Forgotten fundamentals

The article Inviting American Muslims to reflection, reassessment by M.A. Muqtedar Khan (The Jakarta Post, Oct. 24, 2001) made refreshing reading. The contents of the article were bold, forthright and highly introspective, focusing on the fundamentals of human living.

The author, however, didn't touch upon the issue of inhuman treatment meted out to women in Afghanistan. Afghan women merely "exist" and do not "live" in the true sense of the term. One can not understand how in this 21st century, such atrocities against fellow human beings could be allowed or even tolerated. All right-thinking people should raise their voices in support of these hapless Afghan women.

Most of us don't choose our religions, we just happen to be born into one religion or the other. In adulthood, we don't find any compelling reasons to convert to another religion, as we believe that all religions teach us the basic tenets of human qualities such as love, peace, purity, joy, mercy, humility, tolerance, knowledge, truth and wisdom, all leading to enlightenment of self. In Hinduism, this process is known as searching for the divinity within.

The war in Afghanistan is continuing, with no clear end in sight. It is unfortunate that the U.S. administration couldn't come up with options other than waging a war against Afghanistan. Thousands of Afghans are fleeing their homes to avoid the American war machine. Is there no end to human suffering in the world?

A quote from the Dalai Lama would be appropriate, "If we could love even those who have attacked us and seek to understand why they have done so, what then would be our response? Yet, if we meet negativity with negativity, rage with rage, attack with attack, what then will be the outcome? These are the questions that are placed before the human race today. They are questions that we have failed to answer for thousands of years. Failure to answer them now could eliminate the need to answer them at all."

D. CHANDRAMOULI

Jakarta