Europe or the so-called Western Civilisation has never been kind either to Non-Europeans or Non-Christians. History records them as colonisers, brutal masters, evangelical swashbucklers, and exploiters. What they did in Bosnia is the planned massacre of people which the world just stood by and watched. The number of people butchered, thousands of women raped, and hundreds of children killed; real figures are not known and never will be.
If fascism becomes part of a dominant Ideology, blood will certainly flow. While Muslims are blamed and called terrorists, fundamentalist, orthodox and what not, the mass murderers are somehow made to look kind and their evil actions are justified. In the 21st Century, however, the Western Civilisation has begun to show cracks and weak spots.
Farooq AbdulgafarBawani
Rajkot, Gujarat, India
Panic in Israel?
The Hindustan Times, one of the leading mainstream dailies of India, published a news report titled “As Hezbollah Expands Attack Strategy, Changes Targets: ‘2 Million Israelis At Risk’” on September 23. The HT report says, “Hezbollah expanded the range of its rocket attacks overnight to strike wider and deeper into the areas of north Israel.” It quotes Times of Israel saying that “the shift in Hezbollah’s attack strategy puts some two million Israelis in range of their strikes. The IDF said that rockets were fired “toward civilian areas” in areas like greater Haifa and Jezreel Valley.”
One wonders why should Israel be in panic? Are IDF troops not targeting civilian areas in Gaza? Have they not killed over 41,000 Palestinians, including thousands of women and children, even months-old infants, in Gaza’s civilian areas in the 11-month Israel’s war on Gaza? Are they not laughing in glee at the killings of Palestinians? Are they paying any heed to the sane voice raised during these 11 months from all over the world as well as from the International Court of Justice to effect immediate ceasefire? They should note that the sobs and cries of Gaza’s widows and orphans shall not go in vain. No one is going to buy your double-standard.
Shahid Akmal
New Delhi
Pornography should go lock, stock and barrel
Watching child pornography in private POCSO offence: SC quashes HC order
Pornography is spreading obscenity which in turn gives way to evils of sort in society. But the Madras High Court had held that watching pornography involving children in private would not fall within the scope of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. But the apex court has come to the protection of morality in society. The Supreme Court on September 23 set aside the Madras High Court’s above-mentioned order.
The judgment authored by Justice J.B. Pardiwala suggested that the Parliament should seriously consider substituting the term “child pornography” with “child sexual exploitative and abuse material” (CSEAM) and in the meantime, the Union government may bring an ordinance to amend the POCSO.
The apex court also asked all the courts across the country to not use the term “child pornography” in any judicial order or judgment, and instead endorse the term “child sexual exploitative and abuse material (CSEAM).”
We hope and pray a day will come when the Supreme Court would pronounce a verdict banning all pornographic material, whether or not it involves children. For pornography is pornography; it is bound to give way to evils in society. So, to keep the society on healthy moral grounds, pornography should go lock, stock and barrel.
Anushka Pandey
Mumbai, Maharashtra