Children are children, Yusuf Islam, November 2001 http://www.mountainoflight.co.uk/newpages/newsarchive/October%202001/children.html
As we witness the on going bombing campaign in Afghanistan, we also witness the growing list of deaths, injuries and increased starvation endured by children, women and the elderly fleeing the bombardments.
This surely should wake up our moral consciousness. With all the technological know-how in the world, the campaign to catch or kill the prime suspect of the 11th September terrorist attack is beginning to turn into another devastating human tragedy.
I am saddened of the loss of innocent life and have great concern about what is occurring, particularly to the children in the region. Like the majority of Muslims - while repulsed by the attack on 11 September - we are asking that world work together to help the people in Afghanistan - the children, the displaced, the refugees. They are innocent victims who are caught up in a situation they cannot control. Many people just gathered their families and fled for safety with what little clothing and food they could carry - but they have nowhere to go. With winter approaching, they are cold, hungry, and homeless. Like myself, many people and organizations around the world are helping the victims of the WTC attack - but we must equally help the victims now, in Afghanistan especially, as it is the innocent who overwhelmingly continue to bear the brunt of the suffering.
‘Collateral damage’ is cold military jargon - it has no humane equivalent. As I have repeatedly said since the WTC attack, the Qur’an states: ‘Whoever kills a soul except (through due process of law) in punishment for murder or creating discord on the earth, it will be as if he has destroyed the whole human race.’
This applies equally to Afghan born child as it does an American born child and any other child born of the great human offspring of Adam. Remember, two wrongs never made a right and an innocent life taken anywhere on God’s earth is wrong. The moral high ground is being lost by such actions; God’s reward will always belong to His servants who are innocent of crimes and wrongdoings. In the Qur’an God, Almighty says, ‘And verily We have written in the Zabur (Divine Scripture) after the message (given to Moses): My righteous slaves will inherit the earth.’
Small Kindness has been trying to get help to the needy families inside Afghanistan but not many, even amongst the war-hardened Afghan mountain lorry drivers, are willing to even try to reach those suffering while the bombing continues. Also, Ramadan, the month of fasting and charity, is now almost here. For God’s sake, stop the bombing and give the children, many of whom are at death’s door, a chance to live.
I wrote a song at the time of the Bosnian conflict for the Children of Sarajevo and Dunblane in Scotland, where innocent children in a school had been murdered indiscriminatley.
Little Ones
Oh, they’ve killed all the Little Ones
While their faces still smiled
With their guns and their fury
They erased their young lives
No longer to laugh
No longer to be a child
Oh, they’ve killed all the Little Ones
While their faces still smiled
Now they’re burying the Little Ones
And making their graves deep
So the world cannot see
That tonight we may sleep
While they wash away the blood
The mothers all weep
Oh, they’re burying the Little Ones
And they’re making their graves deep
Yes, they’re burying the Little Ones
And they’re making their graves deep
Yet where will the devils go
When that Day comes?
When the angels drag them out
To face the Little Ones
Oh they’ve killed all the Little Ones
With their eyes open wide
There was nothing to help them
On the day that they died
No bed to run under
No cupboard to hide
Oh they’ve killed all the Little Ones
With their eyes open wide
They’ll be raising The Little Ones
With no sin to atone
In the light of high Heaven
They will sit on tall thrones
Where playtime lasts forever
And God’s Mercy never ends
They’ll be raising the Little Ones
And they’ll all be best friends
They’ll be raising the Little Ones
And they’ll all be best friends
Strangely these words are appropriate…again.
…for without doubt in the remembrance of God do hearts find satisfaction {Holy Quran XIII.28}