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27/10: British Soldiers in Iraq vs Dursleys (Harry Potter)
I was just checking my mail when a link led me to Yahoo! (UK) news site. The particular news article that caught my eye was "Troops 'beat Iraqis over nicknames'". You can read this article here.Apparently, the British troops gave nicknames to the suspected Iraqi insurgents and beat them when they couldn't remember their nicknames. Understandably, not all troops are like that and these freaks who did this are to blame but it does speaks and reflects on the society and environment they come from. The real shocker was the last line of the article where the article stated that a person, Baha Mousa was beaten more because he cried out in pain resulting in the Mr. Mousa's death. The article states:
One of the detainees, 26-year-old Baha Mousa, died following the alleged abuse in September 2003.
Mutairi said he believed Baha Mousa, whom he referred to as Baha the hotel receptionist, received the most beatings.
He said: "He was constantly crying out with pain during his beatings. I believe that he was beaten more because he cried out in pain. The rest of the group suffered pretty much the same."
Of course the person would have cried out in pain when being beaten! If possible, I reckon he would have lashed out at the soldiers. It is a part of human nature. This is another proof to the fact that if you want to be respected, you have to extend the same courtesy to others. Apparently, human life and blood have no value in todays world where morals and human values are ditched like obsolete equipment.
I am currently going through Bobmin's (Bob and Alyx's) Harry Potter fan fiction called "Dumbledore's Army" which extensively addresses abuse issues that Harry faced at the hands of Vernon Dursley and his family. The abuse portrayed in this work of fan fiction is more than the actual Harry Potter books by JKR so you might need to read "Dumbledore's Army" to understand the reasoning for my comparison in the next paragraph.
The last line of the news article really slammed into me and I inadvertently compared the British troops treatment of the suspected insurgents to how the Dursleys treated Harry. I found the situation in both of the cases very similar as far as the abuse is concerned as portrayed by the last line of beating the insurgents more when they cried out in pain. I have seen people sympathizing with Harry and lambasting the Dursleys. Will the same hold true when the same people think about the very similar situation in Iraq that is stated in the news article where the British soldiers resemble the Dursleys?
The answer to the above question would judge whether we are hypocrites; applying specifc sets of (different) judgements and morals for two very similar parties which are both guilty of abuse. I sometimes really wonder where Britain is headed with minority segregation (now with state backing) on religious basis on the rise (the current veil issues cropping up in Britain). In the end, this won't bode well for Britain just like what has happened to America and the rampant anti-Americanism prevalent in Muslim countries.
