may save anybody to be the guest (!) of such miserable places. No doubt, everybody has to face the Day of Judgment as per most of the religions; but there will be punished only those confirmed sinners who might have committed unforgivable sins which may also be out of the God’s discretion for the sake of His promises for reward for good deeds and warning of punishment for evil deeds though He is Kind and Merciful.

Generally, in any dictatorial or monarchyrule of government; the detainees are kept in such secret places or unknown jails that their relatives cannot know their whereabouts. These types of rulers do not honor internationally approved code of conduct to be dealt with the detainees and under-trial prisoners as they are conditioned minded people and they always are worried for their existence and safety of their kingdom or rule. Therefore, they always keep their subject under the pressure of terror. It is the basicprinciple of judiciary that any accused should not be considered as guilty until one’s guilt is proved. But to such “Jungle rule” type of authorities have no concern with such ideology of natural justice.

Now, I come to the point and join you with me to raise your feeble cry as we are helpless except we can burn our hearts and utter the words “shame … shame !” towards such cruelty against humanity. Please go on and bewitness of those miserable prisoners who may prefer death if they are allowed rather than to live in such a hell.

The directive of Human Rights for prisoners clearly mentions that any detainee should not be interrogated at night; but here what we see, go ahead:

Inside this square world, you can see Blindfolds, Shackles. Handcuffs and Whips as the weapons of the torturers to be used against the helpless prisoners for their true or false confessions of their so called crimes. You can see blood on the bare backs of these poor fellows. Here, at past midnight also, the detainees are summoned. They may be half asleep due to their anxiety and fear, but the cruel authorities have no concern with the odd time and they can summon anybody at any time for investigation or interrogation as per their mood and willingness. There is no end of such inquiries. They are being beaten cruelly till they are bled and tortured till their nerves are wrecked. The heavy metal door creaks with a squeak harsh enough to send their blood tingling. Every time, the guard turns the keys in the hole, the door unlocks in stages with a sharp metal voice. The inmates sleeping in various positions due to lack of enough space sit erect, with all alertness, like a flock of frightened sheep, expecting the slaughterer to enter the pen and make his pick.

Now, my Readers, hold on your heart and read further. But before that, I clarify that the characters coming before you in turn will be named in single Alphabet beginning with “A” and so on further. “What is in name?’ as in a Shakespeare’s play, we have no concern with names.

A young man of 20, Mr. A, stark naked except a brief loin cloth is pushed in the cell. His head and eyebrows are totally shaved and moustache half-shaven. Blood streams from his chest, back, arms, thighs and legs. He is chastised with lashes which have turned his skin violet. To his ghost-like appearance, nobody in the cell dares to glance at him. His helplessness and distress move all the prisoners of the cellfrom the deepest of their hearts. Then follows a dangerous officer with a cunning smile on his thick lips.

He shouts addressing to that poor creature, “Tell them of your sins why we have treated you thus.” And the young ghost mutters, “I had been here few months ago and after some formal inquiries, I was released. As I went home, I informed some of my relatives and family friends about the whereabouts of their missing members. I told them that they have been detained and that I have met them. Now, once again, I am arrested with the charge of having disclosed the secret of the state.”

The butcher-like officer once again shouts loudly and says, “Did you hear him?” All the rest answer in a chorus, “Yes, we did hear.” The message is conveyed. The young man hardly able to walk is then pushed out of the door, taken away to where nobody knows.

– Valibhai Musa
Dtd.: 13^th December, 2007
[ Continues on Part – II ]

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