By Shaik Zakeer Hussain
October 16, 2012 "Information Clearing House" - The shooting of 14 year old Malala Yousafzai has shocked the world, and shocking it should be, as children don’t deserve such ruthlessness.
What Malala stood for, and what she was fighting against, is not my concern at the moment, for such concerns, whether right or wrong, have already been addressed by a large number of so-called advocates for Human rights and justice. I am not even concerned in knowing who actually tried to kill her, for I as a Muslim do not condone such an act. What I am really concerned about is the hypocritical stance taken by some of the voices who are standing up for Malala today.
Two days after the activist girl was shot, American singer Madonna, dedicated a song for her, and said, “This made me cry. The 14-year-old schoolgirl who wrote a blog about going to school. The Taliban stopped her bus and shot her. Do you realise how sick that is?” Now whether Taliban is responsible for this act or not, I am not sure, but why doesn’t Madonna cry when drone attacks launched by her country kill hundreds of innocent men, women and children every day in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen? The children killed here, also wanted to go to schools, they wanted to live too. Doesn’t she realises how sick that is?
UNICEF tweeted on October 11 that, “Today our thoughts are with Malala Yousafzai, the inspirational 14-year-old activist for girls’ rights.” What made this organisation for children rights remain mum, when 16 year old Abdul-Rahman al-Awlaki , the innocent son of Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed by the United States, when he was having barbecue with his cousin and friends?
What moral rights do countries like UK, USA, and their warmongering allies have, to condemn this shooting, when their hands are coloured with the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iraq?
More than half a million children died due to U.S. sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, and continue to do so till today. When asked whether these killings were worth the price, the then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, said ’We think the price is worth it’. And the result? Ms. Albright got the Honorary Chair for the World Justice Project for this audacity of her’s, and her victims got Metal Contamination, and Birth Defects as lullabies to go to sleep.
The question we should all be asking is does the blood of children become worthless, when the super-power of the world does it, and is sacred when its adversaries allegedly do it? I don’t think so.
Shaik Zakeer Hussain is an independent writer and blogger based in India. He can be reached at: alhittin@gmail.com
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