The Right To Kill & The Right To Live

By Angsuman Chakraborty, Gaea News Network
Sunday, August 12, 2007

I recently started exploring a rather alarming phenomenon, which was there all along but has very recently been highlighted to me. Let’s say a person has been attacked by members of a particular community. The normal reaction I would have expected is general condemnation of the attack even from the members of the same community. However it is actually being justified and further threats are being given, members of that community are lamenting that the murder attempt wasn’t successful and life-threats and legal threats are being given to the victim. What is wrong with this picture? I explored in more details with some members of the community and came with a shocking realization.

The general sentiment was that the murder attempt was justified because the victim has decided to speak against the community (to which she initially belonged by birth). Her crime was exercising her freedom of expression and her feminism!

There is a serious problem with such mindset and actions. Say for example someone is against the males or even against me. Does that give me the right to kill her? Surely not! Shouldn’t the same logic be applicable to a community? And then let’s look at the bigger picture.

Let’s say members of that community (let’s name them A for the sake of this discussion) are intolerant towards members of other communities (say B and C). Does that give the members of the other communities, following the warped logic of A, the right to kill members of community A?

If we as a humanity follow this extremely dangerous logic then humanity will soon cease to exist in every way. We wouldn’t need Malthusian catastrophe to check population. The remaining few will be truly devoid of any humanity.

The right to live is a fundamental right. Closely along it comes the right to speech & expression. Any civilized society should not only honor the right to live but also the right to speech & expression. However for the sake of argument let’s say if someone abuses the right to speech & expression, that doesn’t give others the right to end his life. That was done during the dark ages of Europe and during the British rule in India (Jallianwala Bagh massacre for example). However that isn’t a mark of a civilized society. It is barbarism, plain and simple. Any goverment that supports such action by any community (A, B or C) isn’t fit to rule either.
Filed under: Country, Headline News, India, Life, Politics, Society, Web
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Discussion

Angsuman Chakraborty
August 14, 2007: 8:26 pm

John,

Well said. It is easier to blame others than to look inwards. Ultimately we create our own fate; and that is as much true for an individual as for any community or country or even the world as a whole.

Angsuman Chakraborty
August 14, 2007: 8:24 pm

Is there really double standards? Analyze the events of the world since 9/11 from a independent observer’s perspective, someone who is not mentally and emotionally affiliated to any community, and I am sure you will see everything in a different light.

> I just wish you disapprove that in special posts as well when happens

I always try my best to protest against injustice when it happens. Check out my numerous posting against Iraq war in this blog.

John Bayko
August 14, 2007: 12:58 pm

I know someone who believes that everyone in the world is trying to prevent him from being successful. Everything he tries is made to be harder for him than others, people don’t help him, he has bad luck.

What is easier to believe, that hundreds or thousands of people around him have decided, together or alone, to make an extra effort to repress him, or that his behaviour is the cause of his problems? The one thing that is certain, the one thing that is common in every situation he has trouble with is him.

But he doesn’t want to hear that, he would not even get angry, he would just not believe you. And he doesn’t change what he does that cause his problems, so problems keep happening to him.

If Islam has trouble with all over the world, what is the one thing that is common in every one of those situations?

Mohamed
August 13, 2007: 7:17 am

Angsuman,
You got me wrong in that subject. We are not saying nor encouraging killing that woman. All what we ask for is not dealing with such issues with double standards. What that woman did is promoting hatred against Islam, not what you define as free expression or speech or just making an opinion or attitude. If some Muslim spoke similar language but in the opposite direction, he will be accused of too much anti-whatever stuff and won’t be cried on if killed. USA and Israel assassinate Muslim leaders and regular people everyday by special squads, for similar actions you may define as “differences in thinking, opinion, loyalty or whatsoever” in same logic applied on that woman, and they murder people in Iraq and Palestine all the time, but no one condemn those killing activities and mention anything about killing people who disagree with whatever someone else believes. There are too many attacks on Muslims happen all over the world including INDIA. I just wish you disapprove that in special posts as well when happens. What I’m noting is changing of standards, depending on which side Islam is at that situation.
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