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When we are afraid to offend
I READ a story somewhere that some local Islamic leaders in Marawi and its environs are hesitant to speak out on the crisis engulfing that city for fear of offending one side. Apparently they’re of the opinion that if they speak out in condemnation of the activations of the Maute group they will necessarily earn the ire of the group’s followers, which may very well mean dire consequences. The group is said to chop off heads of people they deem to be unsympathetic to their cause. On the other hand if they speak out against the Government, they will in turn earn the ire of the duly constituted authorities - which may result also in consequences, albeit not as dire as, say, getting their heads chopped off. Because Martial Law is in force in Mindanao, the more benign consequences they could face at the hands of Government would be jail term. And, I am also made to understand, because this Maute incident is in some ways an incident that involves family (if not clan) conflict, speaking out means having to step on so many toes and in effect earning the ire of so many people within the community. How could you continue to live in peace in a community whose members you have crossed? So many of our Filipino-Muslim brothers, especially the Maranaos, have chosen to keep silent. We can’t blame them for that choice. Given the circumstances it looks like a practical choice. But it should be clear to anyone and everyone who choose to go down this path that whatever path is chosen, there are to be consequences. And even staying silent and taking the attitude of “I don’t want to get myself involved in this” carries with it its own consequences. The other day walking into a mall in Makati I held my hands up as a security guard used a handheld detector to detect the fat content of my waistline. No wonder it went off like crazy. Seriously though it struck me that a lone security guard like that – like the lady guard in one of the CCTV videos at Resorts World -- is no match for a “lone wolf” determined to wreak havoc and terror in a public place. The same can be said of the “checkpoints” outside entrances to malls and hotels and even our airports – where the guards seem to just go through the motions anyway of inspecting the arriving vehicles. A determined terrorist -- whether his terroristic actions be motivated by a sick mind or by an extremist ideology -- will simply barrel through such security posts in order to accomplish his mission. While a security guard at an outpost or an entrance can almost surely fail to stop a determined terrorist, what can be more effective in diminishing the threat such individuals pose to all of us is a community that is not only awake and aware, but one that is involved. Involved, that is, in a collective effort to safeguard the welfare of everyone, whatever one’s faith or age or gender, in the face of danger from individuals who see nothing wrong in inflicting harm on the innocent and in fact measure their effectiveness by their ability to spread as much terror in the hearts of the most innocent. And this requires a community that speaks up because it takes sides – it takes the side of the innocent who are often made pawns in this complicated game of power politics. I say this because I would like to think that no God will ever countenance inflicting harm on the innocent in the name of propagating a faith. More than as Filipinos -- as human beings all it is yours and my duty to counsel anyone we know who seems to be losing his way and going down a path that could lead to extremism. And if we are too hesitant to do this individually then we must be able to find a way to do the same thing as a community of human beings intent to protect fellow human beings. In the name of such a purpose we can never be afraid to offend.
I READ a story somewhere that some local Islamic leaders in Marawi and its environs are hesitant to speak out on the crisis engulfing that city for fear of offending one side. Apparently they’re of the opinion that if they speak out in condemnation of the activations of the Maute group they will necessarily earn the ire of the group’s followers, which may very well mean dire consequences. The group is said to chop off heads of people they deem to be unsympathetic to their cause. On the other hand if they speak out against the Government, they will in turn earn the ire of the duly constituted authorities - which may result also in consequences, albeit not as dire as, say, getting their heads chopped off. Because Martial Law is in force in Mindanao, the more benign consequences they could face at the hands of Government would be jail term. And, I am also made to understand, because this Maute incident is in some ways an incident that involves family (if not clan) conflict, speaking out means having to step on so many toes and in effect earning the ire of so many people within the community. How could you continue to live in peace in a community whose members you have crossed? So many of our Filipino-Muslim brothers, especially the Maranaos, have chosen to keep silent. We can’t blame them for that choice. Given the circumstances it looks like a practical choice. But it should be clear to anyone and everyone who choose to go down this path that whatever path is chosen, there are to be consequences. And even staying silent and taking the attitude of “I don’t want to get myself involved in this” carries with it its own consequences. The other day walking into a mall in Makati I held my hands up as a security guard used a handheld detector to detect the fat content of my waistline. No wonder it went off like crazy. Seriously though it struck me that a lone security guard like that – like the lady guard in one of the CCTV videos at Resorts World -- is no match for a “lone wolf” determined to wreak havoc and terror in a public place. The same can be said of the “checkpoints” outside entrances to malls and hotels and even our airports – where the guards seem to just go through the motions anyway of inspecting the arriving vehicles. A determined terrorist -- whether his terroristic actions be motivated by a sick mind or by an extremist ideology -- will simply barrel through such security posts in order to accomplish his mission. While a security guard at an outpost or an entrance can almost surely fail to stop a determined terrorist, what can be more effective in diminishing the threat such individuals pose to all of us is a community that is not only awake and aware, but one that is involved. Involved, that is, in a collective effort to safeguard the welfare of everyone, whatever one’s faith or age or gender, in the face of danger from individuals who see nothing wrong in inflicting harm on the innocent and in fact measure their effectiveness by their ability to spread as much terror in the hearts of the most innocent. And this requires a community that speaks up because it takes sides – it takes the side of the innocent who are often made pawns in this complicated game of power politics. I say this because I would like to think that no God will ever countenance inflicting harm on the innocent in the name of propagating a faith. More than as Filipinos -- as human beings all it is yours and my duty to counsel anyone we know who seems to be losing his way and going down a path that could lead to extremism. And if we are too hesitant to do this individually then we must be able to find a way to do the same thing as a community of human beings intent to protect fellow human beings. In the name of such a purpose we can never be afraid to offend.
Issue #3
It's a same date time on all instantview pages / site produce a date without a time/ need to remove time
- Александр Чернов
- Date and time are taken from:
<span property="dc:date dc:created" content="2015-01-26T00:00:26+08:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime">January 26, 2015</span>
"The date and time of publication is obligatory for news publications. It must be obtained by any means possible, including meta tags, etc."
- Declined by admin
- Duplicated issue: https://instantview.telegram.org/contest/malaya.com.ph/template4/issue1/
- Type of issue
- Author added their own content
- Reported
- Jun 18, 2017