Eye For An Eye Tempting But Unwise

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Forgiveness is something that’s easy to advise, but not so simple to put into practice. It’s one thing to preach about the greater good in the abstract but something altogether when you are the one reeling from freshly-inflicted wounds

Today’s terrorist attack in two New Zealand mosques was chilling and heartbreaking. It was a crime full of hate and planned callously by right-wing extremists whose desire is to destroy peace and harmony and spread messages of violence and destruction
But just how easy is it to forgive what they have done? How tempting is it to find a way to retaliate in kind
As I watched footage of the gunman tearing through the Christchurch mosque and picking off victims one by one, my blood was boiling. It was eerily reminiscent of a first-player shooting game, except this was very real. The carnage and the horror. The slaying of innocents. Watching it unfold is horrifying and I think it is wise of the MCMC to clamp down on the circulation of the clip
Mind you, I don’t have a direct connection with the victims in terms of race and religion. If someone had done that in my neighbourhood or my place or worship, surely it would be all the more difficult to react rationally

The death toll from the two attacks in Christchurch now stands at 49 dead with scores more injured. Innocent lives were lost. People who were doing nothing more than attending a service of worship have been brutally gunned down
The outrage felt even more acute when an Australian senator called Fraser Anning blamed New Zealand's immigration policy for the attacks. “While this kind of violent vigilantism can never be justified, what it highlights is the growing fear within our community, both in Australia and New Zealand, of the increasing Muslim presence.”“The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place," his statement read. To be honest, I think this sort of repulsive racist should be jailed for his hate speech
We know we are in a seemingly endless wave of terror attacks. It feels like the world has been facing suicide bombings and shooting rampages ever since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks which ushered in the millennium
I have lost count of the major attacks that have been carried out since. There were the Madrid, London and Mumbai bombings. The killings at music concerts by Ariana Grande and Eagles of Death Metal also stand out. A Norweigan killer went on a shooting rampage at a political youth camp. The Chechen conflict saw a tragedy at a school in Beslan. And there have been so many in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan that they no longer have much of an impact on the psyche
The truth is terrorist attacks seem to be to something that my generation has almost accepted as a hazard of life

And yet there can be no doubt this sort of slaughter of the innocents drives many more people into the arms of violent groups. When governments seem impotent and offer little more than thoughts and prayers, the impulse to find a way to strike back is strong. Yet it is not a rational one. We have seen the results when young Malaysians were moved to join the violence of the Islamic State regime in the Middle East
It was Mahatma Gandhi who said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”I fervently hope that those who are hurting the most at a time like this can find the inner strength not to retaliate.
It sounds like a facile comparison but I always used to wonder why footballers who were fouled on the pitch would face a more severe sanction of a red card for retaliating. I think the explanation must be to avoid the escalation of the confrontation
One wonders how peaceful New Zealand is going to react. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern is actually the only one with a security detail. Should the government abandon its previous approachability and adopt a mentality of siege and suspicion
We keep saying that we must not let the terrorists win but they will if we don't walk away and forgive
MARTIN VENGADESAN is a Malaysiakini team member. - Mkini

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