The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

As you may have seen or heard in the news, British police shot and killed Jean Charles Menezes, a man of Brazilian origin living in London. Mr. Menezes happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. In the authorities’ attempt to regain control over their situation they are throwing caution to the wind. So now not are the people of London at risk to terrorist attack but now they’re at risk of police over-reaction. I have had my own personal experience of being that wrong person at the wrong time with the police, although my situation was not under such sinister conditions of that of the late Mr. Menezes. I thank God I came out alright. So the question to ask is what lengths are we willing to go to in order to have security reestablished? If we look at what Jennifer Harvey, a UK resident quoted on the BBC’s Web site, had to say: “If people want someone to blame for this, blame the terrorists who have made such actions necessary.” While I can bend her sensebilities to make the circle fit in the round, I just don’t buy it. Yes, the terrorists have caused a very tense and unpredictable situation but we cannot simply toss aside caution and judgement. For in the end, a dead person is a dead person. A mother has lost her son and it is of no greater consilation to know he was killed by a police officer or by Osama Bin Laden. Of course, to look at why these things are happening and going on is never allowed to enter into the public discourse. If one asks why then one is labeled a traitor of the State, a traitor of Freedom and tossed in with the lot of the terrorists. So finally, to interject a last something, it is critical that Muslim scholars do all that they can to scrape and claw themselves a position in the public discourse on these happenings. If we allow ourselves to be swept along or pulled down by the undertow of fear and panic then we are most assuredly the ones who will suffer the most.