Let us join hands with others to free our country from the scourge of Child Abuse, Rape and Murder

AL MASHOORAH : Issue no.5 

Child abuse, rape and murder are becoming daily occurrence in our society. This is unprecedented in our country of Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Christianity underpinning our lives. Sri Lankan society had a strong ethical and moral foundation governing us. What has happened to our ethics and morality? Once we were suffering from the scourge of terrorism affecting every one of us, now child abuse, rape and murder

haunting us in the similar manner? Fighting terrorism require the combined efforts of good governance, justice, resilient people and effective police and military intelligence but how are we going to eliminate the new threat of child abuse, rape and murder by a hidden enemy lurking, dormant and stealth in pouncing upon its prey. We are responding to this with suspicion on every one.  This is not good; this would lead to losing trust in society. We are in a dilemma. Children are suspecting their parents. Sisters are suspecting brothers. Teachers and other responsible adults are less trustworthy. Neighbours, friends and acquaintances are less trusted. Whom can we trust? We come to accept the fact that our society is unsafe. The whole edifice of trust we had once in our society is crumbling. Individuals and families are becoming isolated islands in a sea of trouble. In such a situation can the law alone stop this is questionable. These challenges require holistic responses, Law and human precautions alone cannot answer this.

Child abuse is evil; it violates the dignity of the child, it is an abuse of trust and responsibility by the adults destroying children’s personality. The trauma of abuse cause permanent sufferings haunting the life time of the victim. Similarly, rape too is abominable as child abuse is. Rape in particular is a sexual assault on women dehumanizing them. Compounding this, the phenomenon of murder consequent to child abuse or rape is used as a tool to cover-up   the evil act by silencing the victim to death. Therefore child abusers or rapists are potential murderers though intentions are not visible  when the acts stop with child abuse or rape alone. Hence lurking abusers and rapists should be considered as potential murderers on the prowl. It is because of this unpredictability of the evil men/women pouncing on the unsuspecting prey; the whole society is sliding towards distrust. Hence is the reason why law enforcement alone is not the answer.

Islam approaches this question by responding to the roots causes of the problems. It attacks the root causes and seals the openings of potential harm before it turns it into a cancerous radical beyond control. Its response to the question of controlling and directing human behavior to protect from one another’s misdemeanor is not by law alone but by a combination of internal refinement of character, by creating an environment helpful for good behavior and an external mechanism to prevent evil from taking place.  Therefore it places a three level system based on the understanding of the Fithra: the nature of our creation. Thaqwa: god consciousness and the Shariah: the Law.

Muslims as a responsible community answerable to Allah Swt must delve deeper into understanding the Fithra and cultivate Thaqwa to enable the society to become responsible and law abiding citizens.

Our approach to facing the scourge of child abuse, rape and murder should be to draw guidance from the Qur’an and Sunnah whilst understanding the immoral ambience of our decrepit society. In this respect, we should understand that cultivation of thaqwa and building refined character is achieved by embarking on Thazkiyathun Nafs, by reforming and refining our souls. Mere outward appearance of religiosity is dangerous. Today the problem is of the proliferation of ‘leopards in sheeps’ cloth’. Therefore everything is becoming suspicious. As you know that the true character of a person having thaqwa is to spend a lot of time in his privacy counting his sins, seeking forgiveness from Allah Swt and refining his soul. As opposed to this, we have come to a situation of people watching pornography and other obscene materials through the internet and other hand held devices in their privacy corrupting their souls and then display outward religiosity to the public. This is Nifaq, hypocrisy. This is the danger that we are facing in our society. The religious underpinnings in most of the people in Sri Lanka are lacking and their religiosity is shown only for public display whilst the inner core is corrupt. Often in their privacy they are hooked to obscenities. That is why, ethical and moral limits are breached instantly once faced with an exciting situation. Their conscience and self control are fragile.

Compounding this, erosion of ethical, moral and religious values in our society is worsened by the market economy that is purely focused on profit making. In this background, profit centered business ventures are many that contributes to this ever growing sexual anarchy. Print media, electronic media and the internet influences every segment of the society. Some of these Medias instead of giving positive information about responsible and moral lifestyles are feeding the people with daily dosage of sexually exciting and near pornographic materials that excite their senses to promiscuity. The newspapers, magazines and the televisions in the local media are carrying materials that encourage eroticism and excite the sex drive. Similarly, the internet dishes out a variety of pornographic materials to suit diverse tastes. These are billions of rupees worth businesses making profit by parasiting on the innocence and ignorance of the people that destroys the society. Innocent victims of child abuse, rape and murder are partly influenced by the irresponsible media. Their exposures to the daily dosage of inflammatory pornographic materials influence the rise of child abuse, rape and murder. Apart from human weaknesses, predatory media businesses are damaging society whilst the poor citizens are becoming victims of a social-environmental pollution caused by irresponsible businesses.

The Muslims have a moral responsibility to enlighten the society about the causes that influence the scourge of child abuse, rape and murder and should join with other citizens to build a better nation free and safe to all citizens.

Source : http://us10.campaign-archive1.com