Every Life is Worth Fighting For

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”(Abraham Lincoln, 1863).

The world that we co-exist in has been home to numerous senseless violence and terror throughout several decades. Inequality created not just through race but ethnicity, culture, disability and now our belief. Readers, I write this article striking down the keys with great anger and disappointment. My focus is not on the many inequalities but one that has existed for too long.

In the early 7^th Century, there began a division between the Muslims after the death of the beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Through misunderstandings on who would succeed the beloved prophet, many wars have taken place including the ‘Battle of the Camel’ in Basra in Southern Iraq and two dominant sects of Islam were formed, the Sunni & Shi’a. Now the year is 2013, the violence has still not stopped and Pakistan has become one of the graves of innocent lives.

By November 16^th 2012, an estimated 30 million of Pakistan’s 180 million people have been attacked across Pakistan. However, this cannot be called a fight between two sects of Islam as a fight would require both sides. This is genocide as people are dying but only the Shi’a’s have flooded their homes with tears of loss. Now deaths are spreading across Pakistan like an infection but why? Because of their belief, something that is yours alone, a belief that cannot harm another! They die for that? Why?

Moreover, casualties have been found from both sides. Both sides are stringed by extremists controlling every move. The people fighting are mere puppets but the extremists are puppeteers and must be stopped. After the January 10^th 2013 violence in Quetta, 86 bodies dead on the streets were not buried for three days and three nights. Protests to fight against this all-out battle are simply being brushed aside.

This article is to find another way to stop these deaths, maybe if we stopped physically protesting but fought with words. As words have gifted many hence I wish to do the same.

Therefore, if after this article you also believe words can make a difference, then share this before it is too late. Talk to your neighbours, write on your walls, spread the message that violence simply isn’t the way. If fire spreads until everything is destroyed, words will rebuild that structure Abraham Lincoln and many others believed in. Equality and justice in every context.  

Every life is worth fighting for and every life should be given the chance to fight for what he/she believes to be right.

Written By,

Jawaad Saleem

                                                     References

• ·        Now Public. (2009). Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address:Anniversary of Human Equality. Available: http://www.nowpublic.com/world/abraham-lincoln-gettysburg-address-anniversary-human-equality-2521002.html. Last accessed 18th Feb 2013.
• ·        The Economist. (2012). Escalation: Violence in Pakistan. Available: http://www.economist.com/news/21567422-links-between-violent-sectarian-groups-and-pakistani-taliban-are-growing-escalation. Last accessed 18th Feb 2013.
• ·        BBC Religions. (2009). Sunni and Shi'a. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/subdivisions/sunnishia_1.shtml. Last accessed 18th Feb 2013.
• ·        The Economist. (2013). Sectarian violence in Pakistan: Won’t bury.Available: http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21569768-beleaguered-group-makes-unusual-powerful-gesture-wont-bury. Last accessed 18th Feb 2013.