About Me

My photo
I am a Practitioner of 'The 7e Way of Leaders' where a Leader will Envision, Enable (ASK for TOP D), Empower, Execute, Energize, and Evolve grounded on ETHICS!

Monday, January 4, 2016

Daily Lessons from Life 04 January 2016 - Charlie Hebdo Masacre Anniversary and Saudi/Iran Relationship

1. "Charlie Hebdo marks year since attack with provocative cover - AFP 4 Jan 2016

PARIS: French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo will mark a year since the militant attack on its offices with a cover featuring a bloodied, gun-toting, bearded God figure, under the headline: "One year on: The assassin still at large".

One million copies of the special edition will go on sale in France on Wednesday (Jan 6), on the eve of the first anniversary of the killing of 12 people at the magazine's Paris offices by brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi.

Within hours of the shootings, the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie went viral, rallying millions behind the plight of a publication that had nearly shut down a month earlier because of a lack of readers."

One year ON and a magazine that WOULD HAVE SHUTTERED and relief of the 'pains' that those attackers from seeing their religious leader(s) being caricaturised and 'insulted' REMAINS open and in business! How ironical can this be. In a very twisted way!!

Lessons for me are:

a. when terrorists involved religions with their attacks, rationality has NO CHANCE! They cannot think well! It would be BEYOND them to realise that had they left Charlie Hebdo alone, it WOULD have died of a natural death!;

b. it probably also shows that the terrorists are NOT wise, or to be more accurate, just plain dumb and dumber! Oop. Some egos will be bruised. So, I take it back. Just too emotional to think rationally. That's all;

c. will this editing provoke another round of senseless attack? If so, can Charlie Hebdo's team claim innocence? I am not sure what to make of this, IF it happened. For sure, the terrorists that kill defenceless people are WRONG! Those that provoked are NOT WRONG but the price they paid is simply not worth it!

2. "Saudi Arabia severs ties with Iran after embassy attacked - AFP 4 Jan 2016

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday (Jan 3) after protesters ransacked its embassy in Tehran to protest the execution of a Shiite cleric whose killing has sparked fury.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir made the announcement at a news conference in Riyadh, and said Iranian diplomats had 48 hours to leave the kingdom.

The diplomatic fallout come as Iran's supreme leader said Saudi Arabia would face "divine revenge" for executing Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and as Western nations voiced concern about escalating sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shi'ite Muslims.

On Saturday, a mob attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and a consulate in second city Mashhad amid protests at Nimr's execution. Jubeir said Saudi authorities had asked their Iranian counterparts to ensure security at the embassy but they did not cooperate and failed to protect it.

Nimr, 56, was a force behind 2011 anti-government protests in oil-rich eastern Saudi Arabia, where Shiites have complained of marginalisation.

He was put to death along with 46 other people, Shiite activists and convicted Sunni militants who the Saudi interior ministry says were involved in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed dozens in 2003 and 2004. Some were beheaded and others were shot by firing squad.

Iran has said it arrested 44 people over the embassy attacks, and President Hassan Rouhani said the demonstrators were "radicals" and the assaults "totally unjustifiable".

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned Nimr's execution, saying "God will not forgive" SaudiArabia for putting him to death. "It will haunt the politicians of this regime," he said.

Relations between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite-ruled Iran have been strained for decades, with Riyadh frequently accusing Tehran of interfering in Arab affairs.

Khamenei was joined in his condemnation of Nimr's execution by Iraq's top Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who called the death sentence "an unjust act of aggression".

Their comments, echoed by other regional religious and political leaders, came as protests in Iran on Sunday spread to Bahrain, Pakistan, Indian Kashmir and Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia had branded Nimr an "instigator of sedition" and arrested him in 2012, after a video on YouTube showed him making a speech celebrating the death of the then interior minister.

Three years earlier he had called for the oil-rich Eastern Province's Shiite-populated Qatif and Al-Ihsaa governorates to be separated from Saudi Arabia and united with Bahrain.

"His death will start a revolution which hopefully will lead to the fall of the Saudi family," said Rezvan, a 26-year-old in a traditional black chador who declined to give her last name.

On Baghdad's Palestine Street, Iraqi cleric Ahmed al-Shahmani said: "The House of Saud has opened the gates of hell on its own regime."

Nimr's execution was widely condemned. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply dismayed" while the United States warned that Riyadh risked "exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced".
Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said the executed men were convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri" ideology, joining "terrorist organisations" and implementing "criminal plots".

Human Rights Watch said Saturday's "mass execution was the largest since 1980" when 68 militants who had seized Mecca's Grand Mosque were beheaded, and called it a "shameful start to 2016".

Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia was using Nimr's execution "to settle political scores". But on Sunday Jubeir said those executed had received "fair and transparent" trials and were convicted of carrying out "terrorist operations that led to the deaths of innocents"."

So here we go again. Another broken records playing sad deadly music reminding the HUMAN RACE the sectarian difference between the Shites and Sunni Islamic teaching!

Lessons for me are:

a. it is about POWER between the Shites and the Sunni leaders, religious and/or political. Do they care about if the named person was a terrorist or inciting violence and conjuring his 'followers' to kill non-believers? Some do but most probably don't care;

b. interesting to note the humanitarian organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned it. Totally understandable as they simply want everyone to be spared death regardless if they originators caused much death. Some of them DO forgive the murderers of their own family members. Not too many of such human beings around though!;

c. where does this leave the Middle East nations who are Muslims but some of different sects? Any chance of them seeing the lights that they are all in one big house of their 'God'? That no 'God' will favour one sect over the other EXCEPT in the real life where those with the money and power can have or try to have a good life; and maybe create an environment for OTHERs to have a good life. Question is: will they? are they obliged by their religious belief to do so? I hope so. Should all religions be like that: do good for ALL regardless as to be able to give is the ultimate blessing to those less fortunate than the blessed ones? ;-)

No comments: