By Kalsoom Rashid
Almost everyone, in at least America, is aware of the holocaust that resulted in the mass murder of the Jewish population; the world remained silent then, and it still silent. There has been a recent genocide taking place in Burma against the Rohingya Muslims. It is very shocking to see that those who have the authority to stand up against this kind of inhumane crisis have not done anything to stop it.
Providing basic needs to these refugees is not a favor. Indeed, it is an obligation of every human being to serve other human beings; however, no political action was taken by any authority including the United Nations to question those involved in this form of ethnic cleansing. Even though the United Nations was established to provide people with security, its inability to preserve human rights in this incident hints towards its weakness.
Maybe human rights issues are only considered important when powerful authorities consider them to be, or when they are threatened by the so-called majority. Taking this into account, social media can be accused for not bringing this issue into focus. Both politicians and social media create a false perception in the minds of the general public, as the public has power; but in reality, both of these factions control and play with the minds of the majority, and in the end, the majority does what these factions want them to do.
Only studying these crises cannot provide a solution, unless someone breaks the beliefs of those in authority of their superiority. Students, nowadays, are required to read about the Holocaust, but is there any point if the world has to remain silent again? No one demonstrates the courage to hold the Myanmar government responsible, and this is injustice to the thousands who lost lives or faced torture by the Burmese.
Do the lives of the Rohingya Muslims have no value? Don’t they have the right to live with security? As the earth’s most sensible creatures, it is our responsibility to stand up for innocent lives because not doing so will increase our guilt and regret along with the death of thousands in the near future.
Thousands and thousands of Muslims have been killed, yet many more are victims of brutal and barbaric treatment. There are videos of infants being burned alive and being crushed under the feet of Burmese force, men and women being tortured and their dead bodies being thrown to birds.
A normal human being cannot even bear the pain of a small burn, yet these humans have endured physical and emotional wounds that can never heal. The venom of hatred against the Muslims will only lead to the destruction of future generation, and now is the time for the world to stand up; otherwise, it will be too late.