The recent capture of Ratko Mladic along with the death of Usama bin Laden hopefully signals to the world a growing intolerance for mass murder and crimes against humanity.
The pain suffered by Muslims in Europe during the reign of Balkan butchers Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic, Arkan, and Ratko Mladic should be enough to force the world to understand why Muslims in recent times—are so angry. Do people in the West really understand their loss? Why are we divided by religion, and why can't we find common ground for respect, peace, and human dignity?
There are many people in the world who respect Ratko Mladic, Arkan, Slobodan Milosevic, and Usama bin Laden as heroes. But in reality, these are people who killed innocents for nothing but hate. Not a military target, but simply killed people who found themselves unknowingly at the end of a madman’s gun or hijacked airpliner. A legacy carried forward from Adolf Hitler’s Second World War, a greater glory envisioned in the mind of a sick individual who had no sense of peace or human dignity, only revenge and hatred.
The pain suffered by those in the former Yugoslavia to those in New York from 1992 to September 11, 2001 and beyond, is something most people living in the world today do not clearly understand, unless your family was directly affected. It is the pain of loss, the loss of a loved one, of life without closure.
A stone memorial to the victims of the Bosnian genocide at Srebrenica. Image from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Andrei Stroe; original author: The Dragon of Bosnia
Furthermore, the guilty perpetrators, with all compounding evidence witnesses and DNA, are still given rights and respect in our courts. Yes, the same human rights and respect they neglected to give their victims who were so brutally murdered by their hand or by command—is offered as a right. There is no truth or justice in all of this.
Anger is a strong emotion, it is something that rises quickly and escapes the higher mind. Anger is an emotion that responds immediately, a reaction, a safety mechanism that in most cases refuses reason. Most anger in the world is justified, because it is a response to a greater act of aggression. Something we have all felt at one time or another in our own personal lives, because of bullying or a violent parent.
Mass murderers like Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic, Arkan, Slobodan Milosevic, and Usama bin Laden—like Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot to name a few, are not our friends or leaders. They are people who would exploit us and our democratic system for their own gains, as well as profiting their friends.
These mass murderers have scarred the world for generations to come and have caused divisions and cleavages amongst nations and religions that may last for decades. Their misguided beliefs continue to breed hate and war in the world. Until we see their hate as an enemy to all humanity, we will never find peace of mind or peace on Earth in our time.
As a student of philosophy, I do not drown my daily life in religious dogma or prayer. My best advice to the people of the world who are seeking revenge in such a circumstance on behalf of criminals like Mladic and bin Laden—is to find a quiet peace. In simple words, stop the hate, lay down your guns, close your mouths, open your eyes, and be rid of your life of anger; because your anger and hate can never truly be quenched by revenge.
